The Pitt Season 2 TV Review: The real-time ER drama returns with an even better sophomore run

Plot: A realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh.

Review: This time last year, one of the best shows of 2025 made its debut. The Pitt followed in the footsteps of the Michael Crichton-created NBC series ER with an unflinching look at the frontline workers in a hospital’s triage. Unlike ER, The Pitt used a real-time approach to chronicling fifteen consecutive hours in an emergency room while eschewing the melodrama and backstories that began to bog down ER in its later seasons. Led by recent Emmy winner Noah Wyle, The Pitt was one of the most impressive first seasons of any television series and quickly garnered a second-season pickup. The sophomore run of The Pitt is every bit as good as the first, with even more timely storytelling as it continues to look at the immediate care needs of Pittsburgh residents during the Fourth of July holiday. Just as bloody as season one, The Pitt continues to showcase breakneck storytelling and thrilling medical drama without the soapy extra material that often weighs down similar doctor shows.

Picking up ten months after the end of the first season, The Pitt opens with Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) arriving on Independence Day to transition his role to his temporary replacement, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi). After his panic attacks came to a head, Dr. Robby is taking a sabbatical for three months as he drives his motorcycle around the Northeast. But, first, he must contend with getting sucked into the overwhelming medical needs at his trauma center while also making sure Dr. Al-Hashimi does not undo all of the things he has worked hard to maintain at The Pitt. While the rift between the two attending physicians does offer some melodrama to the mix, the focus of The Pitt remains on the barrage of cases that enter through the ambulance bay and test the patience of the entire staff of doctors, nurses, and supporting contributors that make hospital emergency rooms operate. Across the nine episodes made available for this review, the cases range from shocking to tragic, with a few moments of levity interspersed throughout.

With the majority of the Season 1 cast returning, and the notable absence of Tracy Ifeachor as Dr. Heather Collins, the ensemble remains just as strong as ever. Residents Dr. King (Taylor Dearden) and Dr. Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) are joined by newly minted doctor Whitaker (Gerran Howell) as they contend with personal issues that are referenced and peppered into their daily work, rather than receiving heavy focus. Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif) is no longer tethered to an ankle monitor, while Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) returns after completing his rehabilitation and must deal with the fractured friendships and trust among his coworkers. There are also new medical students on staff who try the patience of the experienced staff, as the rookies last season are now veterans in the emergency room. Everyone pairs off in different capacities, but the all-stars of this show, including award winners Wyle and Katherine LaNasa as charge nurse Dana Evans, are just as brilliant as ever. The inclusion of Sepideh Moafi provides a foil for Dr. Robby, but her portrayal of Dr. Al-Hashimi strikes a great balance between medical knowledge and a different perspective from Robby.

The first season of The Pitt used extended plot threads to connect the fifteen-hour shift, and that remains the case this time around, including an Alzheimer’s patient who must repeatedly learn bad news, an abandoned baby, and a potentially abused young girl. That is just a sample and only from the first few episodes. Each arc ebbs and flows around new patients, some of whom return from the first season, while the staff keep pushing forward through each successive hour. The idea that this is Dr. Robby’s last shift before he leaves for his sabbatical adds some additional momentum to the already steady beat of The Pitt, but the inclusion of topics like artificial intelligence is as timely as the first season’s plots involving the COVID-19 pandemic and active shooters. AI is a major hot button in Hollywood and everywhere, and the series examines how it can assist medical professionals, particularly in emergency rooms, while also highlighting the risks it poses to the human interaction inherent in patient care. The approach to incorporating it in this series is interesting and opens up conversations about the real-world implications of the technology, something The Pitt handles really well.

Series creator R. Scott Gemmill returns as showrunner and wrote the opening episode, which is once again helmed by ER veteran director John Wells. The creative consistency behind the scenes allows The Pitt to feel like a natural continuation of the first season, despite almost a year passing between the two shifts portrayed on screen. Rather than getting stuck in rehashing what happened between shifts, the developments in character lives are hinted at through dialogue, giving the organic sense that we are peeking into a moment in the lives of these people, rather than just watching a television series. Gemmill and his writing team do not significantly alter the formula developed in the first season. The Pitt approaches the intense and non-stop environment of emergency rooms as a testament to the hard work that doctors and nurses do every single day, even if it can sometimes feel more dramatic for the sake of storytelling. This is, after all, a television series that serves as entertainment, which is why it is much easier to forgive some of the dramatic elements, such as romances and preachy messaging, that still make their way into The Pitt. The lack of a musical score (other than the opening of the first episode) and the constant use of medical jargon effectively emulates what an ER would be like, even if it is not entirely realistic for those who actually work in them.

With only minor quibbles that come to mind, I once again loved every intense episode I have seen of The Pitt‘s second season. I loved ER during its initial run, but The Pitt adopts a no-nonsense approach, bombarding audiences with the intensity of a shift in an emergency room without getting bogged down in soap opera subplots. I know the potential for any emergency room to deal with this many shocking cases in a single day is likely unrealistic, but it is still closer to reality than the fictional settings of Grey’s Anatomy or Chicago Med. The Pitt is still a television show and one that breaks the expectations that we have come to accept from medical dramas. This is a great show that tackles current events from an informed perspective while remaining incredibly entertaining. With returning favorites and new additions mixing into a solid ensemble, The Pitt continues to be one of the best shows of the year, only a week into January.

The Pitt season two premieres on January 8th on HBO Max.