Dr. Robby and The Staff Return for a Second Shift in “The Pitt” Season 2 Trailer
HBO Max has just dropped the first trailer for season two of The Pitt, and it manages, in just over a minute, to remind you what made the first season such a thrill ride. The 15-episode first run, nominated for 13 Emmys, covered one 15-hour shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center (inspired by the Allegheny General Hospital, which was used in filming for the entrance, helipad, and rooftop). The shift, usually 12 hours, went over 3 hours due to a shooting at the Pitt Fest, a concert where Jake (Taj Speights), the son of Dr. Robby (Noah Wylie)’s former romantic partner, is hanging out with his girlfriend. In what had already been a thrilling high-wire act of a medical drama, the best in years in our humble opinion, the final episodes flirted with unbearable tension, with friendly faces from earlier in the season returning, either to aid in an overloaded trauma center, or because someone they loved had been shot. It was a devastating, engrossing final few hours in one of the best dramas of the year.
The season two glimpse gives us a lot of the familiar faces—joining Dr. Robby, we have season one stalwarts Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), who appears not have made good, quite yet, on her promise to retire, young doctors-in-training like Dr. Javadi (Shabana Azeez) and Dr. Santos (Isa Briones), and the troubled but brilliant Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), who was exposed at the tail end of last season to be struggling with addiction to pain meds. The new season begins on the Fourth of July, with Dr. Langdon returning from a stint in an inpatient rehab program.
Wylie’s Dr. Robby is the pater familias of this sprawling medical team, and while he’s gangbusters at his job, he’s far from trauma-free himself, as we learned in season one. (Wylie will also direct an episode this season.) In fact, one of the primary lessons the younger doctors learned during their first shift was the heavy toll their chosen profession can take on a person.
The intrapersonal dramas, the mile-a-minute medical jargon that never felt heavy-handed (due not only to superb performances, but the fact that real doctors and medical experts consulted with the writers and producers), the relentless pacing, and respect the production had that they audience wouldn’t only keep up, but care, made The Pitt season one a phenomenon. There’s no doubt that we’ll be clocking in for our second shift when the series returns in January.
Check out the trailer for season two here.
For more on The Pitt, check out these stories:
How “The Pitt,” “Shrinking,” and “Paradise” Are Proving You Can Still Make Hit TV in Los Angeles
Precision and Passion: How Director Amanda Marsalis Choreographed the Chaos of “The Pitt”
Featured image: Overriding Al-Hashimi, Dr. Robby encourages Samira and Garcia through the procedure. (Warrick Page/MAX)
