TER showrunner John Wells, writer R. Scott Gemmill and longtime star Noah Wyle reunite for The Pitt, a new drama Also The plot, set in the middle of a hectic hospital, was enough to anger the estate of the hit show’s original creator, Michael Crichton. In an aggrieved lawsuit, his widow, Sherri Crichton, filed described it as a “personal betrayal” that only happened when talks between the two parties over an approved ER reboot failed. The new series, which airs on HBO’s often inferior streamer Max (which is part of the same Warners empire that spawned ER), has a similarly chaotic energy, but is just relocated to a different city (this time it is, title note). , Pittsburgh and not Chicago). Despite the protests of defense managers, the excitement is understandable.

But as a viewer, especially as someone who has followed the long-running drama closely for most of its 15 seasons, the main reason for concern is that “The Pitt” just isn’t nearly as effective. Since the premiere of “ER” – a near-perfect modulation of personal and professional conflict – many, many more shows set in the hospital followed, but none of them managed to achieve this balance quite as well. “Grey’s Anatomy” might have lasted longer – at 21 seasons it’s starting to outlast most things on television – but its best days were a long, long time ago and its tendency to lean toward cheesy melodrama with a Starbucks soundtrack made it so it’s more of an acquired taste.

“The Pitt” comes at a time when streamers are increasingly enthusiastic about commissioning the kind of milquetoast shows we tend to associate more negatively with the networks (just this week, Law & Order king Dick Wolf’s latest police drama premieres). Amazon Prime and not premiered on NBC). It’s something of a boundary-pusher, stuck between prestige and procedure (I’ve grimly heard the word “prestigeural” being used in the industry lately and refuse to ever use it again) and suffers because of it. The trick with 24 Imitations is that it takes place in real time, with each of the 15 hours (10 of which were made available to critics) being part of the same hellish shift, and you can’t quite figure out whether it’s going to be immersive verité or primetime Soap.

Wyle, who played fresh-faced medical student Carter in the ER, has now, thanks to facial hair and the laws of the times, become the grizzled senior resident in charge of what he calls “the Pitt” despite complaints from above. Because it’s an inner-city teaching hospital, it not only has to deal with a constant rush of patients and the impossible demands of a profit-over-person system, but it also has to bring together a group of eager freshmen. He remains haunted not only by the management of the pandemic, but also by what was lost along the way, particularly an important mentor who died. In a long, and what we can imagine is textbook strenuous, story, we see how he and the old and new around him cope with the chaos.

The frenetic format, which throws us into the chaos of a fast-paced, lightly structured series, helps, in its finer moments, to convey just how hellish it really can be to work in an underfunded and overworked hospital. Crisscrossing between patients and various other fires that need to be put out, the layering of stress on top of new stress on top of stress that hasn’t yet been resolved is successfully…stressful to watch. Wyle is an actor who has now spent so long in a hospital that he often feels like he knows what he’s actually doing, and that makes him a calm, confident leading man who’s completely believable, as well as one Manager who knows how to dish out salt and sweet and also as a man who has seen far too much at this point to ever overlook it.

The ER updates – the post-Covid bruising, the increased pressure from management to be high-performing rather than likable – are welcome improvements, but if it’s not for the hyperspecialties (as a layperson, I was completely won over by the show). Understanding actual medicine), The Pitt can also be as trite and boring as the very worst network television. It makes for a harrowing experience, as the series strives for gritty naturalism, but with thin writing that relies on awkward, boring dialogue and an excess of headline-worthy shock cases (how many topical patients can you expect in one shift?) and unfortunately , a group of mostly inferior actors who fail to make us believe that any of this is even remotely real. The cast consists of all-too-familiar archetypes (house sister, plucky single mom with grit, cocky intern with ambition) who fail to stand out and whose short, intrusive bursts of emotion never really get through.

The shadow of ER, a show that ended over 15 years ago, remains significant and in an attempt to stand out, The Pitt is still stuck in it. Wells is never able to choose which lane to take, so he chooses the middle of the road.