I can’t imagine how hard it must be to be an actor on a medical show. You need to have authority and command over a staggering amount of jargon, faking years of training, while also grappling with constant high-stakes character drama. Those stakes get even crazier on the emergency shows I’ve been devouring. Between new episodes of The Pitt season two, I’ve been watching ER for the first time, and seeing Noah Wyle ping pong between two characters, traumatized but hyper-competent ER attending Dr. Robby in The Pitt and brand new third-year med student John Carter in ER, has been a fascinating experience.
The characters aren’t identical, but there is a clear throughline between Carter and Dr. Robby. Both try to be empathetic caregivers even in the frantic, understaffed emergency room environment. Wyle also brings an engaging fragility to the characters. You can’t help but worry for Carter, with the more jaded Dr. Robby looking like a cautionary tale, trying desperately to stop his repressed trauma from erupting by staying in constant motion.
The two shows famously share creative DNA, with former ER staff writer R. Scott Gemmill creating and showrunning The Pitt and ER showrunner John Wells serving as an executive producer and director. Wyle himself has even stepped into a major creative role on The Pitt this time around. Along with being an executive producer, Wyle has written a couple of episodes throughout both seasons and directed the excellent recent episode, “12:00 P.M.,” which could get Katherine LaNasa a second Emmy win.
The Carter Continuum
I thought I’d just throw on a few episodes of ER and then move on, but I’ve been unexpectedly sucked into this behemoth 15-season drama. There are occasional schmaltzy or poorly-aged episodes, but the first two seasons have generally really wowed me. The ensemble cast bounces off each other nicely, all balancing personal baggage with the relentless pressure of the ER, and the writers do good work in immersing you in the Cook County Hospital setting by extending that dimensionality to the nurses, clerks, EMTs, and patients.
Wyle ends up being a great part of the show’s early ensemble. His exuberance is a foil to his mentor, Dr. Peter Benton, a talented but sometimes callous surgical resident. As Carter spends more time in the ER, you do see cracks form in his kindness, like in the season two episode “True Lies,” where he shirks the responsibility to tell an elderly man that his wife will likely be dying in the hospital, not making a full recovery like Carter had previously assured him.
Carter isn’t the sole beacon of morality in the hospital, but his development is interesting, since he enters the world with the audience. It’s encouraging to see Carter gain confidence and skills since he began his journey so green, but that morphs into toxic competitiveness as he vies for a highly sought-after surgical residency. A great part of both of these shows is that they don’t treat their doctors and nurses as infallible healing heroes; they’re doing their best in a messed-up system and trying not to lose sight of why they signed up for the job in the first place.
From Surgical Student to Traumatized Attending
Dr. Robby’s first scene in The Pitt season two is a doozy—he looks cool as hell commuting to work astride a motorcycle tailing behind an ambulance, WITH NO HELMET ON, I might add!! You can tell he deeply cares about the job and people he both treats and works with, but he’s become jaded by the systemic limitations of American hospitals, a never-ending stream of patients, and unresolved trauma from the hell that the COVID-19 pandemic wrought on people and healthcare workers all over the world.
Even though he can’t treat every patient with undivided attention or give himself enough grace to confront and heal his own internal struggles, Dr. Robby’s determination to keep some humanizing traditions alive, like the moments of silence after patients’ passings, shows a glimpse of the bright core still within him. Seeing Whitaker pass on the moment of silence tradition to new med students in the second season proves it left a positive impression.
Dr. Robby and some of his peers really are balancing on the razor’s edge and still doing the best they can for the patients coming in. We first met Robby’s friend and fellow attending, Dr. Abbot, standing past the safety rail on the roof of the hospital, working through the loss of a fellow veteran who was killed by a drunk driver. Robby got him off the edge with some gallows humor: “If you jump on my shift, that’s just rude, man,” but the warmth between them was clear, if unspoken.
In many ways, Dr. Robby is the pinnacle of what John Carter could become. He’s a great leader and doctor who shines in the ER with his creativity and ability to improvise under pressure, but it’s unclear how many more good years Dr. Robby has at this relentless pace. Hopefully, he decides to start wearing a helmet before going on his big motorcycle trip. As for Carter, I’m excited to keep watching ER and see Wyle’s character grow up onscreen. While the constant tension could be bad for my blood pressure, I’m thoroughly enjoying my double medical show ritual, and truly won’t know what to do with myself if I end up being caught up on both.
Image Credits
The Pitt season 2 photos: Warner Bros. Television/HBO Max
ER cast photo: Warner Bros. Television
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