Why The Pitt Is The Best Medical Show Ever Created

Over the last several decades, medical shows have been a major part of the television landscape. As a result, when the TV show called The Pitt was announced, there was no way for observers to know if it would be worth watching. However, now that fans have seen so much happen on the show, including the arrest of Dr. Cassie McKay, lots of people are talking about The Pitt.

Since The Pitt’s first season has come to an end, it is time to look back at how great the show is. While considering how captivating its first season was, it is time to recognize that The Pitt is the greatest medical show ever produced.

The Pitt Is The Best Medical Show Ever Because It Is The Most Realistic And Compelling

Throughout the history of television, there have been many genres that have become huge successes. For example, there have been seemingly endless examples of successful police procedural shows over the years.

Similarly, there is absolutely no doubt that many medical shows have been huge hits over the years. In fact, there are several medical shows that have been so successful that they have aired for more than 10 seasons, which is always a major accomplishment.

As a result, anytime a new medical show debuts on television, it has a lot to live up to if it is going to be successful. With that in mind, it is even more amazing that The Pitt is the best medical show ever produced.

In July 2024, Screen Rant published an article listing the best medical dramas ever. That article, which was published before The Pitt premiered, shows that there have been many fantastic medical dramas throughout television history.

Despite how much competition there is for the title of best medical show ever, there are many reasons why The Pitt deserves that title. The first, and most obvious, reason why The Pitt is the greatest medical show ever is how incredibly realistic the show is.

In April 2025, Vulture interviewed Dr. Lukas Ramcharran of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine about how realistic The Pitt is. During that article, Dr. Ramcharran said many illuminating things about The Pitt. For example, Ramcharran praised The Pitt for showing both the medical and non-medical stresses that doctors have to go through. Dr. Ramcharran also expressed happiness that The Pitt doesn’t linger on dramatic plotlines, like other medical shows do, because real workers in the medical field don’t have time for that.

In January 2025, the YouTube influencer Doctor Mike, who really is a licensed doctor in America, reacted to The Pitt’s first episode in a video on his channel. During that video, Doctor Mike at one point remarked that The Pitt is “too real.”

As enlightening as those comments are, one thing Dr. Ramcharran said revealed how powerful The Pitt is.

As Dr. Ramcharran explained to Vulture, he has often wished that his loved ones could really see what he does as a doctor. While that is impossible because of privacy laws, Dr. Ramcharran told Vulture that The Pitt is so realistic that it allows his family to understand his job better.

My wife, who’s not in medicine, and I have been together since college, and she’s seen me go through the entire educational pipeline to become an attending physician. I’ve always told her I would love for our family to see what we do on a daily basis — to see the specialty that I love and have dedicated my life to. Of course, because of HIPAA and patient-privacy needs, we can’t ever have family members stop by on a workday, so my primary motivation was seeing if this show could show her that. It’s been such a joy. I’m constantly pausing and saying, ‘That’s what we do! That’s the thing I told you about!’ Obviously, I edit too. ‘This would actually be more bloody’ and so on.”

The fact that The Pitt allowed a doctor to feel like his wife understands him better is very powerful.

While The Pitt deserves endless praise for how realistic it is, the show isn’t produced for doctors alone. Instead, The Pitt also has to be entertaining, meaningful, and have artistic merit as well to be considered the best medical show ever produced.

In terms of artistic merit, The Pitt is one of the best-looking medical shows ever. In this case, that means that The Pitt does an excellent job of properly portraying how grisly the medical field can be. Additionally, The Pitt often makes viewers feel like they are in the middle of the medical madness.

As for how meaningful it is, during one season, The Pitt touched on several incredibly serious social and medical issues without ever feeling forced. As an April 2024 Deadline article focused on, The Pitt showed doctors dealing with a young person who’d contracted measles in the midst of outbreaks spreading in real life. The Pitt also put viewers in the medical of an emergency room as it is rocked by having to treat the victims of a mass shooting.

Another storyline showed a doctor coping with a tragedy that far too many people feel alone when they go through it, miscarriage. Sadly, The Pitt also focuses on an extremely unfortunate reality of the medical field, that some doctors who have access to narcotics begin to abuse them. On top of all that, The Pitt shows a doctor with a checkered history having to deal with the pressures of their career and the legal trouble they are in.

The fact that The Pitt covers all of those real-life dramas in a way that truly feels organic speaks to how fantastic it is.

The Pitt’s Characters Are Another Reason It Is The Best Medical Show Ever

At the end of the day, The Pitt could be beautifully shot, incredibly realistic, and feature important storylines while still being a bad show. After all, television shows have to be entertaining above all else. Fortunately for The Pitt, the show features one of the most compelling groups of characters in medical show history too.

Of course, The Pitt’s main character is Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch as portrayed by Noah Wyle. The main authority figure, Dr. Robby is one of the most fully fleshed-out characters in the modern television landscape. A flawed man who often doesn’t have the courage to examine himself until life catches up to him, fans still come to trust Dr. Robby as a leader, doctor, and person. As a result, when Dr. Robby has a setback, despite his very best efforts, viewers’ hearts break for him.

It is hard to overstate how impressive Tracy Ifeachor’s portrayal of Dr. Heather Collins is. During one season, Tracy brought to life a character that she imbued her character with strength, vulnerability, and anguish in equal measure. Tracy perfectly portrays someone at war with themselves as they try to overcome anguish that is too powerful to relent. In the end, it was very powerful to see Tracy and Noah share a scene in which they were truly there for each other.

Cast as the heart and soul of The Pitt’s emergency room, Katherine LaNasa makes the charge nurse Dana Evans a loving and supportive figure with an edge. As a result, it was incredibly disturbing to see Dana suddenly and unexpectedly become a victim. Since Dana goes through so much, fans want her to be able to leave and enjoy some peace while at the same time desperately wanting to see the character stay.

Even though Shawn Hatosy was only seen in a handful of The Pitt episodes, it didn’t take long for him to leave a mark on fans. The only character who really seemed to get Dr. Robby to open up, seeing Shawn and Noah’s character share their characters’ trauma was extremely affecting.

The list of The Pitt characters who were special is too long to bring them all up here. Still, it has to be stated that watching Fiona Douriff’s character cope with the consequences of her past while being extremely great at her job was fantastic. Additionally, seeing Fiona’s character insisting on putting the safety of young women over everything else and then paying a price for that is realistic, sad, and still inspiring. Taylor Dearden portraying a neurodivergent doctor who uses that as a strength in a realistic way also is one of The Pitt’s highlights.

Ultimately, The Pitt has so many great characters and storylines, that it has to be considered one of the most compelling shows of any genre in the modern television landscape.