This weekend, I was struck with the sudden, wild impulse to rewatch The Pitt. But not just rewatch it. The Pitt, for those of you who do not know, happens in real time, with each episode covering one hour of a fifteen hour shift. And so my impulse was to watch it in real time, beginning at 7:00AM and ultimately finishing at 10:00PM, and to take time stamped notes of all of my thoughts and reactions as they happened.
Why?
I honestly have no idea.
But I followed through on this impulse, and I now invite you to "An Honest Fangirl's The Pitt in Real Time... Part One." By the time I had finished, I had written 13,801 words, and that is way too many words for just one post. I hope that you all enjoy this, and if you don't, I hope that you at least had a good laugh at my ridiculousness.
Part One will cover Episodes 1-5.
Part Two will cover Episodes 6-10.
Part Three will cover Episodes 11-15.
Needless to say, there will be spoilers.
It Begins
6:39 - My body wakes up one minute before my alarm is supposed to go off. It Knows what awaits It.
6:49 - I am now settled in front of my TV. I have poured myself a full glass of Pure Leaf Raspberry Iced Tea. For neither the first nor the last time, I wonder what I’m doing with my life.
6:50 - As I load Max and navigate to The Pitt, I finally decide on how I’m going to deal with time discrepancies. I will start each episode as the hour mark hits. Hopefully this will give me time to actually do human things today, like go to the bathroom, run my dishwasher, and make a meal that takes longer than 90 seconds to heat up in the microwave.
6:53 - I hover over the first episode. I am now Waiting.
6:54 - I’m actually anxious for some reason, like when you’re counting down the minutes to the start of a big test. I have not had to take a test like that in over five years. Your body never forgets.
6:55 - I scrolled past Final Destination 3 as I tried to find The Pitt. I really need to watch that… and my next episode of From Dusk Till Dawn. But not today.
6:56 - I move my position on the couch to lounge in the corner in the vain hope this will protect my back. It most likely will not.
6:57 - I press play on the episode so that I can skip all of the commercials and other sponsored intro stuff. This episode is 53 minutes long. None of the episodes are actually a full hour. I know it’s so that they can add in commercials later, but I feel vaguely lied to.
6:58 - My cat, Cashew, stares at me. I am not in my normal Snuggles Spot. She is perplexed and miffed. She also wonders what I am doing with my life. I have no answers for her.
Episode One: 7:00AM - 8:00AM
7:00 - It Begins.
7:01 - Under a minute, and we are already in the hospital. The show really wastes zero time. Love to see it.
7:03 - I love Dana.
7:04 - It really does a great job of establishing character and relationships very, very quickly. Robby and Abbot feel like people who have worked together and have been friends for years. Same goes with Dana and Robby.
7:05 - Naked man! Sudden naked man!
7:05 - LANGDON! Alas, he’s not naked.
7:06 - Yes, he is my favorite character. Was there literally any other option for my favorite character? No. No, there was not. I am incredibly predictable when it comes to this.
7:08 - Everyone is so bright eyed and put together. That will change.
7:11 - And we get our first gore with a degloved foot! They really don’t hold back with how injuries actually look. I love it.
7:14 - The first two patients that come in are such a great, well plotted sequence. It’s tense and breathless, but everyone is highly competent and we continue to get character establishing banter. Excellent writing.
7:15 - Less excellent writing is Robby’s conversation with Gloria about the nursing shortage. It’s slightly preachy. All true, of course, but still preachy. I do love how the camera continues to move throughout the conversation, though, looking in on patients as Robby multitasks.
7:19 - I’m glad to see Fiona Dourif (who plays McKay) get more work. She was excellent in Curse of Chucky.
7:22 - And we see Santos’ lovely personality already, with many snarky and irreverent comments that love to toe the line of harassment and bullying. I did like her a lot when I first started the show, but now she grates on me. Sadly. Although we quickly established that Whitaker doesn’t have money in a very casual way. That’ll be important later.
7:28 - Dana crossed herself to respect a dead patient. Langdon looks like he can’t wait to get out of there. Fun little character moments for the both of them.
7:29 - Javadi is a child prodigy to a woman who is a surgeon in the hospital. I wish that I liked her more than I do. She’s just kind of awkward and there.
7:32 - We have the start of Langdon and Mel’s working relationship. This is my favorite dynamic on the show. (Barely ahead of Robby and Dana.) It just makes me smile. I really love how they play off each other.
7:34 - Nebraska farm boy Whitaker is a sweetheart. I texted my mom to ask what her favorite character was. I already knew that she would say him.
7:37 - Doug Driscoll! I finally realize where I recognize the actor from. He was Fish Mooney’s goon in Gotham. I think. I need to look that up. [Edit from later: I was right. Doug Driscoll is played by Drew Powell. He played Butch on Gotham.]
7:38 - Theresa and her son David have arrived. Those will be important characters going forward.
7:40 - I really appreciate the lack of music in the show. Tense moments are tense because you can hear all of the machines in the background and characters are moving with purpose, not because music is telling you that you should be tense.
7:47 - I may be warming up to Santos again. She’s still a bitch, but there’s a warm heart underneath that very, very prickly core.
7:48 - Social worker Kiara’s reaction to Robby explaining that Theresea made herself sick because she discovered her son’s Kill List: “O… kay?” Valid reaction.
7:51 - Robby’s covid flashbacks make me anxious. I can’t imagine how overwhelming that was for actual health care professionals.
7:52 - And that is the end of the first episode! Apparently, that 54 minute run time included the end credits. I must now wait 8 minutes to start the second episode.
7:53 - … Oh boy. This review is going to be massive, isn’t it? Should I take less notes? Maybe that’ll just naturally happen as I go along.
Episode One Thoughts: A very strong opening that establishes basically every main dynamic and simmering issue in an organic and engaging way. Robby is an immediately likable protagonist, and I loved his semi-antagonistic, semi-flirting banter with Collins.
Langdon may as well have a flashing sign over his head saying “Hi! I’m going to be Fangirl’s favorite character because she has a very clear and obvious type!” I still can’t believe this is Patrick Ball’s second credited role. He’s fabulous.
I forgot that David and Theresa were introduced so early. Talk about a long simmering plot point. I have some issues with how The PItt handles this, but those don’t crop up until much later in the show.
Episode Two: 8:00AM - 9:00AM
8:00 - Let’s start episode 2!
8:04 - Love that Whitaker wasn’t scolded for listening to Princess when he ordered an EKG. Robby was right: nurses do know what they’re doing. I do wish that the show highlighted them a bit more, but I understand that the focus on the show is on the doctors and med students.
8:07 - Santos casually doing a procedure before reporting the case because she thinks she’s capable enough is going to be a recurring thing. It will annoy me every time it happens.
8:08 - AH! FLOATING FACE! NO! Show freaking jump scares me with medical gore sometimes, I swear.
8:10 - Javadi reacting like I would around a cute coworker. Mateo is cute. She has good taste.
8:11 - Myrna! She’s always a lovely bit of levity who never overstays her welcome.
8:11 - Edwina Scissorhands and ER Ken. Also I continue to adore the banter between Garcia and Langdon.
8:13 - I adore Mel. That is all.
8:14 - Oh, hey, Samantha Sloyan! It’s always nice to see you on screen. Even if it’s because your fictional son is brain dead thanks to a Fentanyl overdose.
8:16 - Oh, this Alzheimer's patient with the two adult kids is so hard to watch. It’s meant to be, but still. I hope I’m never in the situation that they’re in, and if I am that I’d be strong enough to follow my parent’s advanced directive to let them pass peacefully.
8:18 - The police officer flirting with Collins does make me smile. It’s very cute. Also Robby watching it all happen and definitely not jealous at all. That made me giggle, as did Collins going “Mhm” as Robby walks away.
8:20 - And McKay has an ankle bracelet. Of course, it doesn’t work and goes off when she’s at work. It’s a fun character detail.
8:21 - Mel, I love you. Her venting and freaking out even after doing a perfect crike (and her little smile when Langdon tells her that she did perfectly) is very relatable. This was the moment I clocked her as potentially autistic. I know that it’s never confirmed, but she really does read that way.
8:23 - Rats! I didn’t realize they showed up this early! Love Whitaker being totally calm over the fact that there were rats. That’s a farm boy for you.
8:29 - Mohan showing her backbone with the sickle cell patient. She’s more than just a slow doctor. She’s just as smart and competent as anyone else.
8:33 - Is Earl an Earl of Sandwich joke? I hope so.
8:36 - Garcia and Santos’ dynamic is one I still can’t fully figure out. Is Garcia flirting? Does she see herself in Santos? Does she just enjoy the power trip of overriding the ER docs? All of the above? Unsure.
8:38 - It’s interesting how the paramedics really are there to just drop patients off and then leave. It makes sense, but I never thought of it that way.
8:39 - Loved that Whitaker initially did CPR compressions too fast. Even when you’re trained, the adrenaline of it all would make you go too quickly. Great detail.
8:44 - Oh, Robby’s face when the adult children say that they want to intubate their father. Noah Wyle, why have I never seen anything with you in it before?
8:46 - I am starting to get sleepy. I need more tea. And maybe breakfast.
8:47 - Oh, just hearing Samantha Sloyan yelling through the closed door and throughout the entire hospital. My heart. It’s actually making me tear up. And Robby has to go right from that to an intubation he doesn’t want to do? This is a bad 5 minutes for him. He just looks completely emotionally shut off.
8:48 - I could never do his job.
8:49 - End of episode 2. I will make myself breakfast and then return to write up my thoughts.
8:56 - A bowl of Golden Crisp has been consumed.
Episode Two Thoughts: Another strong episode that shaded in our characters. A lot of them got more depth, like McKay and Whitaker. The Pitt also began to ramp up the heartbreak. Almost everything went well last episode. Now, things are starting to go wrong.
Santos ping pongs between someone I like and someone who annoys me. I enjoy what she brings to the show, but I also just want to shake her sometimes.
Mel really came into her own as well this episode. I kind of brushed her off in the pilot, but she fully got my attention here. Just her face and reactions to things means that she’s always fun to watch, and I do adore the mentorship growing between her and Langdon. This will be something I’m sure I will repeat multiple times in the future.
Episode Three: 9:00AM - 10:00AM
9:00 - Episode Three, here we go. I have also refilled my iced tea. My headache has receded. Let’s do this.
9:00 - Everyone knows that Whitaker’s patient is dead, but they still let him try everything to save him.
9:02 - Dana tapping Langdon on the opposite side that she walks up on. Just a small detail that I missed the first time around that helps to make them feel like friends.
9:04 - Collins’ pregnancy was mentioned again. That doesn’t bode well, does it?
9:06 - Santos just wants to try cool procedures. I think that’s what is annoying me about her. It’s like she’s speedrunning her personal bucket list. It’s your first day! Hour three of your first day! Calm down! You have time to do a chest tube!
9:08 - Great detail of Whitaker being out of breath and sweaty after finishing CPR. It’s hard work, especially if you’re doing it for 10 minutes.
9:11 - I do appreciate that they’re showing that there really was nothing Whitaker could have done to save his patient. Sometimes people just die, even when you do everything right.
9:20 - Javadi doesn’t want to do the big procedures, willingly going back to chairs while Santos can’t wait to sub in. Fun difference between them.
9:24 - The STEMI is very cool. I love learning about medical procedures.
9:25 - The tension between patient care and acting quickly is great. Mohan has great reviews, but she moves very slowly. Robby is maybe a little harsh on her, but he’s not entirely wrong. They’re in emergency medicine. It’s practically triage. You can’t spend hours on every patient.
9:28 - Love the newbies getting lost and need to be pointed in the right direction. Very realistic.
9:29 - Whitaker New Scrub Count: 2.
9:30 - Myrna is drinking tea in the background a few minutes after asking for some. I love the out of focus stuff happening in the background of many of the shots. It’s making this second time through very rewarding.
9:32 - And now we have patients being unexpectedly connected with the various college students getting their drugs from the same place. Unfortunately, while some lived, Nick is brain dead. Don’t do drugs, people. Seriously. Fentanyl really is everywhere and in everything.
9:34 - Santos, how do you jump between being a bitch and super understanding with every other sentence?
9:36 - My headache is back. Damn it. Oh well.
9:36 - “Incel kid David.” Ouch. I mean, McKay has a point but still… ouch.
9:39 - Robby really has to pee. I feel that pain. At least I can go soon. He cannot. Poor Robby. You really can’t even take 30 seconds to pee when a patient is bleeding out.
9:43 - They don’t even remove the tubing before bringing the deceased into the viewing room? You’d think that they would.
9:44 - If Noah Wyle doesn’t win an Emmy this year, something is very wrong. The scene of him reading the letter of the dead serviceman is only the first of many that should earn it for him.
9:45 - Also the sister, Fiona, is a tough role for an actress. You just show up to grieve, and then you’re gone. It’s a small role, yet a powerful one.
9:46 - I always forget that Robby isn’t his first name. It’s Michael.
9:46 - Dana, why are you smoking? You should know better!
9:48 - End of Episode 3. I now have 12 minutes to be a person.
9:51 - I have opened the windows for fresh air. For some reason, it is 50 degrees out. It will be in the 70s for the rest of the week. Still, the fresh air is nice.
Episode Three Thoughts - Another high quality episode dealing with the fallout of Episode 2. The season is roughly broken up into 3 arcs, each lasting 5 episodes. This is the midpoint of our first one, which I have been mentally calling The Overdose Arc.
The point of this arc really is to establish everyone in their normal operations, while also shining a light on the epidemic of drug overdoses and how devastating they can be. At times, it does get a little preachy or obvious, but those are small moments and it’s easy enough to just brush them aside.
The thing that stands out to me the most so far is just how much emotional labor Robby is doing throughout the day. Whether it’s dealing with patients or his fellow doctors and nurses, he’s constantly reassuring and checking in on people, and often takes the brunt of any lashing out from people too. All of this on top of making sure patients get the care that they need. And he does this every day. It’s insane.
No wonder he isn’t nearly as well as he pretends to be.
Episode Four: 10:00AM - 11:00AM
10:00 - Episode 4. Have I really already been doing this for 3 hours? I’m still hungry, so I grab a breakfast bar and a flavored sparkling water to snack on. Oh, that open window is cold. But it kinda feels good.
10:00 - “Who steals a fucking ambulance at 10 am?” Excellent question.
10:01 - Love that “protocol” is just the default response whenever someone is forcing a colleague to take care they want to brush off.
10:01 - Also, I love how people immediately take bets on who stole the ambulance.
10:04 - “The four things that matter most” speech made me cry. That is all. “I love you. Thank you. I forgive you. Please forgive me.” Just typing those words made me tear up.
10:07 - The roommate acting like everything is normal literally an hour after Jenna overdoses is both super sad but also realistic and frustrating.
10:08 - I do love how Mohan checks with Santos about how thick her skin is before giving her feedback. (Also she’s right. Santos is confrontational as hell.)
10:10 - First PittFest mention. That will be important later.
10:13 - Cashew has decided to train for the 40 yard dash. I give her a solid grade. If she played football, she might have been taken in the first round of the draft this past weekend.
10:17 - Santos! Report to your resident before you order a procedure!
10:19 - You know, Doug Driscoll is a racist jerk, but I can understand his frustration at having to go back to the waiting room. I’d probably be just as frustrated.
10:21 - Santos, this is why you report! You almost killed the guy! And you’re immediately asking to put in a chest tube? Girl. Chill. Please.
10:22 - A hair tourniquet wrapped around a baby’s toe is one of my brand new fears. No, I don’t have a baby. It doesn’t matter. This fear has now imprinted itself on my brain for the rest of my life.
10:24 - Langdon and Robby both glaring at Garcia when she totally undercut them on scolding Santos. Great moment.
10:28 - Second time I’m crying as the daughter tries to go through the Four Things with her father. This is a lot of very heavy emotional weight. It’s almost a relief when we keep cutting to the various staff following news reports on the stolen ambulance.
10:30 - Whitaker New Scrub Count: 3
10:32 - McKay is a friend of Bill’s, aka in Alcoholics Anonymous.
10:35 - Robby is on the third cup of coffee before 11 am. I understand.
10:45 I have been so caught up I haven’t really been making notes. This is a good sign. I love watching people simply be competent.
10:47 - That painted fox on the wall of the pediatrics room has a very mocking smile.
10:48 - That’s a sudden end to the episode! It makes sense that there would be a medical emergency in the waiting room eventually, but seeing someone have a seizure like that is always shocking.
10:49 - I realize I’m using a lot of vague terms to refer to the non-doctor characters. I may or may not go back and replace them with their real names once I type this up. We’ll see how awake and ambitious I feel in about 12 hours. [Edit from later: As you can see, I was not ambitious even 24 hours later.]
Episode Four Thoughts - There were ten minutes where I completely forgot to take any notes or comments because I was just so swept up in what was happening. (And… to be fair, there was very little to actually comment on.) But this is absolutely a show that just sucks you in. There’s a rhythm to everything. It never stops. There’s always another patient to go to. New things are happening all the time.
In that sense, it’s also rare to have an “A” story for each episode because there’s so much going on, most of it things and people that we’ll only see this one time. This episode was a rare one that did have a distinct “A” story, though, namely the fact that the Alzheimer's patient was finally allowed to die with dignity.
Those scenes were very emotionally heavy. At times, they might have gotten a little too much? We visited them numerous times, and each time, they brought the energy of the episode to a halt. But maybe that’s the point. Everything is happening at a frantic rate outside, but inside of that pediatrics room? A man is dying and his two children are trying to reconcile that. Their world has stopped. It will never be the same again.
And it looks like next episode will also have a very heavy, emotional weight to it when Nick, our braindead college student, gets his final test results back. His mom will no longer be able to deny the obvious. (His dad has clearly already accepted it. I like that they’re processing it at different rates.)
This is also the episode where Santos officially lost me for the first time. Her actions here are just so reckless and she’s so unapologetic that it drives me crazy. I’m trying to keep a more open mind to her this time through.
10:59 - The open windows have made it very cold and the wind keeps knocking my blinds against the windows. I should close them but don’t have enough time. I am also far more awake. I don’t know if the caffeine has finally hit or if I’m just numb to it now. We shall see.
Episode Five: 11:00AM - 12:00PM
11:00 - Episode… Five? I think this is episode 5. Yes. Let’s go. Last morning episode.
11:01 - The Santos’ suspicion of Langdon has officially begun. I will have Thoughts about this later. (Of course, I will.)
11:02 - But I do love how this moment is played with the drug not working in the dosage expected. It’s a very standard “Real Life Doesn’t Always Follow Textbooks” moment, but it’s more than that. It’s the first hint that something else is going on.
11:04 - Whitaker New Scrub Count: 4.
11:07 - Langdon casually listening to Santos and Dana talk about the vial, but not making it obvious. Something I only noticed on this second watch.
11:07 - And we meet Jake! And hear about Leah. They will also be important later.
11:08 - Mohan totally calm and clearly stating that Whitaker’s got it when it comes to taking care of the guy with the injured leg, even when Whitaker and the patient are desperate for anyone else to do it. Love it.
11:10 - The teenage abortion story was something that was set up in some of the show’s first lines of dialogue, but I didn’t expect it to take this turn. I’m liking how they’re tackling it so far. The writing isn’t preachy like it has been in some other spots.
11:13 - I do love how they’re showing the fatigue that comes with being the only caregiver of someone who needs full support. Also Ginger saving a dance for Robby is very cute. I loved that bit of banter.
11:15 - “Don’t mind Myrna. She’s harmless.” “She’s handcuffed!” “That’s why she’s harmless.” What happened to make her need handcuffs?
11:17 - I didn’t realize that sickle cell could have such bad outcomes and effects. I need to remember to research it more once I get the time. [Edit from later: I still need to research it!]
11:17 - Langdon is wearing a bracelet that was obviously made by his kids. It’s adorable and a great, quiet character detail.
11:19 - Langdon out of focus in the background while Santos wonders if she should go over his head. I really do love the subtle details here.
11:21 - McKay is really good at outreach and meeting people where they’re at. I also love the details we’re getting about her background and that we’re getting them in a natural way that doesn’t feel like an exposition dump.
11:23 - My blinds are rattling super loudly now. Okay, I need to go close the windows.
11:25 - Mission accomplished.
11:26 - Caretaker’s fatigue is a real thing. Please take care of yourself if you’re in that situation.
11:26 - Oh, the hope on the teen’s face when she was told that she made the abortion limit by one day. That hurt. I wanted to hug her.
11:28 - Ugh, bloody teeth stuff. I hate bloody teeth stuff.
11:29 - Some of the nurses on the show are actual nurses in real life. The whole process on how they trained and prepped to act out all of these procedures is actually super interesting.
11:30 - The look on Driscoll’s face when he finds someone sitting in “his” chair. I’d be the exact same.
11:31 - Love everyone giving Jake a condom. It’s a funny gag.
11:32 - The quiver in Mel’s voice when she wonders if Rita ditched her mom. My heart! Baby!
11:33 - AH JAVADI! NO! STOP! DON’T!
11:34 - Oh, she makes me cringe sometimes. I know that she meant well in getting the social worker for the unhoused mother, but my entire body just contorted in a bone deep cringe.
11:35 - Whitaker New Scrub Count: 5. Poor Whitaker. He can’t stay clean.
11:39 - Loving the cuts between intubating the sickle cell patient and the tonsil patient. One is nearly silent and calm, and one is noisy and stressful with people shouting and beeping in the back.
11:41 - Bit of sass looks good on Whitaker.
11:42 - Langdon getting recommended for a super prestigious fellowship? Yeah, that’s not a sign of bad things to come at all.
11:43 - … He is awfully pretty still. Is that too shallow? Should I take this out? Maybe. I probably won’t.
11:45 - Sudden twist with the teenage abortion story! The woman with her is her aunt, not her mom! … Honestly, it’s a little melodramatic. Almost soap opera adjacent. Didn’t need it, although I understand the desire to end on a cliffhanger.
11:46 - Speaking of, I now have 14 minutes to decide if I want lunch now or later. Actually, this might be the perfect time to get my dishwasher started.
11:52 - Look at that! I can actually be a functional adult while I do this.
11:53 - I poked my head in to check on Cashew. She is still Very Miffed that we have not done any of our customary Sunday Snuggles. Very understandable.
Episode 5 Thoughts - So we didn’t see the culmination of Nick, the braindead college student like I thought we would. But we still did tie up a lot of the patients that had been around for a few episodes, while also introducing our next batch of issues.
The ongoing saga of the ambulance chase has added a lot of levity recently. I love how literally everyone is taking bets on who stole it and where they would eventually get caught. It felt very real, like something that would actually happen.
I also really enjoyed Mohan and Whitaker excelling here. Mohan has been taking a bit of a beating for being a “Slow-Mo”, so it was nice when Collins praised her and encouraged her to keep doing her thing and being herself.
Whitaker also managed to shake off the trauma of losing his first patient by being calm, controlled, and collected with the tonsil kid. He even got sassy! I love a sassy Whitaker! He’s starting to remind me a lot of my little brother. I’m feeling a little protective over the farm boy!
11:59 - Huh. I half expected that I would give up by now. I’m actually doing this! Nice!
~~~~
An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
- Find Part Two here!
- Find Part Three here!
This show is incredible, so happy to see it get reviewed thank you!
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