let’s say you don’t want to hear about sexism, racism, discrimination … then can you tell me how the pitt’s production choices are narratively relevant ? and i mean something other than playing the "it’s realistic" card
let’s make sure we’re on the same page. we agree that the pitt set out to critique the usa healthcare system, one that’s plainly poisoned by structural discrimination, and to explore the mental health of the ER medical staff, right ?
so… how was it narratively relevant to erase samira mohan, a south asian woman whose entire character arc is built on medical racism and a conflicted relationship with her boss (a white man) while she's still a resident ? especially when they could've used that space to actually make robby confront his own biases, and to show that being in mental distress is not an excuse for abusive behavior toward a subordinate, and therefore actually say something meaningful about both discrimination and mental health.
how is it narratively relevant to bring in someone as rich a character as baran al‑hashimi, an attending of iranian/iraqi origin, who knows samira, who’s done humanitarian work in WAR ZONES, who has a completely different vision and approach from robby, only for her arc to end with "robby was right to doubt her and to be on her case all day" ? and don’t tell me he said a couple times that she had good calls, that means literally nothing compared to everything they could’ve explored with her, and didn’t, because apparently we needed more shots of robby’s motorcycle and the same speech 3 times about why he’s not doing well. where’s the critique ? where’s the critique of systemic sexism and racism that makes people so quick to disqualify a woman like her ? where’s her golden narrative role, the one that should’ve been about confronting robby with his own way of doing things, his issues, and his biases ? tossed in the "realism" trash can i guess.
how is it even narratively relevant to sideline the characters who are literally the ones raising the question of mental health, you know, the core theme of the show ? because let’s stop being delulu for a second : samira, the R4 who should’ve been fully present, was shamefully erased, so javadi, the M4 on a psych rotation… barely gets any screen time, guaranteed on the invoice. so again: how is this a meaningful angle to explore the theme through ? and then there’s dr. jefferson, who should’ve been way more central in S2 given robby’s behavior, and who ends up being there just to say generic lines. what was the plan ? what were the supposed narrative genius reasons for using the character so little ?
what was the narrative point of having whitaker act like an R3/R4 when he’s been an R1 for, what, 3 minutes ? what was the purpose of giving him that much screen time if he ends up with zero narrative development ? what was the plan behind showing robby feeling bad about langdon but not giving a damn about samira, to the point of letting her apologize when he’s the one who was out of line ? what was the narrative relevance of having robby be the one to call out the paramedic team during the cardiac arrest instead of the women in the room, who somehow didn’t seem to notice things were off ? what was the genius idea behind showing dana trying to focus on her own mental health only to end up falling back into her default "i need to worry about robby" mode ? how exactly is it "brilliant writing" to sideline the characters who would’ve had the most interesting dynamics with robby and the most interesting discourse they could’ve brought to the story ?
sorry to break it to you, but there’s no brilliant narrative reasoning behind any of this, and i wanted to believe it. but it’s just writing that’s biased by structural discrimination, and that, in its attempt to "do the right thing" ends up doing the exact opposite in a paternalistic way, without giving any credit to the critiques raised on these issues.
showing discriminatory behavior ≠ criticizing discriminatory behavior.
the pitt messed up on these things, and it’s about time people started admitting it.
