HBO Max’s Best New Show Is A Resurrected ‘ER’ Blended With ‘24’ – Forbes
The PittER, the drama which began in 1994 and ran for a full 15 seasons, is one of the great staples of American television. Now, 30 years later, it has resurfaced. Sort of.That’s in the form of a new, intense medical drama on Max (formerly HBO Max) called The Pitt. It’s not just similar in theme, its creator is a producer and writer on ER, R. Scott Gemmill, and its star is an ER star, Noah Wyle, who appeared in 254 episodes of the series.The reunion has produced something special, at least according to critics. The series currently has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, with audience scores not in yet, after its premiere this week on Max. It will air Wednesdays on the service.The additional wrinkle here that separates it from ER is the format, where each episode will be an individual hour of a 15 hour ER shift, similar to the format of Kiefer Sutherland’s 24 back in the day. It’s wild to think seasons of TV actually used to be 24 episodes, but even 15 episodes is a ton for a series in 2025, when we usually see no more than 6-10. Here’s the official synopsis of the series:“A realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.” And the trailer:The show is not listed as a limited series, so presumably the idea is that it will continue with this concept in the future. Probably with the same cast, rather than being an anthology. I also suspect the “one shift” idea both makes the show A) easier to film, hence the number of episodes and B) cheap, as you just need some hospital sets and the cast and that’s about it.In terms of the cast, besides Wyle, you may not recognize the names of most of the other stars (more cost-saving, I suppose, not that they aren’t talented). Also starring 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 do good work here, it seems.This is being listed as a “Max Original” rather than an “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 quite good, and other Max Originals like Hacks have won major awards.I’m looking forward to checking this out with my medical-field wife and seeing what she makes of it. 15 weeks to go to see how it all plays out.Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:So, how can you be a power user?Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.
