With over 100 medical drama TV shows available for streaming — at least a dozen of which are still actively airing — one stands out among the rest. Between its 13 Emmy nominations and five Emmy wins in 2025, as well as a ranking among the top three most watched HBO Max series in the platform’s history, “The Pitt” has quickly become a TV sensation since its first season began airing in January 2025. Because of its filming process, medical accuracy, representation and overall goal to honor healthcare workers, the series is praised by film critics, viewers and healthcare workers alike.
“The Pitt” is set in the emergency department (ED) of a Pittsburgh hospital and follows various doctors at different stages of their residency. Each season of the show covers one 15-hour shift, with each individual episode covering one hour of that shift.
Noah Wyle, who’s an executive producer, co-writer and director on the show and stars as the main character Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavich, told PBS in an interview that he wanted to “come up with a device that felt intimate and created a sense of tension, analogous to doing kind of a ride-along with a police officer in the back seat of a cruiser or being embedded with a combat unit as a journalist.”
The short timeframe allows viewers to get an extremely in depth look at how an ED operates and accurately portrays healthcare workers’ experiences, including how demanding and intense their job is and the resulting struggles that they face.
Honoring the reality of these struggles served as the original inspiration for the show. Wyle began pursuing the project during the COVID-19 pandemic with former “ER” co-stars Scott Gemmill and John Wells. In a USA Today op-ed, Wyle said that although the show is fiction, “it’s grounded in real stories — shaped by medical advisers who’ve lived them and delivered with reverence for the professionals we’re honored to represent.”
In order to honor healthcare professionals and accurately represent their experiences, the show’s creators prioritized medical accuracy, involving residency-trained, board-certified emergency physicians in the writing and filming processes. Prior to filming, the show’s actors were also required to partake in a medical boot camp during which they learned the basics of ED medicine, including how to suture, intubate, perform CPR and conduct ultrasounds.
Regarding the actual filming of the show, Isa Briones, who plays Dr. Trinity Santos, said it resembles a theater rehearsal. They shoot scenes in sequential order, requiring actors to remain on set even when they aren’t in a scene, which aids in the show’s commitment to continuity and realism. In the PBS interview, Wyle said the continuity of filming allows scenes to build on each other, making the show feel like live theater and allowing viewers to become further immersed in the storylines. While filming, they also use trauma choreography to ensure precision with actors’ queues.
Aside from medical accuracy, “The Pitt” also excels in representation of the diversity of healthcare workers. Despite the fact that 4% of nurses in the U.S. are Filipino, they’re not often represented in medical shows. “The Pitt,” however, is bringing increased representation to this community by featuring three Filipino actresses — Amielynn Abellera who plays nurse Perlah Alawi, Kristin Villanueva who plays nurse Princess and Briones. These three actors are even shown speaking Tagalog throughout the show and Briones is portrayed singing a Filipino lullaby to an abandoned infant. The actors as well as real-life Filipino nurses have responded to this representation, saying that Filipinos are finally getting the recognition they deserve for their hard work and resilience in the medical industry.
The show also features two South Asian actresses, Supriya Ganesh (Dr. Samira Mohan) and Shabana Azeez (Victoria Javadi), Iranian actress Sepideh Moafi (Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi) and Jewish Afro-Latina actress Alexandra Metz (Dr. Yolanda Garcia). Additionally, we see neurodivergent representation with actress Taylor Dearden (Dr. Melissa “Mel” King), who is neurodivergent herself and portrays a character who is often interpreted as being on the autism spectrum.
On the topic of representation, “The Pitt” also aims to bring attention to systemic issues in the healthcare industry, including staffing shortages, workplace violence and prejudice in medical care. The show highlights that nurses are the backbone of the healthcare industry, with Garran Howell’s character, Dr. Dennis Whitaker, telling one of his colleagues in season two, episode six, “always listen to the nurses, they run the ER, we just try to stay out of their way.”
In the show, staffing shortage issues are shown when Wyle’s character repeatedly complains to the chief of surgery about needing more nurses in order to accomplish her desire to improve patient satisfaction and reduce patient wait times. Additionally, the violence that nurses really do face is shown when charge nurse Dana Evans, played by Katherine LaNasa, is punched by an angry patient.
Further, in season one, a storyline with a Black woman suffering from sickle cell anemia shows the reality of how people of color are often misdiagnosed and mistreated when it comes to receiving medical care. In season two, Briones’ character struggles to provide medical attention to a deaf patient as she attempts to reach an interpreter. Other storylines show the realities of living without medical insurance and having to refuse medical care as a result.
Especially given that we just saw New York City’s largest nurses strike in history, “The Pitt” is bringing light to real-life issues that need to be talked about. It represents the kind of TV show that we need right now — one that honors an often overlooked industry and often overlooked groups of people and the typically ignored systemic issues they face. There is a reason real-life healthcare professionals are constantly applauding “The Pitt” for its accurate and impactful portrayal of their work.
“The Pitt” is a show that not only entertains but also educates and informs its viewers, and it deserves all the praise it has received and more.
