‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Isn’t Holding Back, & That’s a Problem

The Pitt is praised for being one of the most raw, real medical dramas to grace the screen since ER. The new medical drama, in fact, exceeds that show in its intensity, and certainly does so when it comes to graphic nature. Season 2, so far, is heading in a direction that suggests the series will continue to push the envelope. I’m all for the depiction of the realities of an emergency room in a big city. These doctors don’t just see people coming in with cookie-cutter chest pain, broken limbs, stabbings, work injuries, bumps, and falls. There are weird things that happen, too, but the first two episodes of Season 2 are leaning too heavily into the latter, risking a trend that other medical dramas have followed, which is to focus on shock and even disgust versus telling real stories.

The Numerous Weird Injuries Detract From ‘The Pitt’s Strength

Victoria inspecting the eye of a nun with an infection in The Pitt.

The reason we loved The Pitt, one of the best TV shows of 2025, so much in Season 1 was that the show didn’t focus on the fractured interpersonal relationships of the staff, steamy affairs, and ridiculous injury stories. It was about the patients, first and foremost, and when it came to the main characters, the series focused on their roles and the pressures of their jobs. Sure, there were personal stories thrown in for good measure, like Dr. Cassie’s (Fiona Dourif) ankle monitor, Dr. Heather’s (Tracy Ifeachor) pregnancy (the character isn’t returning for Season 2), Robby’s (Noah Wyle) grief over the loss of his colleague, Victoria’s (Shabana Azeez) tense relationship with her mother, and Dr. Langdon’s (Patrick Ball) addiction issue. But these were secondary.

The same standard applied to the patients who had unusual injuries. They existed, but were an exception, not a standard. For example, there was the beauty influencer who got mercury poisoning from using tainted face cream and the unhoused man who had rats nesting in his shirt. Oh, and the fork in the nose in the finale. But that was more or less the extent of the weird injuries and illnesses. Everything else was standard fare that you’d likely come across in an emergency room on a day-to-day basis.

When it comes to Season 2, however, the first two episodes have already featured numerous weird injuries. This might be overlooked if it were not for the fact that these two episodes also represent two real-time hours in a single shift. Might an emergency room see such weird injuries from time to time? It’s certainly possible. I’m not a doctor, so I can’t speak to the consistency. Doctors and nurses often say, after all, that they’ve seen it all. But to have so many in the span of two hours, before we’ve even hit lunch? This seems like made-for-TV drama. Which, of course, it is, but what makes The Pitt stand out is that it usually doesn’t feel like it.

What were these injuries? Consider the nun with gonorrhea in her eye, who, it turns out, got it for a wholesome reason (not wearing gloves while cleaning sheets and clothing in shelters). Nonetheless, it was a storyline meant to push boundaries and give Dr. Trinity (Isa Briones) the opportunity to deliver a few witty one-liners. The season introduced another unhoused man, this time one who smelled so awful that he had people in the waiting room threatening to vomit. It was not only the dirt caked onto his body but the cast on his arm that had likely been there for months, potentially years, that resulted in the pungent odor. Once the cast was cut away and removed, it revealed a sea of maggots underneath that had me close to vomiting while watching from my couch.

Perhaps the most…exposed, however, was when a man showed up after taking double the recommended dosage of a sexual enhancement drug, resulting in a penis that remained erect for hours. A condition that is seemingly more common than we realize in real life, the fact that this was introduced on the show isn’t all that shocking. That said, the scene where Trinity and Dr. Mel (Taylor Dearden) work on relieving the pressure, the member poking up through a blanket in full view, was a phallic symbol of pride that this HBO show can and will pretty much do what it wants.

I just hope that the oozing infected eye and the maggots feasting away at a man’s arm aren’t a sign of the direction this season is going. We don’t want The Pitt looking for outlandish, unusual injuries and ailments that will leave fans cringing and talking about it after. It almost seems like a writer prompted ChatGPT to list some of the weirdest possible injuries ever reported in a hospital to add them to the script. Where The Pitt thrives is in its realism, and having such outlandish cases makes it seem more like entertainment spectacle than it did in Season 1.

‘The Pitt’s Balance Still Exists, Thankfully

A male nurse holding a baby in The Pitt.

Right now, the shining light is that a balance still exists; the vast majority of patients fit the mold of what you’d expect. Yes, it’s not flashy and shocking when a young man comes in with a skinned knee after falling off his bike, a worker has been impaled, or an alcoholic regular is back with the need to drain fluid from his stomach once again. It’s a procedure he has done so many times; he’s happy to walk the residents through how to do it. But this is what differentiates The Pitt from other medical dramas: It isn’t afraid to tone down the shock value for the sake of the story.

The heartwarming (and heartwrenching) stories like those from Season 1 are what have been keeping The Pitt at the top of its game for Season 2. There’s the young girl who comes in with a split chin after a fall. When Trinity discovers multiple bruises elsewhere on her body, it sparks moral and ethical questions about how to handle it. There’s also the large man with what turns out to be a piece of broccoli in his throat. The story of the abandoned baby is one that sadly probably happens far more often than we’d like to admit, and it’s tugging at heartstrings.

No, these injuries are not glamorous. They don’t call for bloody close-ups and wince-inducing scenes. But they’re part of the realness of the show, and I welcome more of them. Of course, we can expect that, at some point within a 15-hour shift, there will be one, maybe even two, patients that become fodder for dinner talk. “You’ll never believe what one patient came in with today!” But with so many unusual cases already in just the first two hours, I fear The Pitt might be trying to rely on that direction too much. This would follow in the footsteps of other shows like Grey’s Anatomy, House, and Saving Hope, where figuring out what crazy illness someone had was more important than the treatment aspect of the job. Those shows were (and are) fantastic, but that isn’t what The Pitt is about.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love The Pitt, one of the biggest streaming surprises of 2025. And I don’t love it any less so far this season. From the cast to the developing personal stories (that will hopefully remain background), the balancing act between Robby, administration, and now his new temporary replacement, suggests that there’s still plenty to come for the next 13 hours of the shift. But if this trend keeps up with a totally strange patient situation every hour, I’ll have a tough time believing in the authenticity of the show the same way I did with Season 1. Of course, viewers recognize that the show is completely fictional. But the reason people love The Pitt so much is that as soon as an episode begins, we truly start to believe that it isn’t. With maggots, pink-eyed nuns, and extreme close-ups of a patient’s manhood, I’m snapped back to reality. I’d rather remain engrossed in the show, feeling like it’s real instead of just another medical drama looking for the most unusual patients to feature.