The Pitt

 

I binge-watched the 15 episode first season of The Pitt in 3 days. Not normally a fan of medical dramas, this one hooked me. The plot was interesting. I wanted to keep watching. The characters were well developed. I wanted to see what happened to the. The tension was high. I watched the last 5 episodes back-to-back. I had to get to the end in order to fully relieve the tension that had been built. 

I highly recommend The Pitt on Max. There’s a lot to appreciate in this 15-episode season, which follows a group of doctors through a single 15-hour shift in the ER. The show juggles a large cast and constant activity, capturing the chaos of the emergency room without ever losing narrative clarity. Despite the fast pace and high stakes, it’s ultimately a strong character-driven drama. The show knows how to make the most of both the intense moments and the quieter, more reflective ones.

My only criticism is that the writing felt clunky at times. They weren’t frequent, but they stuck out. The highs far outweighed the lows, but I do feel that the script could have been tightened up. 

The Pitt is emotional and sometimes difficult to watch. I gave me a greater appreciation for the challenges our healthcare workers face. It allowed me to consider the moral and ethical decisions that have to constantly be made while they save people’s lives. They are under constant pressure. Why do these doctors and nurses even do the work they do? That question is asked in several different ways during the course of the season. 

I wouldn’t recommend binge-watching The Pitt the way I did. There’s so much to take in, and I didn’t give myself time to process any of it—I just kept moving onto the next episode. The end felt like a long exhale. Now, I keep thinking back to certain scenes and character choices, trying to make sense of them in hindsight. I wish I had given myself the space to reflect as I went. But, it was difficult to step out once I was in. Really great show! 

Worst Severance Ever!

This past Friday, we received episode 8 of the second season of Severance. I don’t have to reflect for too long to be able to say this was the worst episode of Severance we have ever seen.

Why didn’t I like it?

I think it was this whole idea that Harmony Cobel invented the entire severance process. I don’t know what the point of that was. The severance process seems extremely complicated and intricate. It made sense to me that only a giant corporation with the resources of Lumon would be able to makesomething like this a reality. The concept that a single individual (from Saltlick) was able to convieve of this thing… I don’t like it.

Overall this was kind of a nothing episode. There was maybe 10 minutes worth of plot advancement delivered in a 40 minute episode. It just wasn’t good.

I loved Severance season 1. Since season 2 started I have been skeptical of the plotting. I have lost faith that the show is taking me on a satisfying journey. The revelation that all of the severance concepts we know from the show were contained in a notebook from the mind of Mrs. Cobel further undermines my confidence. I hope season 2 finishes strong, but I am not feeling great after episode 8.

Gimme All That Goggins

This past week I finished reading The Last Unicorn. I don’t typically read fantasy, but this book was highly rated and available on Libby through my local library. Quick read — suprisingly full of existential angst for a book about unicorns and wizards I liked the melancholy vibe.

Next up was We Solve Murders ¹. I’m a big fan of the Thursday Murder Club book series, and this one is just as fun. I’m already halfway through and loving it.

Of course, I had to catch the episode of Severance on Apple TV+. I also watched the first 2 episodes of The White Lotus Season 3. I really enjoy both shows, but — hot take — The White Lotus is better. It has such an interesting vibe and style. It nails that weird, heightened energy of being on vacation.

When you are on vacation there is this weird excited energy to everything. You’ve stepped out of your normal routing. You feel like a different person. You look at everything with a little more positivity. The show captures that feeling. I like it. It is fun to watch.

I liked the first two seasons², but I wasn’t hyped for them the way I am for Season 3. The reason? Walton Goggins. I think he makes everything better³. He would have been fascinating in either of the first two seasons. His character in this one is a bit of a buzzkill so far, but I’m excited to see where it goes.

Also, today marks the return of one of my favorite Netflix series—Full Swing. I love golf! As long as Netflix keeps making this show, I’ll keep my account active and (probably) won’t share my password. Haven’t had time to start it yet, but I’ll definitely be done by the weekend.

Another thing on my radar: the new Peacock documentary Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy. A couple of years ago, I read his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, finishing it just weeks before he passed. No idea if the documentary is any good, but I’ll definitely be watching.

I think that wraps it up this week. Remember not to use too many big words. Perchance you may colloquially employ…

1: Again, on Libby through my library.

2: I definitely preferred the first season over the second.

3: Justified might be one of my favorite series of all time.

Back on the Severed Floor

This week I watched almost all of the first season of Dexter. I had tried to watch it a long time ago and it didn’t take. I found it pretty easy to get into this time around. I have already moved onto season 2. It is a show where the brain can be turned off and you can kinda just let it wash over you.

Instead of watching an obscure show from the mid-2000’s I had considered binge watching the first season of Severance while I am in the midst of watching the second season. I still may do it.

It has been awesome to watch the new episode of Severance on Apple TV+ every Friday. The show has great writing and looks amazing. This season has been all about vibe… hasn’t been a lot of plot to hang onto. It lacks a feeling of forward momentum. I don’t remember the first season feeling sluggish, but I also binge-watched that. The ability to watch all episodes at once really changes one’s perception of the pace of the show. I’m surprised Severance has managed to become so widely popular. It is easy to see how viewers could get bored with the pace.

With Severance there are some really large-scale questions that need to be answered. We still don’t really know where it is going or what story it is trying to tell. There are a lot of interesting ideas to explore. I have latched onto the overall concept of the work persona vs the home persona. I believe we all create separate personalities to suit work life and home life. This doesn’t mean we are different people, but we accentuate different aspects of our personality depending on the situation.

Severance is making that disconnect literal. I think it is clever how they have conceived of a way to have the workers inhabit the same physical bodies but have created completely different identities. It is interesting that the innies and outies have awareness of one another, but no shared knowledge. What would it be like to be an innie? That is wild to me.

The concept of Mark S.’s re-integration is going to be interesting for us to see how those separate personas try to coexist with one another… if that is in fact what is going to happen. Mark S. is going to have to figure out how to be like all of the workers who go to a corporate job every day. Mark S’s situation is more complicated, but I think it will be compelling to see him deal with that challenge.

I have worked at a corporation for almost 20 years. My sense is that over time I have been able to be more of my authentic self during the workday. I have proven my knowledge and quality of work. I have formed relationships with people This has created an environment of confidence and safety to be myself at my job. I think of it as a positive that my work-self and home-self have merged more into the same person.

The other interpretation would be that my work-self has grown and come to define more of my “true” identity. Work has consumed so much of my time and mental capacity that my home-self has morphed to be more like my work self. That explanation feels less positive. I suppose they both are true to some extent. It is very easy to think about attributes of my own “innie” & “outie”. I can identify how they are the same and how they are different. I typically come away from the show thinking myself.

I am seeing a lot of speculation online about what it all means. What are they doing with the numbers? What is Cold Harbor? Why are there goats? Are they cloning people?

I do think we will get answers to some of those questions. However, I have felt that the point of the show is that these office workers are sitting at their desks for hours a day doing something completely banal and meaningless. Something they don’t understand the value of. That is the joke. That is the commentary on corporate America. If everything they are doing has some grand meaning it will undermine the message in my mind.

I am not expecting to get a satisfying ending to this story.

Dexter Season 1

This week I watched the entire first season of Dexter. I had never watched an episode up to this point. 

I liked the show. I was engaged right away. It was interesting and fun. I also think it was really silly. There were a lot of plot contrivances to make the story work. It wasn't as "prestige" as I expected it to be. I suppose all that doesn't matter when you have a compelling character, decent writing, and an interesting story. 

It seemed a lot older than I expected. I mean, it is old... I guess the last 19 years have gone by a lot faster than I realized. I thought the show would look more modern. I recently watched the first couple seasons of The Wire. On that show I expected the age. Even though they came out only 4 years apart, I think of Dexter as a much more modern show. 

The mid 2000's were the heyday for shows like CSI and Criminal Minds. When I started watching Dexter I immediately felt like I was watching one of those shows. It has more blood, nudity, and bad language... but overall Dexter felt a lot more similar to a prime-time crime procedural than I expected. This surprised me the most. I thought it would do more to elevate itself. 

I am planning to keep watching. I've heard it gets better. I'm interested to see what they do with the character now that the back-story has been told. Those plot mechanics to get that story told is what made things awkward. I expect there to be more freedom going forward.