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- [00:00]
Rob Harvilla
Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 songs that explain the 90s. Except we did 120 songs and now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The strokes, rihanna, jlo, kanye.
- [00:17]
Joanna Robinson
Sure.
- [00:18]
Rob Harvilla
And now the show is called 60 songs that explain the nineties. Colon, the 2000s. Wow. That's too long a title for me to say. Anything else right now, Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s. Cole in the 2000s preference, preferably on Spotify.
- [00:36]
Joanna Robinson
This episode is brought to you by Coffee Mate. I love a good crossover, especially when it's with a show you love. This time the crossover isn't with another character, but with Coffee Mate. Coffee Mate has collaborated with HBO's the White Lotus to bring us two tropically inspired limited time only flavors, Pina colada and Thai iced coffee flavored creamers. And as a coffee fanatic, I can't wait to try them. All right. Thai iced coffee in my coffee. Pina colada in coffee. I am adventurous when it comes to new flavors, but this sounds truly different. I'm picturing something tropical and refreshing, like a beachside cocktail, but with a coffee twist. Definitely curious to see how it all comes together. Let's try it. Mmm. The Thai iced coffee is amazing. It tastes like like an authentic Thai iced coffee with that, you know, the condensed milk sweetness to it. I was very skeptical about the pina colada, but it's surprisingly delicious. The coconut and pineapple notes make it feel like a vacation in a cup. Perfect for sipping while watching the latest episode of HBO's original series, the White Lotus Coffee Mates. The White Lotus flavors are only available for a limited time, so try them now and stream HBO's original series on Max.
- [01:51]
Rob Mahoney
This episode is brought to you by Lincoln. There's something buzzy in the air. Spring is coming, the mood is shifting and new journeys are beginning. Say goodbye to the winter blues and experience the revitalizing qualities of driving a Lincoln. Everything about a Lincoln is designed to invigorate our senses. And the Lincoln Spring sales event. It's happening right now. Step outside and visit your local lincoln retailer or lincoln.com to find some seriously mood enhancing offers on current and past Lincoln models. Learn more@lincoln.com.
- [02:30]
Joanna Robinson
Hello. Welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast feed. I'm Joanna Robinson.
- [02:34]
Rob Mahoney
I'm Rob Mahoney and we're here with.
- [02:36]
Joanna Robinson
You for the next 15 hours to cover the first two. No, I'm just kidding. We're here for the next hour to cover the first two episodes of the HBO Max series the Pit. This is a double premiere, so just, you know, if you watched one episode and didn't know that they dropped two, we'll be covering both. So that's your spoiler warning for the Pit. Rob Mahoney. Yes, as always, prestige tvpotify.com if you have Pit thoughts. You know, we'll repeat it again later. What is the Pit and why should or should not people be watching it?
- [03:11]
Rob Mahoney
Hmm? I mean, the Pit itself is what? Hell? Our descent into the underworld.
- [03:18]
Joanna Robinson
The inferno. Okay, all right.
- [03:20]
Rob Mahoney
The absolute inferno. The Pit. For the purposes of this show, I would say specifically the ER portion of the hospital at. Do we know what the broader Pittsburgh General like?
- [03:31]
Joanna Robinson
It's a Pittsburgh trauma medical hospital.
- [03:33]
Rob Mahoney
Thank you.
- [03:34]
Joanna Robinson
Ptmh just rolls off the tongue rolls.
- [03:38]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, I think it's just a lovely place to spend some time with an assortment of doctors and med students as they deal with just really whatever trauma or issue or general larger societal concern happens to roll through the front door.
- [03:54]
Joanna Robinson
This is a 15 episode, 15ish hours, like 50 minute episode. So we get a little like 10 minute wiggle room.
- [04:02]
Rob Mahoney
That's the smoking break.
- [04:04]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, there you go. That's the flashback to Covid. This is a 15 hours in the overnight shift essentially of an ER at a trauma medical hospital in Pittsburgh. It is from a few of the folks who made er, so we'll talk about that in a second. And it stars Noah Wiley, famously one of the stars of er. So it is a sort of. It is so much a quasi ER sequel spinoff that Michael Crichton's widow sued a.
- [04:41]
Rob Mahoney
You know what? No, it's not er. It's 100% not er.
- [04:47]
Joanna Robinson
So, you know, we're. We're in Pittsburgh, we're not in Chicago. It's definitely not different.
- [04:53]
Rob Mahoney
Yep. But let's say no, Wiley has a beard. Now, it could not be the same.
- [04:58]
Joanna Robinson
Guy, could not possibly be any, any different than er. But we are going to talk about a little bit about ER and just sort of in a historical context kind of thing. And it makes me feel like dust in my bones to say historical context in er. But our beloved producer Kai Grady is. Is a good deal younger than us and like, is. Is very helpful in reminding me that not everyone grew up watching er and so I just wanted to like, give you a little, or give anyone who's listening like a little bit of context. So Landman, a show that has been on our Minds and in our hearts.
- [05:34]
Rob Mahoney
Near and dear to your heart.
- [05:36]
Joanna Robinson
Certainly across several podcasts, Landman is like, being touted as this, like, cultural phenomenon. The monoculture's back, baby, and Landman's at the head of it and all this sort of stuff like that. So they are bringing in, as far as I could tell, with some light Googling, around 15 million households, sort of, you know, streaming era. So, like over the course of the week, 15 million households are tuning into Landman. And that is just like amazing numbers. Incredible. ER got 30 million households in its first season, and I kind of peaked at 35 million households. ER ran for 15 seasons. 331 episodes of ER exist in the world. And just in season one, just to like remind people what a phenomenon it was, season one, it was nominated for 23 Emmys. Every single cast member was nominated.
- [06:29]
Rob Mahoney
That's incredible.
- [06:30]
Joanna Robinson
It won directing, it won writing, it like Juliana Margulies won. Like it. And then like, it won, you know, best drama in its second season. It was like it had a grip on everyone from 94 on. And then obviously it like sort of waned a bit as it went on. It's obviously not the first medical procedural. Those existed before Saint El Square, China beach, et cetera, but it definitely changed the game and was just this massive in terms of setting something in the R, which both of these shows are. It changes the medical procedure from like a soapy workplace drama, which, you know, oftentimes something like Grey's Anatomy is to like a constant adrenaline pumping sort of experience. Er. The pilot, the two hour pilot of ER was actually a Michael Crichton film script that they just sort of like changed slightly, hence the pending litigation and made. And Michael Crichton was a, you know, was a, was a medical student if. And so this is based on. So Noah Wylie is playing John Carter in er, and that is basically the Michael Crichton like insert into like what it was like to be a brand new, scrubbed faced, fresh eyed, you know, med student coming into a jaded metropolis. Er, which we get in this show and this time, no, Wiley is our sort of grizzled, you know, head of the department. Rob Mahoney, Joanna Robinson, what is your experience with medical procedural and how do you feel about a medical procedural of sorts coming to HBO Max?
- [08:15]
Rob Mahoney
I would say my experience is pretty scant. It's mostly tropey. It's mostly dropping in occasionally on shows like er, which I was not a dedicated watcher of by any stretch of the imagination. You can't avoid these things. If you have been watching television regularly. But I would say my enjoyment most of medical oriented TV has been more on the parody side, more like the children's hospital side of this spectrum. So I'm enjoying getting in the lane in earnest and taking this thing at face value and engaging with it on its terms. Because this is not a genre that is explicitly for me. That said, I love a ride, I love a roller coaster. I do love the adrenaline pumping that you're talking about, not just with er, but in this case with the Pit. Like the mechanisms here, I think can work for a lot of different people. It's kind of undeniable once you start rolling gurneys into room and shouting a lot, that you're just going to be interested in what's happening.
- [09:08]
Joanna Robinson
It's funny, I was comparing the medical jargon in this because I rewatched the ER pilot and I was watching the first steps of the Pit. I was like, I feel like they've gotten bolder with the depth of the medical jargon that they're willing to babble at each other inside of this. Whereas in ER it was just like, intubate, push several CCs of saline. There's just a few things that you would say in er, and I feel like we got the whole gamut of possibilities inside of this show. But, yeah, there are a few sort of signposts of the genre that are existent in ER and this. But once again, for legal purposes, this is not a sequel, but definitely not er.
- [09:52]
Rob Mahoney
Definitely not a reboot of VR that was then quickly repurposed into a different show. That didn't happen.
- [09:56]
Joanna Robinson
Don't worry. It didn't happen. Don't worry about it. John Wells is here. You know, a TV legend made ER and West Wing and a bunch of other stuff, and is also here. But it's not an ER sequel. Don't worry about it. But there's a few things that are quite helpful inside of a medical procedural like this that, you know, are easy to help us understand the world. The concept of the brand new. It's their first day medical students coming into the department, so they get, you know, exposition dumped on them as they're toured around.
- [10:28]
Rob Mahoney
Well, they also do a lot of dumping. To be fair, everyone is exposition dumping in this show.
- [10:32]
Joanna Robinson
Okay? That's different. The personal life exposition dumping is, I think, actually the by far the weakest part of the show. And we will talk about that in a second.
- [10:39]
Rob Mahoney
I don't know, when I walk into a room, I try to tell people one relevant detail about me. That will define my entire personality. That's usually what I lead with.
- [10:47]
Joanna Robinson
I got a kid. You know what I mean? And as a mother of children, I just wanted to say that to you. That was the worst one. Okay. The challenge that the Pit faces with its high concept, which is 15 hours inside of a shift, which is different legally and definitely different from error. Here are some challenges, and we haven't watched beyond the first two episodes, but here are some potential challenges here. Will it feel claustrophobic to be just inside of the hospital? We got up to the roof in episode one, but we're not like, as we are in er, you know, riding the L or, you know, going across the street for a cup of coffee or whatever else the case may be. We're not going home with these people necessarily, is my assumption. Will it feel claustrophobic to be inside of. How much can a character arc over 15 hours of a shift versus an entire season of television that takes place over weeks, months, years, et cetera? And then also, this flashback device, which we get at the very end of the first episode, which is our main character, played by Noah Wylie, has a sort of traumatic flashback to Covid era and what it was like in the ER And. And we hear. We get the. The. The little drops of information about a colleague who died four years ago. So what. What is that story and how will that unfold in flashback? As sort of like a pressure valve release, potentially, for being locked into 15 hours with a group of people. Any thoughts about that? About, like, this high concept and how you feel? You know, obviously we shows exist, like, 24 movies exist, like, go. You know, like, we've been in this sort of like, ticking clock environment before in our lives. But, like, how does this work for you?
- [12:35]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, I think it's a huge reason why this probably isn't a binge drop and why it doesn't make sense as a binge show. Like, week to week, you can go out in your real life and come back to the hospital for an hour and feel okay about that. And I think that depressurization is gonna be a really important part of the experience of watching this show, not just. Cause it is in these very confined settings, are not even hospital rooms so much as, like, hospital beds surrounded by curtains in which all of these cases are stacked on top of each other. You need some relief from that. In terms of the time and space as far as the character arcing, I think my counter to that would be that this does not seem to be a show that is terribly interested in character and maybe shouldn't be. I think ultimately the architecture is what drives it and they are trying and I would say ultimately not succeeding very much to this point in peppering in some character details, some existing relationships, some new relationships. They're trying to tease things out between these people as they go about making their rounds. I don't think that's what's drawing this show. I don't think that's what's gonna be pulling people in and certainly not what keeps people watching week to week. I almost think about it more of like the Pit to me in terms of like balancing character and case has a lot more in common with like Law and Order than it does a character driven drama.
- [13:49]
Joanna Robinson
Okay. On the one hand, yes. And I see what you're saying. And we should note that R. Scott Gemmel is the, is the technical showrunner of the show and he worked on er. Yes, but also JAG and ncis. So he's like very much a procedural guy. The difference between the Pit and even. The difference between the Pit and ER even is these cases are going to be bleeding. We're not just case of the weaking.
- [14:16]
Rob Mahoney
No, not at all.
- [14:17]
Joanna Robinson
These things. And we're, we're even dropping some things. Like in the first two episodes we meet a troubled youth who wants to hurt people. And I would, it would not be who's, who's the son of a woman who came in and faked being ill so that she could get her son like a psych consult essentially. And like, I would not be surprised if this sounds so jaded of me. But like, and, and, and I'm not sure that I want it at all. But like, if we got a mass shooting from that character, like, you know, they fail to track him down. And if we got that as a case later in the season of like his victims come in or something like that, I feel like those are the long arc bridges that they're trying to build. There's certainly like, we have a character who is like secretly pregnant. That is something that is going to be, you know, percolating throughout the season. We've got a character who's related to an important member of staff in the hospital. Two it sounds, I was, was texting with CR a little bit about the Pit and like asking if he had watched it and what he thought. And like, we didn't talk that much about it and he will certainly go into it on the watch and we don't want to like, you know, double dip on anything. But the, the one thing he Said to me is like, it's missing Doug and Carol, which is George Clooney and Juliana Margulies's characters from er. And that's what made me want to rewatch the pilot, because I was like, what do they do with Doug and Carol, these two, you know, star crossed lovers, essentially, in the, in the er, in the first episode. And like, famously spoilers for er. Julianna Margulies plays this, like, you know, beautiful and popular nurse who's just like sort of the life of the party for the first half the episode. She goes, she goes home, she attempts suicide. And so she's brought in. So it's like one of those, like one of our own brought in as the patient for the back half of this two hour pilot. She was supposed to die in the pilot. Her character was so popular, a real Jesse Pinkman situation, that they just brought her back and she became a co lead on the show. But the fact that this could not be more personal, the ER pilot, this could not be more about. The ER pilot opens with Doug Ross, played by George Clooney, coming in drunk, and they have to hook him up to sailing and sober him up and all that sort of stuff like that. So our personal lives are so enmeshed in that show in a way that this, to your point, is much more. Go, go, go, go. Case, case, case, case. There's way more characters, way more staff to keep track of. I was having, you know, to constantly consult my notes to track all the people that we meet in these first two episodes. Do you think there's a chance of overwhelm when it comes to, like, all the medical students and residents, et cetera, et cetera?
- [17:13]
Rob Mahoney
I think so, but I also think it's part of the design of the show is that everything that's happening, character and otherwise, is supposed to feel overwhelming. And ultimately, in the show's defense, I think this is why some of the characterizations are as simple and straightforward as they are. It's just gonna be hard, especially in the early episodes, to internalize four different things about one character. And so it's easy at this point. It's like, oh, this is the prodigy, this is the single mom, this is the farm boy, right? Like, you can put people into these boxes very, very quickly and give them some identifying characteristics. And for now, I think that's enough. Two episodes in, mostly because I think the cases themselves are really interesting and pretty compelling. And I am amazed at how much they have to burn through in a single episode, much less two, and how they are Possibly I say this from like a writer's room perspective. Gonna be able to keep up with the uncompromising and unrelenting pace it means to work in one of these specific ers in these two episodes. Here is a semi complete list of some of the cases that are walking in the door.
- [18:15]
Joanna Robinson
The classic Rob Mahoney moment. Let's have it.
- [18:19]
Rob Mahoney
A woman whose foot was run over by a train. And the guy who fell and hit his head trying to save her. The teen with the fentanyl overdose. A guy in a bike accident with a broken face. And I have to say, as far as the gnarly medical part of the show, and I wanna circle back to that, the facial reset really, really got me. Did not enjoy watching that. You have an older man with sepsis. You have a homeless man who is DOA but brings a bunch of rats with him. You have a mom who made herself sick, as you alluded to Joe, to get help for her son, psychologically speaking. You have this dude with a gallstone that's not just a gallstone. You have a workman who cut into a live wire. You have a 4 year old who ate weed gummies. You have a triathlete whose heart is giving out. You have a dude who woke up with a shock collar gorilla glued to his neck. And I'm sure that there's more that I'm forgetting. And this is two episodes.
- [19:05]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I forgot about the shock collar guy. Great.
- [19:11]
Rob Mahoney
Very good.
- [19:12]
Joanna Robinson
Great one, great one. The advantage. Great shout to all of that. The medical procedural as like a way to give us a bunch of little short stories, a little look inside the lives of, you know, the working men and women of Pittsburgh is undeniable, delectable. And especially in the er, when they come in with just like strain things that they've ingested or have, you know, impaled themselves on or et cetera, et cetera, whatever the case may be.
- [19:47]
Rob Mahoney
And it makes it so like a natural mechanism to juggle all those stories too, because you just have like Noah Wylie's character as a chief attending making his rounds. Like, this is literally his job to check in on all of these stories over a short period of time.
- [20:00]
Joanna Robinson
This is one thing. And like, I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm not a doctor. Um, but I did, I did used to watch. I did used to watch ER with my medical professional parents. And they were just like constantly like, what the shit is this? Like, they were, they were. But a question I have about this and prestige tvpotify.com if you were a medical professional and you have insight into this is like, everything I know about an ER I learned from the television show er. And it seems wild to me that Noah Wiley's character, Dr. Robbie Rabinowitz, is across all of these cases. You know what I mean? There's, like, there's echelons of, you know, there's attendings, there's residents, there's medical students, you know, like, blah, blah. There's, like, layers. The fact that he, as head of the unit is just sort of like, across all of it at all times. In er, at least there was, like, a different echelon where there were, like, a few people at the top. And so the fact that he is carrying the show. And by the way, I think Noah Wiley's great.
- [21:11]
Rob Mahoney
He's quite good in this.
- [21:12]
Joanna Robinson
I think he's really good in this. I think especially the moments in which he has to, like, give news to, you know, people about their loved ones or interact with people about their loved ones. He's really conveying, like, I've seen it all and yet maintained my humanity. I'm not jaded by this yet. I thought that worked quite well. But, yeah, it was. It just like. And again, I don't. I don't know how the fictional Pittsburgh Medical Trauma Hospital works, but that just seemed like that's the only thing that stretched, you know, credulity for me. I could accept the rats and everything else, but this is, like, one thing where I was like, they don't. He has to be across all of it, all the time, for 15 hours. Is that what's happening?
- [22:03]
Rob Mahoney
I mean, yes and no, because he does have his senior residents who are kind of, you know, the. The level of bureaucracy below him in terms of the overall org chart here, who are. Yes, also over these cases. And he's kind of swooping in mostly when they need help or it gets a little too big for their dealings or need a consultation or need an opinion on these things. But I do think the show is very much engaging with not just these cases, not just its attempts at the personal dramas of these characters, but also gesturing somewhat at the broader complications of running a hospital in the year 2025. You know, we get some extended sequences about, like, the importance of metrics in these spaces and how, you know, in real life, hospitals are basically, like, tailoring the entire way that they operate to satisfy these metrics in lots of different ways. You also get this extended conversation about how understaffed they are, about how there are beds to take. It's just they literally won't hire enough nurses to help them manage them and help occupy them at this point in time. And so when you open the show with, you know, Sean Hadassey makes a brief appearance in the first episode as basically the guy.
- [23:07]
Joanna Robinson
I'm sure he'll be back, I would hope, either in flashbacks or he'll clock in like you know, in the back half of the season for his, I.
- [23:14]
Rob Mahoney
Could see it just be premiere finale honestly, where he, he shows up to spell Noah Wiley at the end and they, you know, do they dap it up and he's on his way like good morning, Ralph.
- [23:25]
Joanna Robinson
Good morning.
- [23:25]
Rob Mahoney
Okay, well he is a John Wells guy and so if it's like this is calling in a favor for a, you know, a good, a good working actor to come play a part that he's maybe like a little overqualified for, I could see that.
- [23:36]
Joanna Robinson
But surely, I mean like he's connected to the flashback plot line which surely we're going to keep revisiting. Right? We have to see him in the flashback. Right.
- [23:43]
Rob Mahoney
Well, I don't know if you heard, but it is the anniversary of Dr. Adamson's. Dr. Adamson's death.
- [23:50]
Joanna Robinson
Talk about it.
- [23:51]
Rob Mahoney
If you don't remember, don't worry, someone will follow you into the bathroom to remind you that it is the anniversary of Dr. Adamson's death.
- [23:57]
Joanna Robinson
Oh, tread lightly. On the one hand I agree with you. On the other hand, I think it's kind of a trope staple of the medical procedural that you have the administrator who's like, I'm here to talk to you about the business of running a hospital. It is interesting. I was interested comparing the ER pilot to this one. Like how much are we, you know, we have such a different relationship to our informed state about the healthcare system and its fuck up edness. I'm not saying that it wasn't fucked up in the 90s, but I think we as a, this is not controversial. We as a country are much angrier and much more informed about how fucked up it is. And so I was curious, curious how much that would be reflected inside of this show. But re watching the pilot, they're like, they're listening to the radio and they're talking about like health insurance and the uninsured and all this sort of stuff. So I don't know, it's, it's, it's a, it's been a long problem here in the these here United States.
- [24:59]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah.
- [24:59]
Joanna Robinson
I'll be interested to see how much this administrator character and this bureaucracy angle plays a part over the next 13 hours of this particular shift.
- [25:09]
Rob Mahoney
One thing in her defense, she seems to be the only person who is appropriately bothered by the number of rats that are now running around the ER from the moment that the four rats pop out of this guy's like, clothes, I would say Dr. Collins, who's the senior resident who's pregnant. She is like, hell, no, she's out. I'm not dealing with this. She's out. Everyone else, Dr. Robby in particular, is like, yeah, another day in the office. My guy, you gotta get these rats out of here.
- [25:37]
Joanna Robinson
He's seen it all. And I don't know if you know that. Okay, can I give you high point, low point of leaving Noah Wylie aside, who is the star power of the show? Whether or not you would say Noah Wylie is a star, he is a star. If you're making an er, He's a television star. He's a television star. And so he's the anchor of this show. He's across everything, as we said. Do you have a high point, low point of any of the other characters that we met in these first two hours?
- [26:07]
Rob Mahoney
This is tough because it's like low point as a character. Dr. McKay, who is the single mom who I just called Dr. Bangs as I'm watching this show.
- [26:16]
Joanna Robinson
Aggressive bang situation.
- [26:18]
Rob Mahoney
Very aggressive bangs. I actually think, like Fiona Duraf, who's playing that part, is doing her damnedest to make this a human being in some respect. But this part is not a person.
- [26:30]
Joanna Robinson
You saying the actor's name just made me realize that she's Brad Douriff's daughter. Brad Durf, the legend. Brad Derff, who is many things but also grievable. Wormtongue, but many other things.
- [26:43]
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
- [26:43]
Joanna Robinson
Billy Babbitts, et cetera, et cetera.
- [26:45]
Rob Mahoney
Doc Cochran, he will always be to me. I also learned that Taylor Dearden, who plays Mel.
- [26:50]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
- [26:51]
Rob Mahoney
Is Bryan Cranston's daughter.
- [26:53]
Joanna Robinson
This was a high point for me. So Taylor Dearden was on an MTV show called Sweet Vicious that was canceled after one season. And I loved her on that show and she played a very, very, very different character on that show. So this babe is not just a Nepo baby. She has range. I actually thought she was the standout. She's my high point, actually. And I like, I understood when you early, I think referred to her as like the. Oh, no, no, she's not the prodigy. The prodigy would be the younger. Yeah, yeah.
- [27:21]
Rob Mahoney
The 20 year old Med student.
- [27:22]
Joanna Robinson
Right, right. But you know, she Is very like sort of type A in her own way, et cetera, et cetera. I loved her. There was something about, like. She didn't. She wasn't given more to do than anyone else, but I think she did more with it.
- [27:38]
Rob Mahoney
She was given more. Megan Thee Stallion lyrics to recite, which I think is powerful and important.
- [27:42]
Joanna Robinson
Incredible stuff from her, I think. I would say. A low point for me so far, though I'm not ready to write him off is Dr. Langdon, who is referred to as ER Ken at one point and also says, sorry, I did a fellowship in cynicism. And I wrote.
- [28:00]
Rob Mahoney
That wasn't. That wasn't good.
- [28:02]
Joanna Robinson
I wrote oh, brother in my notes. But on the. He's paired with my favorite. Who is. Taylor Jardin is Dr. King. And so, um, you know, to go back to. This is definitely not an ER reboot or ER sequel that sort of like, if you watched ER, John Carter, Dr. Bennett, sort of like resident medical student relationship is. Is one to potentially watch. Because I like that they're like, quite. They're quite oil and water in their own way, but already we're seeing some sort of, like, interesting bridges being built there.
- [28:42]
Rob Mahoney
I also love her place in the show. Like, as you said, a lot of characters, I think, depending on your level of familiarity with how hospitals work. And I am not professing to be an expert by any means, just like a wide range of rankings relative to other people and levels of experience at play. And I think Mel, Dr. King as a resident, but a transfer is kind of like, a nice compliment because it's like everyone else who's new is also a pretty young med student and is learning very much on the fly. She's put into a space where she gets to be pretty competent and she clearly knows her stuff, but she's new to this space and, like, this level of intensity and frequency. And so it's cool to see, you know, doctors of varying kinds of backgrounds and med students of varying kinds of backgrounds, including ones that are just, like. Not just in over their head because the cases are weird and hard, but because of the sheer volume of what's coming through the door.
- [29:31]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, absolutely.
- [29:37]
Rob Mahoney
This episode is brought to you by Marvel Television's Born Again. Charlie Cox returns as vigilante lawyer Matt Murdock and Vincent D'Onofrio as former mob boss Wilson Fisk. The darker side of Matt Murdock is revealed when he gains a new perspective on his role as the Daredevil and faces an internal struggle between justice and revenge. The Devil's work is never done. Don't miss the two episode premiere of Born Again on March 4th. Only on Disney.
- [30:06]
Joanna Robinson
Get the Angel Reese special at McDonald's. Now let's break it down. My favorite barbecue sauce, American cheese, crispy bacon, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun, of course. And don't forget the fries and the drinks. Sound good?
- [30:20]
Rob Mahoney
I participate in restaurants for a limited time.
- [30:22]
Unknown
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- [30:53]
Joanna Robinson
This is something that, that ER did really well is the nursing staff. And so Katherine Lanasa as Nurse Evans, Dana Evans. I thought she was wonderful. Even though she's playing a recognizable archetype. I thought she did a great job with it.
- [31:15]
Rob Mahoney
And, well, let's be real, everyone on this show is playing a recognizable archetype.
- [31:19]
Joanna Robinson
That's true.
- [31:20]
Rob Mahoney
It's not even a criticism. I think it's just an acknowledgement that we have to make.
- [31:24]
Joanna Robinson
Maybe most especially Dr. Banks herself. But I think that, like, did we.
- [31:28]
Rob Mahoney
Mention she has an ankle monitor? Do we even call that?
- [31:32]
Joanna Robinson
We neglected to mention that she has an ankle monitor. And she's like a return student. She's like, you know, entering the medical profession and quite a. Quite a bit older than other folks.
- [31:43]
Rob Mahoney
But, you know, for us, as gratifying as the med school experience was for her, Joe, it just wasn't as important as having her son just wasn't as big for her.
- [31:51]
Joanna Robinson
They make s'mores together and sometimes they eat pizza. Did you know that? About that.
- [31:54]
Rob Mahoney
I did hear that. I did hear that.
- [31:55]
Joanna Robinson
Just making sure. Yeah, but the head nurse, who is sort of like the, you know, the real brains behind the operation of the hospital, and we meet a few others among the nursing staff and this show, much like er, has the consistent message of like, listen to the nurses. The nurses know what they're talking about. Don't disrespect the nurses, don't cross the nurses. This is an important part of the power structure at the hospital in general.
- [32:27]
Rob Mahoney
I think the nurses are also really important too. To one of my favorite parts about this being an ER versus a hospital show. As you said, if you're in more of a leisurely, normal hospital pace. You can have the soapy elements, you can have all this other stuff going on. I actually really like that triage is an active plot device in the pit. It's like for these doctors going through the waiting room and identifying something that looks especially fishy or looks especially urgent, and they are pulling those people into rooms and trying to help them immediately. It really does. Like everything on this show, the stakes feel pretty high, like these are life and death cases a lot of the times, or at least ones of mortal peril. And so the threshold for making something feel more important or more urgent, I think is pretty hard. But when you do that, when you have a doctor walking through a room and eyeing something that seems weird and being like, oh, no, we need to talk to this person right now, I think adds an interesting element to the show and it creates an urgency of not just how do you treat these people, but in what order are you supposed to treat them, given the limited resources that are available.
- [33:29]
Joanna Robinson
We are living in a post house world where, like, this idea of, like, the medical mystery. Let's diagnose the medical mystery, has been explored again at a much more leisurely pace with Hugh Laurie leading the charge on House. But in. In an ER setting, you're doing that and you have, like mere minutes, mere seconds to do all of that work. What do the labs say? What is this symptom presenting, etc. Etc. And I think a question I have for you is, and not to keep talking about Landman, but I did watch nine episodes.
- [34:06]
Rob Mahoney
It's unbelievable.
- [34:07]
Joanna Robinson
But I did watch nine episodes over a week, so I am going to squeeze as much content out of it as I can. A thing that irritates me so much about that show, I don't need to spend this. This episode of Prestige burying it, is that Billy Bob Thornton's character on that show is always right. And it really bothers me when a character is always right.
- [34:24]
Rob Mahoney
You love his politics. You just wish he had a comeuppance once in a while.
- [34:27]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, I'm like, climate change. What's that? Anyway, Dr. Robbie Rabinovich is pretty much always right so far.
- [34:37]
Rob Mahoney
So far. But they're setting him up to be big wrong.
- [34:40]
Joanna Robinson
Well, was he big wrong four years ago? Is that somehow responsible for. Let me check my notes. Dr. Adamson's, you know, like, he's not only grieving him, but was he somehow responsible?
- [34:58]
Rob Mahoney
He seems to have internalized that, whether it's true or not. And yeah, that's what I Don't know what we're gonna get from the flashback. Is it where he makes the wrong call and it results in actual damage or his death? Or is it the kind of thing where he just thinks he made the wrong call but actually did right by everybody? I think what sets it up to me is we get this early case where he has a situation where he can either act quickly or wait for the labs, and he makes the, like, presumpt. Like, preemptive decision to just, like, inject. I don't even know what he's giving somebody. It's like, something into their IV to help treat them on the presumption that he's right, and in that moment, he is. And it helps this person, like, saves precious seconds in what could be a dangerous situation. There's gonna be a mirror at some point where he fucks up. I feel like we are destined for.
- [35:39]
Joanna Robinson
That, and it was Dr. Collins who was calling him out for it. So, like, you know. Yes. The question is, well, then is she gonna. Yeah, it's interesting to me. I just need. I just need everyone to be fallible on tv. That's important to me. You can't always be right all the time. It's not interesting dramatically. So. Yeah. Is he gonna be big wrong? Big wrong in. In the span of a show that takes, like, 15 hours. So how do you recover? Is that the last thing you are? You're big wrong at the end? Are you big wrong at the middle? And you have to work another seven hours of your shift. Like, what's.
- [36:12]
Rob Mahoney
Them's the brakes. That's the job.
- [36:13]
Joanna Robinson
That's the pit. You know, that's life in the pit. Jo. Another opportunity that ER or any of these medical procedures bring, be they Chicago Med, Squid Game Med, whatever you want is a roster, a level of that guy actor cycling in and out, usually as the. Not necessarily the patient, but the loved one. But we get a couple inside of these first two episodes where I'm like, oh, it's a. You know, one of my favorite Mike Flanagan players. It's like, you know, this, that or the other. We're just like, you want. You want. We always want those actors to be working, and they should always be able to do a stint on an ER or a pit as this grieving mother or this unsure son or whatever the case may be. And then as ER progressed, they kind of got, like, starrier and starrier with those appearances. And same thing happened at Grey's Anatomy. But I prefer when it's this level of actor where it's just someone you like, vaguely recognize. You can maybe name a couple of their projects, but you don't necessarily know their name off the top of your head. And you're just like happy to see them get to do something. High drama inside of an episode of television.
- [37:29]
Rob Mahoney
Well, and it doesn't tip off which of them are gonna be that important. Right. Who's gonna be given the big speech or the big dilemma? Like if everyone is kind of a that guy, then the cases could turn in any conceivable direction. And we've already seen some of these. Some of these cases have already wrapped up and people are shipped out. They're out of the hospital already. They got shot, they're dismissed, they've done whatever, they've been treated quickly, they're out the door. Some of these are spilling over episode into episode. And I have to say I want to make this very clear because we're having our fun. I think this show is what it is. Which is more successful on the medical side of the medical drama than the drama side of the medical drama.
- [38:04]
Joanna Robinson
That's fine.
- [38:06]
Rob Mahoney
The pit, to me, Joe, is good, engrossing television. And I had to stop myself from just. I was like, I'm ready to roll into the next one. I'm ready to keep going. Like, this is a show that I'm looking forward to keeping up with somewhat despite myself, mostly because of all of these engrossing cases and kind of quandaries that the show is putting itself in.
- [38:27]
Joanna Robinson
So before we started recording, you sort of invoked this idea. We don't have to mention Landman again. But you mentioned Yellowstone, something in the Tale of Sheridan oeuvre that is a. I don't have to think too hard about this. Yes, I can just sort of guzzle it down. But it has the sheen of prestige. So that I could feel like I'm not watching like trash television. But I am watching something that I can sort of just turn my mind off. And we all deserve to watch something that can help us turn our mind off. So my question is like you were pondering, perhaps this could be a Yellowstone esque massape. Mass.
- [39:10]
Rob Mahoney
Those are big shows, big shoes to feel like, to fill. Ultimately. Big boots, incredible boots to fill.
- [39:16]
Joanna Robinson
That's a 10 gallon hat to fill.
- [39:18]
Rob Mahoney
Does the pit have 10 gallons in it? I don't really know.
- [39:21]
Joanna Robinson
They operate on a CC level.
- [39:23]
Rob Mahoney
I think three CC's is enough, I've been told.
- [39:27]
Joanna Robinson
But I think that. But I'm curious about that because is this an easy show to watch with so many characters it's not something you can second screen, right, because things are happening at all times. It's a very like, adrenaline pumping kind of show and there is a lot of technical jargon being thrown around. So, like, on the one hand, it's not something that's making me, as you mentioned, everyone's a walking archetype. We're not thinking that deeply about story or character. But in order to not feel lost, I do feel like I need to pay close attention to it. So where does it sit in that sort of like turn your brain off or engage brain kind of TV viewing?
- [40:09]
Rob Mahoney
So I think it does require that level of engagement and investment. But I think you're isolating something really important, which is it's not asking you to think a lot, but it's also not treating you like you're dumb. And there just aren't many things in that space right now. And so I would argue it almost has no prestige sheen to it at all. You know, this is a show that's on a platform with other prestigious shows. This is like the return of some of these names in this setting is in itself like a prestigious kind of premise. But like the John Welles project to me is not prestige. It's a lot of like making and shepherding and in some cases executive producing and in some cases just kind of shepherding things along that are good, successful shows that get on the air and fucking stay on the air. Like they churn it out. He's such like a pros, pro operator in this sort of way. Like, I'm getting like very well made piece of furniture out of the pit. And it's like we live in a world now where when I want to go buy furniture, everything feels like it's falling apart by the time I get it home. This feels competently made and structured. And that in itself in 2025 is a lot.
- [41:12]
Joanna Robinson
No particle board. Okay.
- [41:14]
Rob Mahoney
No particle board involved. No Allen wrenches required. Like, this thing is just built and makes sense to me.
- [41:19]
Joanna Robinson
Okay. All the, all the, all the joints are secure. Okay. That's interesting to me. I. On the one hand, I don't, I can't disagree with you about sort of like getting things that work and stay and just go. When you think about ER.
- [41:36]
Rob Mahoney
So you concur?
- [41:37]
Joanna Robinson
You would say, yes, Doctor, I concur. Do you concur? Dr. I concur. West Wing, ER, shameless. But I would also argue all three of those shows have like a. They're not Chicago colon, something, you know what I mean? Like, there is that sort of extra level of, like, thinking man's even shameless, which is like the guiltiest of pleasures in some way has, I think, maybe just by dint of William H. Macy being there. I don't know what to tell you, but, like. Or the fact that it's a remake of a British television show, I couldn't tell you, but, like, there is something elevated. Is it like elevated, procedural, elevated, something. West Wing. You would call Prestige tv late period West.
- [42:22]
Rob Mahoney
Wing. Would you? And I say this as a relative defender of late period West Wing, but would you?
- [42:29]
Joanna Robinson
You know, it's an important question to ask and I don't have all the answers for you, but I just. I just genuinely don't know. And this is something we have to think about as we figure out what to cover on the Prestige TV feed. What's going to be a hit and what's not. Is it worth checking with the Pit? Because er, this is essentially a kind of IP in that, like, allegedly, legally not er, but is kind of er, colon, the Pit. Like, it's worth checking in, but it's not something we're immediately going to do do week by week. A. Because I'm not sure it's the kind of show that can endure that kind of scrutiny or has enough meat on the bone or enough CCs in the bag to like, make that wor it. And also, we don't know how popular it's going to be. I don't. I cannot tell you if this is going to be a popular show or if it's going to feel like it doesn't exist. I actually don't know the answer to that question. You know, the. The, er, nostalgia varies and whether or not people are actually aware that this is a kind of spiritual er, successor. I mean, Noah Wy does a lot of work for you in that regard. But, like, I'm curious to find out.
- [43:38]
Rob Mahoney
I could see it being a slow burn kind of hit too, where we'll see what the opening numbers are. If this is a show that catches fire out of the gate or whatever ends up happening. But it feels like the kind of show that you could be talking to somebody four months from now. They're like, have you seen the Pit? Like, I just turned that on because it was in my Max Q or whatever, like my recommendations, and they gave it a shot and it's like, oh, actually, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, or more than I thought I would for a show that in a crowded landscape, I didn't even hear when it was premiering.
- [44:05]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, it's a good question. And also, this is kind of like, this is a very intensive year of content, especially for, like, House of R. You know, the shows that I cover at House of R, there's a lot of heavy hitters coming out, but. But right at the top of the year is usually kind of empty. So it is an opportunity for a show. Sort of just get in there and dig in. It is hilarious to me, especially given that like, you know, seasons of VR were like 22 episodes, that you and Kai and I were all like, this is 15 episodes. This show is still going to be on in April.
- [44:42]
Rob Mahoney
We're not built for this stuff anymore.
- [44:44]
Joanna Robinson
Unheard of. We are weak and soft and canon. But that is wild to me that we are going to still be. If the Pit catches on, we're still going to be talking about the Pit in April. That doesn't happen anymore. And it's just I'm so curious to see if it works. And I'm curious whose insistence, like, was that a John Wells thing where he's like, you gotta give me at least 15 episodes and, you know, something like that? I don't know.
- [45:12]
Rob Mahoney
The structure is cool, though. I'm not immune to the 15 hour shift kind of conceit. I think it works really well. It certainly plays in when you're seeing the exchange of the shifts at the outset of, like, why one of these men is standing on the roof contemplating his existence. If this is what the first two hours of a shift like this looks like, or at least looks like on this show, I think it sets us up to go to some pretty interesting and probably some pretty dark places.
- [45:36]
Joanna Robinson
Did you also do a fellowship in cynicism, Ramon?
- [45:40]
Rob Mahoney
I think at this point we all have.
- [45:42]
Joanna Robinson
Oh, brother. Okay. All right. So, yeah, so we will see how much we'll be checking back in on the Pit. Anything else you want to say about these first two episodes or. Or the Pit in general, or do you want to hear more of my ER pilot thoughts, perhaps, by any chance?
- [45:59]
Rob Mahoney
I would love to hear more of your ER pilot thoughts as far as points of division between the Pit and a show like ER or the Pit in a show like Grey's or, you know, any other medical drama that's on specifically network tv. There's some gnarly stuff in here.
- [46:15]
Joanna Robinson
Yes. Is it de Gloving time? Is that what we're here to talk about?
- [46:20]
Rob Mahoney
The de Glove has to be mentioned because I think a lot of us reacted the way that our second year med student did, which is. I Basically fainted as soon as that happened.
- [46:30]
Joanna Robinson
Degloving as a concept, it's one of the most disgustingly evocative terms. And in case people don't know, degloving is what you refer to when, like, the skin has come off of.
- [46:45]
Rob Mahoney
It's what it sounds like.
- [46:47]
Joanna Robinson
Something like taking off a glove, except it's your skin. Like that one Robbie Williams music video. So, like, I. That was horrifying. Anything else you want to shout out as particularly gnarly and disgusting?
- [46:59]
Rob Mahoney
Well, I would love to hear what is really hitting people in the visceral way. So if you want to email us@prestigetvpotify.com whether it is the de Gloving, which. Yes. And I think it was coupled by somebody saying, and I thought my heels were painful as they saw this injured foot. That's not. That's not called for.
- [47:17]
Joanna Robinson
That's not good banter at all.
- [47:19]
Rob Mahoney
Not good banter.
- [47:20]
Joanna Robinson
Not even Buffy Summers would banter like that in the face of glove.
- [47:22]
Rob Mahoney
Absolutely not. The adjustment of the dude's broken face definitely got a squirm out of me. That was not. That was not it.
- [47:31]
Joanna Robinson
He was just sort of feeling around in his mouth. We didn't really know why. Then all of a sudden it was just like, crack. And his whole face moved.
- [47:38]
Rob Mahoney
But I do want to give honorable mention to the workman who had his whole arm electrocuted when he cut into a live wire or something. And they are trying to relieve, I think, the blood pressure in his arm by cutting into it. And I would describe the way his electrocuted arm opens up as if it were like an alien egg. It just, like, unfurls at the seams.
- [48:00]
Joanna Robinson
Is that the one where his hand is, like, almost unattached, or is that someone else?
- [48:04]
Rob Mahoney
I think that. Believe it or not, I think that was somebody else.
- [48:07]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. There's a hand that's almost completely detached, and it's like a. Just a different shade than the rest of the body. And it's just like. Okay, anyway. Ers gnarly places to be. Speaking of gnarly, let me just tell you the shock of a lifetime I had when I rewatched the Art Pilot and realized that Anthony Edwards of Top Gun fame, Goose himself, who is the lead of. Before George Clooney became de facto lead bonafide movie star Anthony Edwards is Dr. Margaret Great is the lead of Ernest. He was 32. 32 years old. And when I was like a child watching Yara, I was like, that's an old man. And now I'm like, he's 32.
- [48:53]
Rob Mahoney
His whole life ahead of him.
- [48:55]
Joanna Robinson
32. And Noah Wylie is in his 50s. Looks great, looks wonderful. But I was just like, wow. Anthony Edwards was 32 in the first season of ER and no, Wiley is in his 50s. That's a lot to process.
- [49:11]
Rob Mahoney
You know what? I would go as far as to say Noah Wylie looks better than ever. I think this haggard look actually plays pretty well for him in terms of character and portrayal. I find myself liking this version of Noah Wylie a lot more than, like, dorky, earnest Noah Wylie, which is, I think, what he played, you know, a lot early in his career.
- [49:30]
Joanna Robinson
In his defense, or any of the librarians. We've not seen any of his library work.
- [49:35]
Rob Mahoney
Not yet.
- [49:36]
Joanna Robinson
We are interested.
- [49:37]
Rob Mahoney
This dude just got sucked into a portal and wound up playing a librarian for, like 10 years.
- [49:45]
Joanna Robinson
Anything else you want to say before we wrap it up here? We've covered rats, we've covered degloving. What else could we possibly, you know, ankle monitors. We have not mentioned the excellent hoodie work, I would say, on Bobby Dr. Rabinowitz. It's a great. It's a great look. You're right. The beard, the hair, the hoodie, you know, the world weary expression, but the tenderness as well. It's a great. I'm in. I'm into it.
- [50:15]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, I'm very into it. I just was not aware of the level of athleisure that people working in the ER were allowed to wear. Permitted to wear. I just kind of figured it was, you know, scrubs or maybe a doctor's coat, but we're just rolling it in hoodies. I would say Dr. King is maybe, like, she looks like she's going for a jog.
- [50:33]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, that's a great. That's a great point. I wonder if, like, standards have slipped because my memory, thinking about, er, yes, we're often in scrubs, but also like, yeah, if we're wearing the white coat, we're wearing it over, like, business casual. We're wearing a tie for woman. We're wearing, like heels and a skirt or something like that. So, yeah, standards have slipped is what you're saying.
- [50:57]
Rob Mahoney
Or we're just increasingly practical, Joe. You know, it's all about comfortable footwear. You're on your feet all day, you're going through these things. Like, let's. Let's put our professionals in a position to succeed.
- [51:07]
Joanna Robinson
I love that. I love that. I do know that, like, scrub, scrub couture has definitely changed. And I know that from, like, some of the nurses. I Know in my life that like, there's designer scrubs that you can get. You get your scrubs tailored. There was this big. There was this. The introduction to Noah Wiley's character in the ER pilot is they're like, is that a tailored lab coat? I've never seen one of those. They're just like, absolutely trashing him because he just looks like an out of place rich boy. And now I know that nurses, like get like very expensive tailored scrubs because, like, yeah, you don't need to be like, you know, if you're want to look nice at your job. And so if you don't want to be in baggy scrubs, I would choose baggy scrubs personally because it's basically your, your gym jams at work. And that sounds great to me, but, you know, not everyone.
- [51:53]
Rob Mahoney
You want to look your finest when you're watching a grown man shit into a bedpan.
- [52:01]
Joanna Robinson
All right, the pit. Two episodes down, 13 more episodes to go. We may or may not be back and that depends on you if you're watching the Pit. And yeah, let us know if it's a huge success. We'll be back to check in on it. Before we go back to the Pit though, we will be definitely covering Severance week to week and we are really excited about that. Severed hands, Maybe not severed existence. Yes.
- [52:31]
Rob Mahoney
We didn't sever enough in the Pit. That was our problem with it.
- [52:34]
Joanna Robinson
More severance, please. So we will be back. We may or may not. We have not decided yet. We may or may not do like a season one recap. But we will be here for season two, episode one of Severance starting next week. This is a theory show so you're definitely going to be wanting to email us prestigetvotify.com we love severance. We're big fans of it. We will come up with a severance specific email. Tbd.
- [53:04]
Rob Mahoney
Will it be livestock related? Who knows?
- [53:06]
Joanna Robinson
Possibly. Probably. Maybe I'm still. I still like waffle party, but. Or what is it? Was it like I need to do my season one rewatch? Is it like the egg cart or something like that?
- [53:19]
Rob Mahoney
The egg don't even remember anymore.
- [53:24]
Joanna Robinson
We'll be here week to week with severance and then we'll also be checking back in with agency. A bunch of other stuff on the horizon. So stay tuned. You can listen to us as you are currently. You can watch us often on the Ringer TV YouTube channel. I forget to promo that every week and I should do that more often. Remind me next time, Rob, if you Remember. We're on YouTube. You can stare into our eyes lovingly if you. If you so choose, however you want.
- [53:50]
Rob Mahoney
Honestly, I'm not here to judge how you stare at us.
- [53:53]
Joanna Robinson
Resentment.
- [53:54]
Rob Mahoney
Complete resentment. Whatever it is, you can concur or not concur. Honestly, however you want to fall, mocking.
- [54:00]
Joanna Robinson
Your listening, we'll take it. Eyeballs are eyeballs. We love it.
- [54:03]
Rob Mahoney
Those views count the same.
- [54:04]
Joanna Robinson
Exactly. Thanks to Kai Grady, who is the very best, and we're happy to be reunited with him here in the new year. And thanks to Justin Sales for his work across the feed. He's just wonderful. Keeping everything in line, our Dr. Robbie, I like to think. Yeah, he's got the scruff. Good scruff going on. All right. Love that for sales. All right, so we will be back soon, next week, and we'll see you then by.