The Pitt has taken the world by storm. Audiences and critics are loving it. It’s already taken home Emmys, including the award for Outstanding Drama Series, and it’s been renewed for a second season.

Its success can be ascribed to many things. Medical shows have long been popular and have never really gone out of fashion, no matter the genre: think Doogie Howser, ER, Scrubs, House, Grey’s Anatomy, Nip/Tuck, and The Good Doctor. However, many of these shows, if not all, have come under scrutiny for being melodramatic, unrealistic, and inaccurate. But that’s what keeps us coming back, right? It’s the characters’ stories that keep us invested and the hospital just forms a dramatic backdrop.

So could there be a show that marries engaging stories and great characters with medical accuracy? It seems so: The Pitt appears to be that glorious union. How do they get it right? After all, medical professionals were consulting on medical shows long before The Pitt came along. Why does this one work so well? Let’s dissect and take a closer look.

Let’s call the first reason kismet. One of the shows most often venerated for its medical accuracy is ER. And what do ER and The Pitt have in common? Why, Noah Wyle of course. The man sure knows how to pick a project. He played Dr John Carter on ER for more than a decade, now he’s the star of The Pitt, while also taking on writing and producing duties. The Pitt creator R Scott Gemmill and executive producer John Wells also spent many years working on ER.

Crucially, the show pays attention to detail. In his review of the show, ER doctor Brady Pregerson, expressed his appreciation that even the ultrasound images used were genuine. Sure, most viewers wouldn’t notice this, but for those who do, it’s a real kick. It’s like a very special kind of Easter egg.

However, the show’s accuracy does not just lie in the details of procedures and terminology. It also portrays how the work affects those who choose to follow this path. Medicine does not exist in a vacuum. There is so much that affects our lives and our health (whether as doctors, nurses, or patients), and The Pitt does not shy away from this. It doesn’t only focus on the characters as individuals, but the social milieu in which they exist and how this affects them and their patients. It also highlights issues that are not addressed enough such as violent patients and substance abuse among providers.

The format of the show is in real time, with each episode representing one hour of a shift. As the tagline tells us: 15 hours. 15 episodes. 1 shift. This is nothing new: the most famous example is probably still 24. But choosing to use this format is a stroke of genius, giving the audience an idea of how just how fast-paced, jam-packed, stressful, and unpredictable an emergency room and shift can be.

Another aspect that underscores the show's realism is its lack of music. Gemmill explained this decision in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: "If you’ve ever been in an ER, it’s noisy, it’s horrible. And the only way to really capture that was to not have any music." Stripping a show of music also really taps into the viscerality of raw emotion. It's been used to great effect on television in the past, like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, The Body. Even ER had a couple of episodes in which no music was used.

There’s lots more the show dedicates itself to, to make it feel realistic. Not only do they consult with emergency physicians during writing and have on-set advisors, but they use medical professionals in the scenes themselves. The actors also had to undergo “medical boot camp” to help them properly perform procedures on screen.

Doctors and nurses have been effusive in their praise for the show and hope it will inspire a new generation of medical practitioners. But they’ll remind us that, just like Dr Google and Dr TikTok are not to be trusted, a medical show is not a replacement for an actual health care worker. While The Pitt might pique our interest in the medical profession and teach us a thing or two, at its centre lies its humanity; and just like many a medical show before it, it’s the characters that keep us coming back.

Watch The Pitt season 1 on Mondays at 21:00 on M-Net channel 101 or catch up on DStv Stream here.

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Feature image: The Pitt, HBO.