by The Pitt
I’m loving the new medical show The Pitt, about an ER in Pittsburgh! It stars Noah Wyle as the ER attending, and as I watched the pilot, I kept going “this is exactly like ER! Except with tech, politics, issues & pandemic updated for 2025. This is literally what the ER would’ve been if it had been created only now! As it happens, ER also starred Noah Wyle in one of the main roles, starting out as a 3rd year medical student in season 1 through to attending physician over 11 seasons. It started in 1994 and ran for 15 seasons. I went looking online, and I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that Noah Wyle & co (apparently many of The Pitt TPTB had created/been involved in ER too 30 years earlier!) had originally planned for a sequel to ER but couldn’t get the rights to do that. So it was re-imaged as The Pitt, but it really does feel exactly the same as ER! Which I also loved the first 1-8 seasons or so, and enjoyed the rest.
The Pitt is now the series I look forward to the most every week, and I can’t wait for each Friday to arrive to see the new episode! My only complaint is that there will only be 15 episodes in season 1, and so far no word whether there will be further seasons. I really like how they’re doing character and plot – I feel like I have a good handle on all the characters after just 7 episodes than some other shows after many seasons (Star Trek: Discovery – am looking at you) and they’re all unique and distinctive. I really like the balance between main characters and the plot (medical cases) of the episode.
Also, as I wrote this, I realized that since first seeing ER 30 years ago, I’ve always got Noah Wyle’s surname wrong – I thought it was Wylie!
Elevation
From IMDB: “A single father and two women venture from the safety of their homes to face monstrous creatures to save the life of a young boy.”
It’s a straightforward and simple story about a dangerous supply run into the town in the middle of area infested with Reapers, mysterious and unstoppable creatures that have killed 95% of humanity. Only humans who have managed to get to 8000 feet of elevation or higher, are surviving.
It’s trash with an interesting creature origin concept but not terribly original (or at least I felt like I’d seen a movie like it a hundred times already) as far as these types of stories go. Featuring Morena Baccarin and Anthony Mackie. The cinematogphy was great, and Rocky Mountains vista beautiful. Morena Baccarin being one of my favorite actors since her Firefly days (so much so that I used to run a fansite for her for many years!) and Anthony Mackie being likable in everything I’ve ever seen him in, the story being good enouhg so I was well entertained! I really liked Morena’s character – she isn’t the usal damsel in distress, but the research scientist and survivor who is focused on finding a way to fight the creatures. The movie runs for 90 minutes and I thought it well balanced in that respect – no scene dragged, or went by too fast, and it didn’t outstay its welcome. The ending leaves the story wide open for a sequal, with questions and a strong implication that a further threat to humanity is on its way.
I liked it, the 90 minutes went by fast! It was really good seeing Morena Baccarin again in a role/movie/tv show I really actually liked! The last few I’ve seen her in either she didn’t really do anything (Deadpool & Wolverine) or the writing was so bad (The Endgame) that I couldn’t bear to watch more than a few episodes.
Until I Kill You
Anna Maxwell Martin as the main character, Delia Balmer, was a standout – I’ve seen her in many, many roles and this is probably her best work to date. She did an amazing job playing quite an unlikable (appearing cold, rude and brash to other people) but a very human character, who was easy to sympatize with as she goes through an awful ordeal that doesn’t seem to have an end.
Shaun Evans played the boyfriend who turns out to be a serial killer, and is good in the role but the focus is on Delia at all times. I like Evans, he was great as Endeavour but I don’t think I’ve seen him play a good guy after that show ended – only killers!
Until I Kill You is good tv series, typical reliable quality that I’ve come to expect from UK crime tv series.
Slow Horses
First of all, I LOVE the opening credits song! It got stuck in my head the first time I heard it and been on loop in my head ever since!
I found series 1 and 2 odd in that episodes 1-3 were kind of slow, and then episodes 4-6 speedy. Entertaining though! I’m not sure whether I was in a weird mood when I watched series 3, but I found it absolutely hilarious – all the scenes involving the Dogs had me cackling like mad, and so did lots of the other scenes involving any kind of action, preparing for action and even just one on one dialogue. I don’t know, it think it was purely me – I don’t think it it was really that funny.
