“ER,” the drama that began in 1994 and ran for 15 seasons, is one of the great classics of American television. Now, 30 years later, it has resurfaced. Somehow.

That’s in the form of a new, intense medical drama about Max (formerly HBO Max) called The Pitt. Not only is it thematically similar, its creator is an ER producer and writer, R. Scott Gemmill, and its star is an ER star, Noah Wyle, who appeared in 254 episodes of the series.

The reunion produced something special, at least according to critics. After premiering this week on Max, the series currently has a 91 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with ratings not yet available. It airs on Wednesdays on the service.

The additional difference from “ER” is the format, with each episode representing a single hour of a 15-hour “ER” shift, similar to the format of Kiefer Sutherland’s “24” back in the day. It’s crazy to think that TV seasons used to actually be 24 episodes, but even 15 episodes is a lot for a series in 2025, when we typically don’t see more than 6 to 10 episodes. Here is the official synopsis of the series:

“A realistic examination of the challenges facing America’s healthcare workforce through the eyes of frontline heroes working in a modern hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.” And the trailer:

The show is not listed as a limited series, so presumably the idea is to continue this concept in the future. Probably with the same cast and not as an anthology. I also suspect that the “one shift” idea makes the series a) easier to film (hence the number of episodes) and b) cheaper since you only need a few hospital sets and the cast and that’s about it.

As for the cast, you may not know the names of most of the other stars besides Wyle (which is probably more cost-effective, not that they aren’t talented). Also included are Tracy Ifeachor from Quantico, Katherine LaNasa from Truth be Told, Isa Briones from Picard and Fiona Dourif from the Chucky series. It’s an interesting collection, but they all seem to be doing a good job here.

This is listed as “Max Original” rather than “HBO Original,” whatever that means, but HBO is generally used more for prestige programming like “The Last of Us” or “The Penguin.” But by all accounts, The Pitt is pretty good, and other Max originals like Hacks have won big awards.

I’m excited to try this with my medical wife and see what she comes up with. 15 more weeks to see how everything turns out.

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