Welcome to this week's newsletter! This week, I am looking at The Pitt, Shifting Gears and Doc plus thoughts on the Landman finale and the crossover episode of Abbott Elementary and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
I have to admit, I was a little skeptical of The Pitt going in. I thought it would be a serviceable medical drama but I also thought "what can a streaming version of a network procedural offer that a network can't besides some better production values and swearing a bit more often?" Well, at least with The Pitt, the answer is quite a bit. While the series is really just a traditional medical drama with the slight gimmick of being in real time (each episode is an hour in a 15 hour shift), the show feels better than anything a network can offer in this genre in 2025.
It's apparent in both big and little things. The show has an incredible attention to detail. They take the time to show doctors getting a squirt of hand sanitizer whenever they're about to enter the room. That might seem like a small example but as someone who spent some time in a NICU with my newborn son, that is something that happens out of habit for everyone working there. That tells me that the director has their eye on realism and the actors are fully immersed in the moment. I'm sure someone who actually works in an ER could tell you a bunch of things that the show gets wrong in specifics but, like Abbott Elementary is to schools, it feels like they at least got the vibe right. The Pitt (the location in the show) feels claustrophobic and busy. It doesn't feel like it was done on a Hollywood soundstage without enough extras (see the next show down for more on that). And the production value bells and whistles that come from being a streaming show really does make a difference, even in a medical drama. The show feels crisp and sharp in how it looks, how it's directed, how it's edited.
Noah Wyle, who of course became famous as a TV ER doctor on ER, really shines here in the lead role. Through two episodes, his character is not Superman or a tortured soul who happens to be brilliant at his career. He just presents like a guy trying to do a difficult job. I'm sure the show will fill in the backstory more for him and other characters but a pro to the real-time format is there's just not a lot of time to get too deep into the personal lives of the characters right away. The show seems content to let it unfold organically as it might over the course of a day through a conversation with a patient here or an aside to a co-worker there. The use of interns also gives a natural reason for the doctors to explain some of what they're doing, helping us an audience. The ensemble is strong but Wyle is a clear standout. If there's any character that's not working for me yet, it's Shabana Azeez as the very young third year medical student. Right now, I feel like the show is trying a little too hard with her character but that's a minor complaint.
Overall, this is an extremely sturdy and well-crafted medical drama. I'm not sure if I'll do weekly reviews because a show with this format may not lend itself to that. But I'll certainly be watching and I'm excited to see where things go from here.
After watching The Pitt, it was interesting to reflect on Broadcast's two newest entries: FOX's medical drama Doc and ABC's Tim Allen-Kat Dennings family comedy Shifting Gears. You might be thinking, what do these two shows have in common that warrant a joint review? Well, both are sort of the worst type of show broadcast has to offer right now. Which is not to say they're the worst broadcast shows - these aren't epic fails like we used to see (duds like Work It, Cavemen, My Generation and more were bigger swings and misses). But these are the worst type of show now because they are so utterly generic types of shows with nothing new to offer. They are dreadfully dull, cheap-looking and full of cliches. Current Broadcast TV has a few high-quality higher aims (Abbott Elementary, Ghosts) and then a bunch of solid, normal broadcast shows that are elevated by strong performances or fun vibes (Elsbeth, Matlock, St. Denis Medical, High Potential, etc.). But these? They offer nothing of any interest and that's almost worst than being a big swing and miss. It's at least very demoralizing than Broadcast TV can't try a little harder.
Doc was the slightly more ambitious of the two but that's really not saying much. The show is trying to blend a standard medical drama with a story of a doctor (Molly Parker) who loses her memory after a car accident. So there's all the predictable things that come with that: she doesn't know she's divorced! She doesn't know what happened to her son! She doesn't know that she became a jerk! And, don't worry, there was also doctors making out during a shift which seems to be a requirement for a network medical drama (it was such a relief to not see that in The Pitt). As far as how it looked, it was so dull with gray tones and the show looked cheap because the hospital looked so empty (Broadcast TV budgets these days amiright).
So needless to say, I don't have any interest in returning to Doc or Shifting Gears. This hasn't been a bad year for new network shows and a few more are coming that look somewhat interesting. But these shows are not that.
SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
This week is all about one premiere and that's Severance on Friday. The acclaimed Apple TV+ drama returns after nearly three years off the air and reports of behind-the-scenes troubles filming Season Two. However, despite the apprehension, reviews have been mostly positive for the second season with a few downright raves. The show seems to definitely be in the public consciousness for the second season as opposed to the first season when it debuted quietly but became a word-of-mouth hit. Also premiering this week is the fifth season of Harley Quinn on Max and the second season of XO, Kitty on Netflix. Both those premieres arrive on Thursday.
ODDS & ENDS
- Landman's first season came to an end of Sunday and whew, what a strange ride that show was. The show was one of the most bonkers shows I've seen in recent years and I don't think it was very good, but it was very watchable and a fun ride. The over the top performances from Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hamm, Michelle Randolph and especially Ali Larter were something to behold. This was a show with a prestige cast and production value but absolutely not in terms of writing and plotting. The show moved a million miles a minute to whatever seemed to be in the whim of Taylor Sheridan's head. I described it as a trashy Friday Night Lights in my original review and that holds true. But I keep coming back to the fact that I did look forward to watching it each week and that's saying something. I haven't watched a lot of Sheridan shows but others, like 1923, struck me as taking themselves too seriously. Not this one. Not by any means. This was just such a wild show that it defies words. Something about it worked though when it really, really shouldn't.
- I've never watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia but was still curious about the crossover with Abbott Elementary. I'm not sure how well it worked for fans of Always Sunny but it worked well for me. I think the Always Sunny characters were defined effectively and quickly for people who didn't know them, like me. There were some funny pairings with the Abbott characters. Was it necessary? Of course not. But I think it largely worked.
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