To answer your question, no I had never heard of Freedom House. This isn't the first time the show used a patient to tell a story about Pittsburgh's history (Mr. Roger's painter), and I hope they keep doing it.
This was a phenomenal episode of television. The scenes involving Amber's sister were devastating, with each line of dialog adding another little gut punch. With Taylor Dearden's pure empathy making her the MVP of the episode.
Follow that up with the honor walk? Great watch. This show is becoming something special early on.
Taylor Dearden really is doing excellent work. When Breaking Bad was ending I said on Facebook that they should do a sequel series with a young adult Holly as the drug kingpin. That was a joke, but now that I've seen what Dearden can do I think Gilligan should get on it.
I didn’t know about Freedom House either, despite growing up nearby while it was active. I wonder if it was the compelling reason for setting the show in Pittsburgh. It really could take place in any decent-sized city, but Pittsburgh’s crucial and dramatically rich role in the history of emergency medicine probably influenced the decision to set it there.
Tough but good episode. It's hard to overstate how effective the pacing of The Pitt is, letting us live in moments with patients a lot longer than we usually do with medical shows. And what the finger patient says about Dr. Collins is true for the show as a whole: It's a good teacher. The way the seniors docs take time to explain things to the interns and by extension to us is so much more effective than everybody barking urgent orders at Dr. Carter back in the day.
Ah, but then there's still Santos. The clash of her personality and her stories with the tone and style of the rest of the show has become so egregious I'm not sure that it's not being used as intentional parody. "Brash young intern takes down drug-stealing doctor" is certainly a plot I can imagine on medical show, just not this medical show. Has Langdon actually done anything remotely suspicious? He seems to be basically a good doctor, with the worst you can say about him is that he was a dick to the ASD patient and is underestimating how much work a dog is going to be for his wife.
I don't know if the show is indicating Santos's instinct is a good one. In fact it's been pretty consistent on her characterization as someone who seeks control of situations very early in their development, someone who can focus in and be adroit under pressure (she snaps into rhythm much faster than either of the other students), but who is nonetheless knocked off balance easily after she's entered her zone... Worse, she compensates for mistakes by seeking a different measure of control, whatever's within reach, with the same rash certainty.
That comes out in big ways (making the bipap call without consulting anyone) and smaller ones (failing to read the room with her casual affect around patients, pointedly refusing to do so with peers of her same standing). When she cops to making a mistake, the poor reactions she gets are not *just* earned by her being generally abrasive. When she's confronted with failure, there isn't a sense of her desire to learn from it, only to get it in the open just long enough to move on.
She knows that she's green, but she's also extremely insecure about her capacity to earn respect, so she's trying to pretend she doesn't have to, that she arrived having already belonged. She either has respect or doesn't, is either fucking up or being praised. Which is why the (ostensibly) unconditional grace from Dr. Garcia is very, very bad for her. When Santos dropped the scalpel just after fucking up with the bipap, it was a one-two punch she visibly could not handle; in the aftermath of that, she was the most "deer in the headlights", checked-out panicked of any rookie on the show to date (with the possible exception of the fainting spell, of course); had they needed to rely on her in that moment, it would have been an even bigger disaster.
Personally I think she's setting herself up to bullrush into another very big, very public mistake, one from which she won't be able to keep her public composure. I don't even think she's consciously trying to get back at Dr. Langdon, or rather, she'd never admit that to herself. She's sublimating her panic, following the shortest path she can see to a point where her shame doesn't matter.
Anyway, Santos is absolutely dislikable, but she's not out of step with the show, or its realism. Having worked extensively in clinical settings, I can say she has... I wouldn't say a temperament that's GOOD for surgery specialty, but if she controlled her compensatory impulses, she would certainly be tolerated, if not encouraged, in those spaces. She's smart to seek it out, in that respect.
If we were betting on plot outcomes, I'd say that the person who's actually stealing* is the nurse with the glasses and the dread ponytail. There are some slight metatextual indications: First, it would provide some dramatic irony in that he was the first person that Santos talked to re: the possibility of illegal activity. But also, in this episode, he verbally volunteers to go to the dispensary.
It's not much, admittedly. The "law of economy of characters", which suggests that lines and screen time in a script directly translate to their plot importance, is demonstrably less applicable to scripts that are technically precise about complicated work and which aim for panoramic realism. But whatever the case, if theft is happening in the way Santos believes it to be, I'd be surprised if Langdon was revealed as the culprit.
* The way med theft is treated so far reminds me, strangely enough, of a realist bit in the spy fic of HOMELAND, or more recently THE AGENCY: moles and leaks in spy ops are basically accepted as things that will be happening more or less constantly, and therefore obsessing about them post-facto is unwise when you have other duties.
The black market trade in prescription drugs is so profoundly lucrative (and as Whitaker and McKay have illustrated, money can be tight even for doctors), every opening for theft is bound to be exploited in a hospital; as a clinician, all you can really do is do your part in protecting and tracking supplies, and leave investigations to professionals. Santos is trying to root out an allegedly complicated sleight of hand, and Garcia is right that it's not her job to do so. She ought to report her suspicions and get back to medicine! But she won't, because she's pathological.
You have more insight into this setting than I do, which is great. But for me what's at issue is the odd way that TV genre conventions are bumping up against reality. In most shows a character like Santos who is unlikable yet confident and who has the courage to challenge authority when it comes to rooting out abusive fathers and drugs thieves would be proven right, and we'd know early on that we're supposed to root for them to be proven right. But Santos just seems to be grasping at straws in all the ways you allude to in your other post. Maybe I'm just too aware of the genre conventions and I should take at face value that Santos's cowboy tactics are going to be just as self-destructive in the show as they would be 99.99% of the time in real life. But I still find the juxtaposition very odd, especially when every other character in the show seems to be on a different wavelength.
I’m curious if, when the series ends, anyone will attempt a realtime 15-hour watch from 7am to 10pm. Including MAX’s trailers, recaps, and credits, each episode runs about 50 minutes. So it looks like you can snatch 10-15 minutes between episodes for a snack/exercise/potty break. Anyone want to guess the emotional state of a newbie attempting such a marathon at 10:01pm?
This is why I made a goal to watch each episode as they come out! This episode was devastating but I have a week to recover. I personally don’t think this show would make a good binge but it might work for someone with a thick skin!
Biggest gut punch so far for sure. I think the two death cases (Nick and the girl) flowed well enough alongside each other. My only complaint is that those final scenes with the drowned girl's sister were so draining that the more light scene that followed with Willie just completely escaped my attention since I was still reeling from the previous narrative. I feel we're getting to a point (past the halfway mark!) where the show will probably up the ante gradually and am looking forward (while simultaneously sort of dreading) what places it'll go next still.
I stumbled into a profound Confluence of the Vibe Spheres: started watching THE PITT at the same time I'd started a rewatch of HOMICIDE LIFE ON THE STREET. Were it that the former had a GOAT title sequence as well, but I'd say the lineage is distinctly apparent even with 32 years (what the FUCK) between them. It's about as good as its forebear... which as praise goes, is fucking high. Incredible television
Also shouts to Garrus as the overdose case's dad. Great to see you can act with your face too! When he was talking low I was like "hey I know that voice"
To answer your question, no I had never heard of Freedom House. This isn't the first time the show used a patient to tell a story about Pittsburgh's history (Mr. Roger's painter), and I hope they keep doing it.
This was a phenomenal episode of television. The scenes involving Amber's sister were devastating, with each line of dialog adding another little gut punch. With Taylor Dearden's pure empathy making her the MVP of the episode.
Follow that up with the honor walk? Great watch. This show is becoming something special early on.
Taylor Dearden really is doing excellent work. When Breaking Bad was ending I said on Facebook that they should do a sequel series with a young adult Holly as the drug kingpin. That was a joke, but now that I've seen what Dearden can do I think Gilligan should get on it.
I didn’t know about Freedom House either, despite growing up nearby while it was active. I wonder if it was the compelling reason for setting the show in Pittsburgh. It really could take place in any decent-sized city, but Pittsburgh’s crucial and dramatically rich role in the history of emergency medicine probably influenced the decision to set it there.
Tough but good episode. It's hard to overstate how effective the pacing of The Pitt is, letting us live in moments with patients a lot longer than we usually do with medical shows. And what the finger patient says about Dr. Collins is true for the show as a whole: It's a good teacher. The way the seniors docs take time to explain things to the interns and by extension to us is so much more effective than everybody barking urgent orders at Dr. Carter back in the day.
Ah, but then there's still Santos. The clash of her personality and her stories with the tone and style of the rest of the show has become so egregious I'm not sure that it's not being used as intentional parody. "Brash young intern takes down drug-stealing doctor" is certainly a plot I can imagine on medical show, just not this medical show. Has Langdon actually done anything remotely suspicious? He seems to be basically a good doctor, with the worst you can say about him is that he was a dick to the ASD patient and is underestimating how much work a dog is going to be for his wife.
I don't know if the show is indicating Santos's instinct is a good one. In fact it's been pretty consistent on her characterization as someone who seeks control of situations very early in their development, someone who can focus in and be adroit under pressure (she snaps into rhythm much faster than either of the other students), but who is nonetheless knocked off balance easily after she's entered her zone... Worse, she compensates for mistakes by seeking a different measure of control, whatever's within reach, with the same rash certainty.
That comes out in big ways (making the bipap call without consulting anyone) and smaller ones (failing to read the room with her casual affect around patients, pointedly refusing to do so with peers of her same standing). When she cops to making a mistake, the poor reactions she gets are not *just* earned by her being generally abrasive. When she's confronted with failure, there isn't a sense of her desire to learn from it, only to get it in the open just long enough to move on.
She knows that she's green, but she's also extremely insecure about her capacity to earn respect, so she's trying to pretend she doesn't have to, that she arrived having already belonged. She either has respect or doesn't, is either fucking up or being praised. Which is why the (ostensibly) unconditional grace from Dr. Garcia is very, very bad for her. When Santos dropped the scalpel just after fucking up with the bipap, it was a one-two punch she visibly could not handle; in the aftermath of that, she was the most "deer in the headlights", checked-out panicked of any rookie on the show to date (with the possible exception of the fainting spell, of course); had they needed to rely on her in that moment, it would have been an even bigger disaster.
Personally I think she's setting herself up to bullrush into another very big, very public mistake, one from which she won't be able to keep her public composure. I don't even think she's consciously trying to get back at Dr. Langdon, or rather, she'd never admit that to herself. She's sublimating her panic, following the shortest path she can see to a point where her shame doesn't matter.
Anyway, Santos is absolutely dislikable, but she's not out of step with the show, or its realism. Having worked extensively in clinical settings, I can say she has... I wouldn't say a temperament that's GOOD for surgery specialty, but if she controlled her compensatory impulses, she would certainly be tolerated, if not encouraged, in those spaces. She's smart to seek it out, in that respect.
If we were betting on plot outcomes, I'd say that the person who's actually stealing* is the nurse with the glasses and the dread ponytail. There are some slight metatextual indications: First, it would provide some dramatic irony in that he was the first person that Santos talked to re: the possibility of illegal activity. But also, in this episode, he verbally volunteers to go to the dispensary.
It's not much, admittedly. The "law of economy of characters", which suggests that lines and screen time in a script directly translate to their plot importance, is demonstrably less applicable to scripts that are technically precise about complicated work and which aim for panoramic realism. But whatever the case, if theft is happening in the way Santos believes it to be, I'd be surprised if Langdon was revealed as the culprit.
* The way med theft is treated so far reminds me, strangely enough, of a realist bit in the spy fic of HOMELAND, or more recently THE AGENCY: moles and leaks in spy ops are basically accepted as things that will be happening more or less constantly, and therefore obsessing about them post-facto is unwise when you have other duties.
The black market trade in prescription drugs is so profoundly lucrative (and as Whitaker and McKay have illustrated, money can be tight even for doctors), every opening for theft is bound to be exploited in a hospital; as a clinician, all you can really do is do your part in protecting and tracking supplies, and leave investigations to professionals. Santos is trying to root out an allegedly complicated sleight of hand, and Garcia is right that it's not her job to do so. She ought to report her suspicions and get back to medicine! But she won't, because she's pathological.
You have more insight into this setting than I do, which is great. But for me what's at issue is the odd way that TV genre conventions are bumping up against reality. In most shows a character like Santos who is unlikable yet confident and who has the courage to challenge authority when it comes to rooting out abusive fathers and drugs thieves would be proven right, and we'd know early on that we're supposed to root for them to be proven right. But Santos just seems to be grasping at straws in all the ways you allude to in your other post. Maybe I'm just too aware of the genre conventions and I should take at face value that Santos's cowboy tactics are going to be just as self-destructive in the show as they would be 99.99% of the time in real life. But I still find the juxtaposition very odd, especially when every other character in the show seems to be on a different wavelength.
I’m curious if, when the series ends, anyone will attempt a realtime 15-hour watch from 7am to 10pm. Including MAX’s trailers, recaps, and credits, each episode runs about 50 minutes. So it looks like you can snatch 10-15 minutes between episodes for a snack/exercise/potty break. Anyone want to guess the emotional state of a newbie attempting such a marathon at 10:01pm?
This is why I made a goal to watch each episode as they come out! This episode was devastating but I have a week to recover. I personally don’t think this show would make a good binge but it might work for someone with a thick skin!
Biggest gut punch so far for sure. I think the two death cases (Nick and the girl) flowed well enough alongside each other. My only complaint is that those final scenes with the drowned girl's sister were so draining that the more light scene that followed with Willie just completely escaped my attention since I was still reeling from the previous narrative. I feel we're getting to a point (past the halfway mark!) where the show will probably up the ante gradually and am looking forward (while simultaneously sort of dreading) what places it'll go next still.
Incredible episode; the conclusion of Nick’s arc was so beautiful and moving.
This show has really got under my skin, I love it.
I stumbled into a profound Confluence of the Vibe Spheres: started watching THE PITT at the same time I'd started a rewatch of HOMICIDE LIFE ON THE STREET. Were it that the former had a GOAT title sequence as well, but I'd say the lineage is distinctly apparent even with 32 years (what the FUCK) between them. It's about as good as its forebear... which as praise goes, is fucking high. Incredible television
Also shouts to Garrus as the overdose case's dad. Great to see you can act with your face too! When he was talking low I was like "hey I know that voice"
Holy shit! I thought his voice sounded familiar, so cool that's him