It’s impossible to talk about “The Pitt,” a new hospital drama that premieres Thursday on Max, without pointing out that it’s going to look very familiar. Noah Wyle, who rose to fame playing the young and idealistic Dr. John Carter on “ER” from 1994-2009, here stars as the seasoned and determined Dr. Michael Robinavitch, another doctor in a city hospital’s emergency department doing his best to heal people, this time in Pittsburgh. Wyle shares executive producer credits with John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill, who both also worked on “ER.” But the new show also has elements of a “24”: the gimmick of “The Pitt,” and what theoretically sets it apart from other hospital shows, is that its season takes place over one 15-hour shift. We begin when Dr. Robby, as he’s known, shows up for work, and each episode is an hour that makes up his shift.
The conceit gives the show some interesting dramatic rhythms. You may spot a patient in the hospital’s overwhelmed waiting room before you ever see them interact with nurses and doctors. And while “The Pitt” does traffic in the major medical moments you’d expect, it also has patients who stop in briefly, with a minor problem. You get only a scene with them and then they’re gone, because that’s how ERs operate. Sometimes patients and families of patients stick around for multiple episodes as they await news and diagnoses. The waiting room has its drama and characters, too.
“The Pitt” is not trying to reinvent the form. It’s just trying to work in a tried and true formula, competently. For the most part, it succeeds, wrapping a vision of the hospital as a living ecosystem around the human dramas of illness and healing. The pilot is a bit of a blur — doctors speak in diseases, medications, and test results at a pace that’s hard to follow, and while the rapid-fire delivery of medical information builds a sense of how hectic the hospital is, it’s a barrier to entry on a new show. We meet, swiftly, a series of nurses and doctors at various stages of the medical training process. The characters emphasize repeatedly that this is a teaching hospital, and several of our main characters are working their very first shifts.
What emerges is a sense of the ER as ballet, with doctors, patients, and nurses flowing between rooms, operating rooms, and the waiting room based on need. Dr. Robby is the seasoned doctor overseeing the whole operation, with the help of Dana (Katherine LaNasa), an empathetic charge nurse who always has a minute when someone gets overwhelmed.
The young doctors are not the show’s strongest suit — their defining personality quirks skew toward the “Grey’s Anatomy” style of medical drama, where the medicine often takes a backseat to the soap operatic machinations of its characters. It’s a fine style for a show, but isn’t this one’s bread and butter, and when the stories lean harder on the soap, the magic of the ballet is broken. Some episodes’ cliffhanger endings serve as a startling break from the engrossing reality the show has crafted of symptom, crisis, diagnosis, and recovery … or not.
That last point is worth emphasizing. People often go to emergency rooms because something is seriously wrong, and a number of downright upsetting deaths happen. “The Pitt” occasionally strays into melodrama in terms of who doesn’t make it, but these are also sad truths about medicine. Sometimes people, even young ones, die despite the best efforts of smart, capable doctors.
Prepare for some gore. There’s blood galore, and ample shots of scalpels carving into flesh. This is a show that loves to have someone dramatically lift off a bandage to show the viewer exactly how they got injured.
Characters’ lives emerge slowly. Eventually, some will refer to having kids, or partners, or family out of state, but mainly they aren’t given a ton of room to grow beyond “the innocent one” or “the one whose mom is a power player at the hospital.”
Wyle, on the other hand, is great, guiding the proceedings with a calm hand and a soulful gaze. His character is saddled with the backstory that this day is the fourth anniversary of his mentor’s death during COVID, and it’s his first time working this day. The backstory itself isn’t a problem — few shows are willing to engage in stories about COVID, and it makes sense that a medical drama would — but rather that “The Pitt” doesn’t have a lot to say about it.
The dialogue is also occasionally rough, which may be partly why these characters struggle to become three-dimensional. And a running subplot about Robby’s dispute with a hospital administrator never manifests into a real story — he’s the hero who wants to hire more nurses to improve care, she’s the paper pusher telling him there’s no money, and there’s nowhere for this conflict to go.
Still, when it’s cooking along, “The Pitt” sweeps you up. You don’t need to be a revolutionary to make good TV, and it’s nice to see a show made with such a strong core. People need help, and capable professionals are here to provide it.
THE PITT
Starring: Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball. On Max.
Lisa Weidenfeld can be reached at lisa.weidenfeld@globe.com. Follow her on X @LisaWeidenfeld and Instagram @lisaweidenfeld.