One of the biggest new TV hits of 2025 was HBO Max’s The Pitt, an American medical drama. Given its central star, Noah Wyle, and its creator, R. Scott Gemmill, both having worked on Michael Crichton’s medical drama classic ER, the ER parallels were unmistakable. The show was praised for a great many things, including a focus on realism, its 24-esque real-time season formula, and for how it felt like a return to a TV-season model that many of us are nostalgic for. Only eight months after the final episode of season one aired, the second season debuted in January 2026. It was a quick turnaround for the show, which, as the second season was being rolled out, had awards from multiple ceremonies thrown its way. Although the second season took some bold swings concerning challenging our relationship with its central character, the second season was largely more of the same (albeit with new cases and storylines), and, in the case of a television show executed at this high a level, that was mostly a welcome sight. It wasn’t without some notable missteps, though, and some of these were directly tied to the nature of its formula.