Syne Scratch

Today was a busy day, so there wasn’t to much time to work on anything substantial. I know I said I’d talk about “verisimilitude” today, but lets amend that to “I’ll talk about it when you’re old enough.” Instead I’ll take the opportunity to tout the only show I’ve actually enjoyed enough to binge lately, and that is Max’s The Pitt.

The pitch is simple: A medical drama where the entire season is set over the course of a single shift in a Pittsburgh emergency room in real time. The pace is nonstop and that’s the point. It wants to convince you that what emergency room doctors have to go through is crazy and, by my measure, it is successful at doing so.

It’s difficult to not draw connections between The Pitt and ER as R. Scott Gemmill, John Wells, and Noah Wyle all carried on over from the latter. It’s weirdly comforting to see Wyle playing a doctor again, this time an elder statesman that feels like a safety net for both the characters and the audience. It’s like we finally get to see the man John Carter turned into.

Actually, Michael Crichton’s estate felt the same way and is now suing the showrunners for copyright infringement. My two cents is that it is distinct enough from ER that it should be able to defeat infringement allegations on the merits, but as with most civil cases, they’re destined to settle it out of court because Max wasn’t able to secure dismissal based on the pleadings. Also, my two cents are worth more than a U.S. two cents because I passed the bar exam.

So, in these troubled times, enjoy a bunch of doctors working a shift. Get some insight from what is apparently the most accurate medical show of all time. Bask in Noah Wyle’s warm embrace and maybe say a prayer for a second season.