One of Pitt's many virtues is that it's among the rare few TV shows that return year after year, rather than being shelved for years due to the entropy of streaming services. When series creator R. Scott Gemmill appeared on the IndieWire Filmmaker Toolkit podcast earlier this year to discuss the development of the second season, he and the writing team were already well into work on the third.
Another strength of Pitt is that, despite its well-deserved high medical precision and the work of a team of consultants who help make one very long shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Center run almost continuously, the work of creating a season is deeply ingrained in the characters.
If you've ever wondered, are beginning Whether medical dramas treat a collapsed lung, the development of diabetic ketoacidosis, or Revolutionary War musket wounds as interesting challenges for the characters, Pitt is the opposite. Gemmill and the writers have a wealth of ideas for medical questions, but they come into play as the episodes unfold.
«"We have huge whiteboards with individual episode plans, as well as our stockpile of ideas—like, 'dog attack,' or something like that. Or are we seeing a return of polio, or something like that? Sometimes we choose from that list," Gemmill said on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. "Whatever story we're telling from a medical perspective, it's always meant to support something else, plot-wise, for the character, and then we build the medical component around that.".
That's exactly what happened in the season two finale, where Dr. Robbie (Noah Wyle), barely scraping through his final day shift, was derailed by, among other things, a cyberattack that forced all hospital systems to go analog and required the emergency department to bring a whole bunch of whiteboards to the writers' room. Of course, Robbie stayed late to cross paths with Dr. Abbott (Shawn Hatosy) and his night shift—at least, Gemmill finds the idea of a "Mateo (Jalen Thomas Brooks) After Dark" spinoff about the night shift amusing in the abstract. And, of course, Robbie found himself embroiled in a complex case involving a pregnant woman whose preeclampsia suddenly escalated to eclampsia, while also grappling with the specter of his own potentially suicidal thoughts creeping beyond the confines of his work.
«"We knew we wanted to create a traumatic situation that would draw everyone in and force Robbie to interact with Abbott," Gemmill said. They hoped that for the season finale, the writers could create something that would involve multiple people and create a sense of "full pressure." Ultimately, they settled on a scenario where the doctors would be trying to save not only the mother but also the child, and there would indeed be multiple people in the room, creating multiple possible outcomes.
«"Once we decide on it, we have to plan it all out well in advance because we have to prepare the actress who's going to play the pregnant woman. A lot of the prosthetics take eight weeks or more to make, so we often cast her two months or more before she actually starts playing the part. And then, the thing is, we open the uterus and remove the baby from the amniotic sac, but once we put the lining on it and put it in the amniotic sac, all the amniotic fluid washes away all that lining, so the baby ends up shiny," Gemmil said. "Those are the kinds of things you never plan for—well, my special effects team had to, but they did a fantastic job.".
Noah Wyle and Ayesha Harris in "Pitt." Photo courtesy of Warwick Page/HBO Max.
This episode, and every episode of Pitt, plays out a virtuous cycle. Opportunities for character interaction, conflict, growth, or the exposure of flaws lead the show to certain situations, and these situations, in turn, help shape the characters' dynamics and development. The birth scene not only brings Robbie and Abbott together; it also beautifully sets up Robbie's final scene of the season, where he comforts Jane Doe's baby and himself.
«"We're currently working on season three, and as I said, the medical cases are usually chosen to reflect what's going on in the characters' lives or to challenge them to expose their shortcomings," Gemmill said.
The tight-knit team behind "Pitt" constantly challenges each other and doesn't rest on its laurels—or Emmys. "We try to give it our all and be brutally honest in our writing," Gemmill said. "Our primary goal is to entertain, and we really take that seriously, and that's what we try to do.".
The second season of Pitt is available to watch on HBO Max.
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