i think season 2 of the pitt was shit compared to the first and i was pretty disappointed. in MY OPINION this is why. i genuinely believe that noah wyle was a nostalgia hire above everything else. this isn’t to say he isn’t a talented actor, or even an ok writer, but his biggest benefit was to be a hook. unfortunately it can be needed when a show covers such controversial material and has a truly diverse cast, bc media like that is often ignored. and it worked! but the thing is, noah seems to have a giant fucking ego, and when he started getting attention again and reliving his er glory days, he couldn’t stop himself from taking over. watching season 2 i was exhausted with his story because on top of it feeling like they were saying the same things over and over again, they were cutting other character’s (specifically women of color) stories out to give noah more screen time and essentially just award bait monologues. season 1 was developed with time and intention, and if they had moved on from robby for the next, focused on another character like mohan, maybe it could have worked. but to be honest, and i know a lot of ppl will disagree and that’s okay, robby’s disgusting behavior this season had me completely detached from his storyline. i genuinely didn’t care what happened to him. i knew they weren’t going to kill him bc then he wouldn’t be the star anymore, so there was no substance, and yet his storyline took up all the time. and to make matters worse, his behavior was never truly addressed and is excused in interviews with the writers, so it’s no longer commentary or criticism - it’s just a poorly developed character written by the same type of man who always has to be the flawed but beloved hero.
i’ll probably watch season 3 for ellis, but i’m wary and very disappointed in this show i loved so much. i think a lot of ppl are. the creator of the show said that “robby hasn’t hit rock bottom yet” and honestly? i’m not super interested in sticking around just to watch him be a self destructive dick to his coworkers and friends for 15 hours, wondering whether or not he’s gonna go to therapy like a grownup. being depressed does not warrant such behavior, coming from someone who has been down in the gutters of depression and anxiety and burnouts many times. robby needs to face the consequences of his actions. what with them cutting women of color from the show for no apparent reasons, excusing robby’s diabolical behavior, and the writing we saw for season 2, my hopes for season 3 are not high.
if they had done the bridgerton thing where they focus on a different character every season? i’m fucking sat. but noah wyle just had to make it the noah wyle show. GIVE US HALLOWEEN NIGHT SHIFT🫵
LOL. noah wyle wasn't a nostalgia hire, because they didn't hire him.
the pitt was made because noah wyle sent an email to the showrunner of ER, proposing a sequel to ER. from the start it was going to be a character study about john carter post-COVID, centering around his PTSD. the negotiations for the use of ER characters fell through, so gemmil, wells and wyle spun that same core idea into an original universe, and so it became a post-COVID character study on dr robby. that's the series they're making.
so, i'm sorry, but you've been watching the noah wyle show from the very start of it, and without noah wyle the pitt would not exist. robby had less lines in season 2 than season 1, surmising that season 1 gave him even more screen time. from the very start it's been created around his lead role as the only lead character, and this fact will not change, so you're probably better off watching another series.
that's not to say that it is only made by him. scott gemmil is the creator + showrunner and it's executive produced by both wyle and wells. they have a full writers room with a lot of woc. he's not an omnipotent ruler of all things.
season 2 has gotten great reviews if you look outside the tumblr bubble!
lmao alright maybe less lines, more shots of him crying from every angle 🤷♀️ i’m sorry, im just not willing to overlook ignoring every other character.
javadi was indecisive about her placement, shaken by ice, and after ignoring her for two episodes they have her decide on emergency psychiatry, which fine, but how did they set that up? that one patients sister at the beginning of the season, then bam she’s decided on her life’s path? she could have had some satisfying wrap up with her overbearing parents. the last thing we get is her asking robby if he think she can do it.
samira seemed to finally be finding her footing at the end of season one, realizing she belonged in the er despite robby’s complaints (and lack of support, and hypocrisy). then we come back with almost the exact same problem like nothing changed. robby doesn’t seem to have learned at all from his bad behavior towards her, he only gets worse, and how is it that in the end, samira apologizes to robby? after being toxic asf and belittling her in front of all her coworkers for having the same struggles as he does? absolutely not. not to mention the fact that they worked it up and then cut all samiras scenes (aka character development) in the last two, but they last minute decided not to bring her back!!! and i’m just saying that i know lots of people, even outside the “tumblr bubble,” would be more interested to see her story play out than robby doing the same thing for 15 more hours.
after breaking several rules last season by fudging the measurements to get the teen her abortion, or not reporting langdon for stealing drugs and putting patients in great danger, robby wants to push dana and be a dick about her alleged take down of the pt who assaulted emma.
of course there’s dr al-hashimi too. explain to me how it would ever be plausible that the last conversation she had with robby he revealed the langdon situation (dismissing her valid concerns along the way) and she’s horrified and suggesting changes that are reasonable and that he doesn’t like - and then the next time they talk one on one? she’s sharing an extremely vulnerable part of her and says she respects his opinion. like ??? how tf did we get there? and the way he takes it as confirmation that he was right, she’s not fit to run the er, no one can do it but him, and she’s a danger to patients he has to report? compared to saving langdons ass. he is such an insane control freak.
i didn’t like how santos’s SH was forgotten about, either. she has a history, she’s been having a shitty day, and she literally grabs a scalpel with clear intent. then what? she goes karaokeing with mel and she’s fine?
and instead of focusing on any of these compelling characters, they actually brought in a whole new character just to give robby someone to talk about himself with. like duke is getting horrible news about his health, and instead of having a heart to heart about how that makes him feel, they end up talking about robby again?
and if it’s true that noah has less lines this season, which i can’t find anything to say so (pls cite your sources), the focus is still on him! everyone else is talking about him all the time, worrying. jack and dana’s only real interaction was about him. abbots last big speech is about him. samiras last line is about how the pitt needs him. al-hashimi had a scene in the car where she calls her ex husband to watch their son before she breaks down that they cut, before that it’s her fight with robby. we can’t escape him.
and as for noah starting the show, that actually makes a lot of sense. and he was the main character, but season 1 was still mainly an ensemble show more than anything. season 2 is less so, it couldn’t be more obvious. and if you’re gonna do that, fine, at least do it well. but they didn’t. everything enjoyable about the season was anecdotal, nothing came to a satisfying head like last time. i liked the ending scene with mel and trinity, i liked the interactions btw trinity and whitaker, and the exploration into mel and becca’s relationship. there were good things about it, but it was shapeless.
it’s not just the writing itself, but the writers and the production. cutting women of color, making lame excuses, explaining away robby’s sexism, none of this bodes well for the show. noah wyle himself is problematic, reportedly verbally violent and racist to at least one woman on the set of er (vanessa marquez, nurse wendy), and signing a letter in support of israel and the war, behavior which shouldn’t have a place on a show as “progressive” as the pitt is supposed to be.
so yes. if this continues, they will lose me as a viewer and many others. i’m not saying noah is the end all be all for script decisions, but being the face of the show and the cash cow will grant him power over what goes and what doesn’t. he has a lot of influence, and it seems like he and gemmil have similar ideas. btw, i know a lot about production bc i have a lot of close family members in the field and let me just clarify - having woc in the writing room is great and important, but writers have barely any power. its the showrunner who decides in the end, so you can put forth all the ideas you want, but an old white man is still calling the shots. it’s fine if you liked it, but my reasons are valid.
here's the data for for the line comparison: https://www.reddit.com/r/ThePittTVShow/comments/1so42rw/season_2_recurring_staff_lines_distribution/
i was pointing out how silly it is to claim that a series that comes from noah wyle's idea hired him for nostalgia. like no, he literally hired himself.
you're watching a series centered around an old male jewish doctor's mental health struggle and complaining that it's centered around an old male jewish doctor's mental health struggle. i have criticism for the series as well, but i'm well aware of what i've chosen to watch.
ok i understand that, and i didn’t know the email thing. but the issue is the difference between seasons. the pitt hooked me by covering important and relevant issues and having outstanding characters, none of whom are perfect ofc. they demonstrated themselves how a proper ensemble is done by making the side characters rich, complicated, unique and giving them real growth. that was missing from this season, and without it the show was bad imo. i just think it’s irresponsible as creators to do that to their characters. and they seem tone deaf, ignorant to the impact robby’s behavior really did have, like the problems weren’t on purpose. a lot of issues were handled poorly. and a lot of it centers noah wyle. i think it’s fair to be disappointed, i feel like you’re making it seem like season 2 was the same as 1, just because it had the same main character. and as a show that marketed itself as “woke” seeing the harmful patterns is concerning and disheartening. i expected more.
and thank you, i actually enjoyed this debate.
it's fine to be disappointed, of course, but i really don't think that noah wyle has quite that much influence with everything that you feel is going wrong with the series.
he isn't the series creator. scott gemmill is the creator and showrunner and ultimately made decisions like not having samira featured in s3. he also made the decision to promote ellis parker to series regular. there's a lot of talk about losing a woc, but very little about gaining a woc regular in her stead.
and see, i didn't find season 2 a disappointment and despite not liking everything, i enjoyed it a lot. so it's completely fair to compare it to season 1. and i'm not alone, as the audience and critic scores are doing well outside the tumblr sphere of hatewatching. the way it showed the ugly sides of depression, burnout and suicidality was really heavy-hitting, and something that's rare to see on TV since people want to see easy, palatable, romanticised versions of mental illness.
and it is "woke" for a TV series, let's be real here. they highlighted how the insurance-run capitalistic medical system is running america to the ground on july the 4th. understaffing, the woman losing her leg because she couldn't miss a shift, ICE presence scaring patients and detaining staff, rural hospitals being shut down, cyber attacks, doctors being sued for doing their job, orlando ending up disabled due to refusing medical care due to medical debt, the senior resident having a panic attack due to work pressure, the pregnant woman distrusting the medical system and almost dying, the general burnout and compassion fatigue in the whole staff, all the while their chief spirals in burnout and suicidality.
end of shift they're all grinded to bone and crying on the roof as the fireworks celebrate america. genuinely i'm confused as to how someone can watch this series and not see that it's correctly marketed as "woke." you know that the right-wing nuts on reddit will compile bullet-point lists of every second of "wokeness" as they did for season 1, and the list will be long.
i don't think it's going to be a perfect series, that doesn't exist. already from season 1's data we can see that despite having a lot of poc characters, most of the lines/screentime are centered around white characters. the Emmys went to white actors. but it still has a wide cast of poc characters that are well written in comparison with other series.
nor do i think noah wyle is perfect, and i think he isn't as good a writer as he is an actor. but i can see that he has a passion and a lot of knowledge about the way america is systematically failing its citizens and the medical community. he's done a lot of advocating and activism re: the problems with the american medical system, and the pitt as sprung from his idea is really an extension of that.
so, all in all, i think the pitt is a very important series, especially at this time and place we're living in right now. i have criticism for it, but i'm also acknowledging all the good it's done (and is doing.)