The Pitt Season 2 Review | This Is America And It Is In Crisis

Capitalism’s greatest failed experiment has to be the modern-day USA and its disastrous healthcare system is the biggest proof of that. Created by R. Scott Gemmill and executive produced by John Wells and Noah Wyle, who also plays protagonist Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, the senior attending physician at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center's emergency room, The Pitt returned with its sophomore season with more stories illustrating just how wrecked the situation really is on the ground.

One of the best things about The Pitt is how it turns medical drama tropes to appear dystopic, but the dystopia is happening in real time, not in some far-off distant future to some other civilisation. Artistically, the show is still pulling off the thrilling feat of storytelling. It guides us through a single, gruelling 15-hour shift, entirely bypassing the tired, soapy medical drama tropes of romantic escapades in supply closets and miscellaneous other relationship dramas to propel things forward.

While season one got to pivot around the Pitt Fest shootout and the eventual fallout from it, season two does not rely on a big disaster. Season two is set roughly 10 months after the first season, where we get to watch the crew work through another 15-hour shift through 15 episodes. It is July the 4th, Independence Day in the US, and the ER is still full to the brim and tipping over, all the while dealing with internal and external chaos.

This season, The Pitt gets to focus on the horrific toll the system takes on the country’s inhabitants as well as the few good ones fighting tooth-and-nail to stay sane while saving lives and navigating everything from cyber security threats to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) operatives complicating an already complicated ecosystem.

Currently, the US is the only high-income country that does not guarantee universal health coverage to its citizens. Because the US medical insurance system relies heavily on high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs, patients routinely skip necessary medical care due to the financial burden. Among the many new storylines introduced this season, two such story threads focus on a diabetic and an asthmatic patient who end up in the ER entirely because they cannot afford their regular medical upkeep under the draconian healthcare laws and insurance loopholes.

The show delivers two other powerful highlights for women's health. The first one features a storyline about the agonising reality of ovarian torsion; how easily PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) and the resulting pain and other health complications from it are brushed aside, and how this neglect can lead to loss of ovaries among other kinds of distress. The second one also tackles medical misogyny by depicting EMTs who fail to detect a female patient’s cardiac distress because they are too uncomfortable to lift her heavy breasts out of the way to conduct a thorough checkup while rushing her to the ER. These shockingly common occurrences are very much real and often lead to systemic discrimination and preventable death for female patients all over the world.

But the central storyline this season is Robby’s gradual meltdown. On the eve of a planned three-month sabbatical, Robby is unravelling. He is lashing out at everyone in his orbit. He snaps at senior resident Samira Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) while she is in the throes of a paralysing panic attack. He publicly berates student doctor Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez) for supposedly making TikToks, completely blind to the fact that she is frantically trying to track down where ICE agents have taken nurse Jesse (Ned Brower), who got into a tussle with the anti-immigration agents while trying to defend a patient.

As the shift wears on, it becomes clear that Robby’s profound irritability is not just a symptom of a usual burnout. He is a man questioning the very foundation of his life's choices. Robby reveals he is actively suicidal as he confesses to his friend Duke (Jeff Kober) and later to night-shift counterpart Jack Abbot (Shawn Hatosy). Of course, Robby’s predicament is far from an anomaly. Nearly every veteran on the floor is buckling under the weight of their calling.

Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) quietly pockets a scalpel during her shift; previously we had seen scars on her body hinting at a history of self-harm. Mel King (Taylor Dearden)—who is one of the most well-written neurodivergent women characters on television right now—keeps zoning out trying to deal with the stress of having to face a bogus medical malpractice lawsuit and finding out that her autistic sister Becca (Tal Anderson) has been hiding a relationship from her for months. The newest face to join the team, Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), the experienced physician meant to substitute for Robby while he takes a sabbatical, experiences a flare-up of her chronic neurological disorder after spending just one day in the Pitt. Thankfully, Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball) is still on his sobriety journey, but then again, he already had his reckoning in season one.

However, the season is not without its sour notes. It is undeniably uncomfortable to watch Noah Wyle helm such a fiercely progressive, anti-authoritarian series, given his real-life Zionist stances. It is a stark reminder of the irony and duality of the artists whose work we consume. Which is why it has been hard watching him play a cranky boss who, instead of getting the help he needs, chooses to repeatedly lash out at his colleagues and juniors (especially the women of colour: Javadi and Samira). This leaves a particularly bad aftertaste knowing the news that Supriya Ganesh will not be returning for the third season amid rumours of a sudden firing.

The show with its diverse cast, complex characters and stories, has built massive goodwill through unflinching honesty. But as we look ahead, we could all do with a little less of Robby the tyrant and much more of Robby the reformed.