The Pitt just concluded its second season, and I have rather mixed feelings about the show. Each season takes place in an emergency room in Pittsburgh over fifteen hours in “real time” although there are a lot of cheats and quick cuts so it isn’t truly real time; I guess they figure most viewers won’t notice.

If you haven’t watched it, here are quick descriptions of some of the characters to help you navigate through it.

This is Dr. “Robby”. That’s short for his real last name, which is Robinavitch, but everyone calls him Dr. “Robby”. He’s very empathetic and compassionate with the patients; not so much with his fellow ER associates.

The Pitt was originally supposed to be a continuation of the TV series ER in which Noah Wyle played an ER doctor, but that show was created by the loathsome Michael Crichton. Crichton was famous for getting rich by recycling other people’s work. For example, ER was a rehash of the TV show St. Elsewhere, merely shorn of its religious/atheistic conflicts and confined to the emergency room, but the first few seasons simply reworked a lot of the St. Elsewhere storylines. Crichton was also famous for being an unabashed racist and global climate change denier (that’s where the “loathsome” comes from). Anyway, he died a few years ago.

When Noah Wyle and the other creators of The Pitt went to Crichton’s wife to get permission to do a new series based on ER, that permission was refused, so they tinkered with the concept, moved the location, changed all the characters, and got rid of all vestiges of its ER heritage except the emergency room location. Crichton’s wife sued. I guess she got infected with the loathsome gene.

But I digress.

This is Dr. Langdon. He made one teeny, tiny little error in judgement and Dr. Robby, who used to be his friend, will not let him forget it.

This is Georgia W. Trump. She’s the one who discovered Dr. Langdon’s teeny, tiny little error and she thinks she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize or something. Actually, Georgia W. Trump is not really her name, but she likes to harass her colleagues by giving them annoying nicknames, and whom do we know that likes to do that? She’s a truly despicable person. I keep waiting for a helicopter or something equally huge to fall on her.

Whitaker suffers from Stockholm Syndrome or perhaps he’s merely a masochist. No matter how much that contemptible woman tortures him, he keeps coming back for more. I think he has a giant Kick Me sign on his back. He keeps losing things, too.

Victoria suffers from some unknown incurable malady. She finds it nearly impossible to close her mouth. I feel sorry for her.

These are sisters. No one can tell them apart. I think it’s the glasses. One of them has a boyfriend and the other one is jealous of her because of it. Sibling rivalry.

And finally Nurse Dana. She’s the one who keeps the Pitt running. Even when she gets socked in the nose.

Oh, I almost forgot Nurse Jessie. He’s another brave nurse, and he meets a terrible fate for trying to protect a patient.

I’ll end on a happy note. This is Dr. Shen. He doesn’t get into arguments with anyone, he doesn’t make up nicknames, he doesn’t steal meds from patients, he doesn’t make mistakes; he’s simply a good doctor who does his job well. No wonder he doesn’t get any good story lines.