Noah Wyle teases how the final three episodes of The Pitt season 1 “feel different,” and discusses plans for season 2. Max’s acclaimed emergency room drama has indeed been renewed, setting the stage for The Pitt season 2. The pulse-pounding series sees former ER star Wyle back in the medical trenches, this time running the show at a busy Pittsburgh hospital. In an interesting formatting twist, The Pitt season 1 takes place over a single emergency room shift, with each episode encompassing an hour of that shift.
Wyle’s latest foray into the medical genre is drawing positive comparisons to ER, and things might get even more dramatic as The Pitt season 1 heads into its final run of episodes, as Wyle recently teased a big curveball coming (via AVClub):
We left the window open for season two [before getting renewed] because creatively, we all feel like there’s a lot more gas in this tank. All I can say is it’s sort of interesting how we released two-thirds of the season to the press. The last third is like a different show. So don’t make any assumptions and be prepared for where the ride will take you. I’m really, really proud of it. John Wells directed the first one and he directed the last one. I think it’s a very elegant ending.
Wyle then went on to talk about plans for The Pitt season 2, addressing whether the show will stick with its current format, and floating the possibility of a time-jump:
Well, we joke that we should stay with the format. Otherwise, it looks like we made a mistake. You don’t want to admit defeat. If we kept with a 15-episode structure, there’s something really hand in glove with having it mirror a work day or a work night. I think for dramatic purposes, it’s more interesting to plot the course a little downstream so there’s a dark period that people don’t know what happened and we can play with that. This was a very impactful day. I don’t know that anybody’s going to have any more perspective the next day than they did on this day. I think we all need a little distance from it.
What This Means For The Pitt
Season 2 Could Be The Same, But Different
Wyle heads up the cast of The Pitt and R. Scott Gemmill serves as showrunner, so comparisons to ER were inevitable. While the drama reaches ER-like levels on Max’s new hit show, the wrinkle of having every episode play out over an hour of a single 15-hour shift serves to distinguish The Pitt from its medical drama brethren, past and present.
Compressing all the action into a single shift not only makes The Pitt feel novel, it also raises the series’ tension to a high level.
Wyle’s new remarks seem to confirm that producers will stick with the one-shift format for The Pitt season 2. There will be some changes, however, as Wyle appears to tease a time-jump. Such a move could allow for the cast to be shuffled, with some actors leaving and some climbing aboard, reflecting the turnover that would naturally happen in a facility like the Pitt.
The future indeed looks bright for The Pitt, but the near-term also seems promising, at least going by Wyle’s remarks. What exactly he means by saying the last three The Pitt episodes “feel different” remains to be seen. It could be that the drama ratchets up. It could be some kind of change-up in style. Or it could be something even more radical.
Our Take On Wyle’s The Pitt Teases
The Show Should Stick With Its Format (And Shuffle Its Characters)
Wyle’s teases should prime The Pitt viewers for an emotional ride in season 1’s last three episodes (not that the season hasn’t already been quite a roller coaster). As for season 2, it’s a slam-dunk that the show should stick with its format. Compressing all the action into a single shift not only makes The Pitt feel novel, it also raises the series’ tension to a fever pitch.
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Some kind of time-jump going into The Pitt season 2 would also be a solid idea, as an organic way of evolving the characters, and perhaps reshuffling the cast. Gemmill, Wyle and company have made mostly good moves so far, and will hopefully continue playing their medical drama cards right for as long as The Pitt remains on the air.
The Pitt season 1, episode 10 premieres Thursday, March 6 at 9 PM ET on Max.
Source: AVClub