“The Pitt”: Producers reveal what to expect from Season 2

In the final episode of the first season of “The Pitt”, Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinovitch looks at Medicine student Victoria Javadi and begins to laugh almost ninhely. Exhausted after a day when the emergence where they work was flooded with patients of a mass shooting and recovering from a mental collapse that happened later, he says, “I just realized that this is your first duty.” Others join the laugh.

“I can practically ensure that the next will be easier,” says Rabinovitch, played by actor Noah Wyle, for the character played by Shaba Azeez.

Probably it will be, but that’s not what viewers will see in the second season of the show.

The next season of the successful drama, in fact, will be 10 months later, during the weekend of Independence Day, according to executive producer R. Scott Gegemill. And the action will be, once again, intense.

Of course this is intentional. With a season of “The Pitt” set entirely on a single hospital duty, planning the development of the characters and the story seems as accurate as the intubations portrayed in the program.

“I think we’ll do more or less what we did in the first season… Any information you got was just through conversations and behaviors,” said Gemmill. “It was a challenge, for sure, and it is still, but it is also a great way to write because you need to show some restraint. I think this also makes it seem authentic because we only get parts of people’s stories. We are not the type who sits and talks for two and a half hours about someone’s past when we know him.”

Gemmill, a veteran producer of medical series, talked to the CNN Alongside executive producer John Wells, a legend whose IMDB profile looks like a list of the most prominent television programs. In turn, Wells believes that “The Pitt”, which had a successful debut season, owes part of his success to confidence “in public intelligence.”

“The audience is very literate about history and characters, and we don’t need to give everything chewed,” he said. “You can give small pieces and tips, and I think it’s pleasant for audience members to find out things about people just as we try to find out things about people we just met.”

More of the conversation is below. Questions and answers were slightly edited and condensed for more clarity.

CNN: The narrative of this season has been amazing – almost scary sometimes, because you essentially predicted the measles outbreak, for example. Are you the new “Simpsons”? Will you start predicting super bowl results and media mergers?

John Wells, Executive Producer: [Risos]

R. Scott Gemmill, Executive Producer: Part of our work is to be accurate with medicine and trends and what is happening in society. So when you talk to the experts and talk about what worries them, what we are concerned with, what they see happening, if we are doing our work correctly, we are coming to things as they are realized. The question about the emergency department is that it sees everything – all the evils of society – before the rest of society. They saw Fentanil overdoses, saw AIDS cases, saw Covid. They see a lot before us because they are a kind of security network for the world. So if we are talking about a story that has not yet reached the mainstream, probably when it is aired, it will have arrived.

CNN: Is the research process for season 2 already in progress?

Gemmill: Yes, we had an expert today just to talk about changes in medical care availability and how it will affect people, especially non-white people with diabetes. And basically, if you think there is a health crisis now, if things are still like this, it will be as bad as, if not worse. It’s very discouraging, so we try to do our best to bring this to the public’s attention.

Wells: I think it is fair to say that any week throughout this process, (we are) talking to at least three or four different experts. And then we have many doctors in the writers room and available all the time. So it is a constant research project.

CNN: In the final of the first season, Dana (Katherine Lanasa) and Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) have very open stories. The reality is that emergency rooms are like any workplace; They can be revolving doors. What can you say, first, about these characters and what may be reserved for them, but also how you are willing to be brutal in the name of the authenticity of the experience of working in medicine, which people go ahead?

Gemmill: Well, as for the first question, we hope to see several faces returning. Some (characters) will have to go through their own process to determine whether they want to go back or not. And some have to overcome other obstacles before they can return. In terms of how brutal we are willing to be, you would be surprised. I think we cherish a lot for authenticity and some characters are more likely to come out than others based on where they are in their medical profession. No one yet. But in the program, we may have to see people leaving only to maintain authenticity, because they would not necessarily be around.

Wells: And people work on different shifts. Not all shifts are from 19h to 7h. Just because you don’t see someone in the first episodes doesn’t mean they are not working.

CNN: Regarding Santos (Isa Briones) and Whitaker (Gerran Howell), they became roommates at the end of the season. This almost seems like an opportunity to include a little humor. Was it something you discussed in response to any feedback on the program being very intense? Because, being honest, watching the program gives me a terrible anxiety, in the best way possible.

Gemmill: Well, we always knew that Whitaker was living in the hospital. We were playing with it from the first day, and there are little tips throughout the season about it. The part of Santos did not come later and was just a thought that after she brutalized this guy all day, what if she extended a branch of Oliveira? It seemed just a very cool gesture because I think these two came together because of what they went through. I think we deserve it. I don’t think it seemed a fake move.

Wells: Although I think we are really considering a derivative sitcom. [Risos]

CNN: I want to talk a little about the conversation of Abbott (Shawn Hatosy) and Robby on the terrace, which was incredibly well acted. If they do not receive attention from Emmy so I will be very annoyed.

Gemmill: I would say that the driving line of the first season is really Robby and his journey, and his – until this day – denial of what is really bothering him. He has never dealt with the PTSD of what happened to Covid and usually doesn’t even work on this day. We just put it in a pressure cooker full of triggers. And at some point, what he tried to forget so much and is almost in denial, erupts. It comes to light and forces to recognize it because there is no more like denying it, as other people saw. If Whitaker hadn’t seen him there, I don’t know if Robby would be on a way to healing, but I think it is now.

Abbott having this kind of existential crisis at the beginning was made by fun, but it is also part of who he is. It did not appear this season, but he is a widower. And he lost his leg and was in combat and I think he was having a small crisis of faith at the beginning, which is renewed to see mass casualty (event because) is what he does best. I think for Abbott, it convinced him of what he should be doing, and he met. Robby kind of lost, but they both end up in the same place and in reverse positions. Now it’s Robby looking at the abyss, and it’s Abbott who is there to pull him back I believe it talks about this kind of friendship and what they have. It is really a moment of brotherhood in medicine.

CNN: This whole season has been a love letter to health professionals, honoring their sacrifices and struggles. Robby plays at the end with one of the young doctors that “the next will be easier,” which not every duty will be so bad. The irony is that viewers know that next season will not be about ponies and rainbows.

Gemmill: Well, that was about “I hope for God that there is no other mass shooting.” This referred more to the aspect of mass murder. I think it was a hopeful thought (from Robby), but I also think we follow them on the most intense days. I believe there are days when it is not so agitated, but they do not yield good television [risos]. So the days when they receive only four patients, we will not show this episode.

CNN: Because you don’t have 24 to fill! You have 15 and you need to use them well.

Gemmill: Exactly. Although I think we were ready to give up after 12, but we persisted. [Risos]

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This content was originally published in “The Pitt”: producers reveal what to expect from season 2 on CNN Brazil.

Source: CNN Brasil