Discover Top Posts Tagged with #andy thoughts

I'm having a lot of thoughts about Samira following the news that her character will not be returning in s3 and I sort of just need to get them out into the void. None of this will be well organized and I apologize for that.

In a lot of ways, Samira is what I would call a "load bearing character". There are some characters on the show that, while I adore them, are not as vital to the story of The Pitt as Samira. I love Dennis (and I see a lot of myself in him), but I think The Pitt would still be a compelling show if his character were to leave. However, without Samira, I'm not sure I'm even going to watch a third season of this and here's why:

It's not uncommon to see a woc character serve as a plot device for a white main character in media, but Samira is unique in that she is both vital to Robby's character arc and a character who stands entirely on her own. Truly, especially this season, I find Samira's arc to be far more compelling than Robby's and I think she could easily be framed as the show's true main character if Mr. Wyle would let me into the writer's room.

Samira's story is intriguing to watch unfold because you have this young woman who is standing at a crossroads in her life. She's anxious about her future and what path she wants her career to take, she's mourning all of the time she's dedicated to her career and not used to find fulfillment outside of her hospital, and she's grappling all of this while managing a complicated family relationship and working under a mentally unstable and misogynistic male boss. The writers of The Pitt have clearly set her up to explore all of this in future seasons and to end her story now is doing a disservice to the character, the actress, the fans, and the show as a whole.

Robby's arc this season is not nearly as interesting, in my opinion. We have now spent 13 episodes beating the mental illness/sabbatical horse to death. We get it. Robby is unstable and acting like an asshole. We don't need to keep rehashing this every episode. What made Robby interesting was the insight into his head and his mental decline over the course of the first season. We don't have those glimpses into his mind anymore in season two, so all we're seeing is a man who wants to act like a total dickhead instead of going to therapy. That gets boring after awhile.

But with Samira, we're seeing her explore potential future fellowships, we're seeing how she interacts with her patients (the elderly ones in particular), and we're seeing her struggles with anxiety and her work environment. She's being set up to pursue a fellowship in geriatrics, which I think could be really interesting to follow. But instead of getting to see that develop, we just have to accept that it's happening off-screen.

What makes good television is compelling characters that the audience can grow a connection to. Many fans of the show have now spent two seasons developing an attachment to Samira and her story. We've been conditioned to root for her, to hope for her. We're seeing her be knocked down and kicked around by a terrible boss and we want to see her get back on her feet and prove him wrong. Instead, we are going to be left wanting and without an acceptable conclusion to her arc. When you spend two seasons hoping to see a character overcome adversity, it fucking sucks to be told by the writers to just accept that she's given up because it's "realistic".

For once, we have been handed a compelling, thoughtfully written desi woman character and now we are being told that we have to accept her departure because her extremely talented actress has solid moral principals. Supriya Ganesh spoke out against the genocide happening in Palestine and the creators of The Pitt are now destroying the integrity and value of their show in favor of punishing her for doing the right thing.

Apparently, supporting the violent murder of innocent people and the rape and destruction of a beautiful land is more important than a meaningful message about the state of the healthcare system in the United States. Noah Wyle and the creators of The Pitt have betrayed the power of their creation (something that meant a lot to me as a paramedic student) in support of brutality, evil, and desecration.

#the pitt #the pitt season 2 #the pitt spoilers #samira mohan #free palestine #andy thoughts