How The Pitt is shaking up the medical drama genre
CBC Arts | Posted: March 18, 2025 5:37 PM | Last Updated: March 18
TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk talks about how the show's unique format and tone are getting people's attention
The new medical drama The Pitt is billed as "a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers" today, set in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Much like the award-winning TV drama 24, each episode of The Pitt follows the events that occur in one hour of a 15-hour shift. The show mainly follows the experiences of Dr. Robby, the chief attendant in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital's emergency room.
This week, The Pitt made headlines for a very realistic depiction of a complicated birth in episode 11, titled "5:00 P.M." Vulture TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk wrote that it's "a medical experience rarely depicted on television in anything approaching its full complexity, and certainly not with this level of frank detail."
Today on Commotion, VanArendonk joins host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about why that scene matters, and what The Pitt is doing to the medical drama format in a post-pandemic world.
WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube (this segment begins at 15:55):
You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Kathryn VanArendonk produced by Nikky Manfredi.