Photo: Warrick Page/Max
*This interview contains The Pitt spoilers*
We were joined on the Popternative show by Patrick Ball who plays Dr. Frank Langdon in the new hit medical drama series, The Pitt. The series premiered in January on Max, and has already been renewed for a second season. From John Wells Productions (The West Wing, ER) and Warner Bros. Television, The Pitt is created by R. Scott Gemmill (JAG, ER) and stars ER alum Noah Wyle.
The Pitt is a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What makes the series unique from other medical dramas is that each episode takes place during a one hour shift of the same day.
The cast also includes Tracey Ifeachor (Dr. Collins), Katherine LaNasa (Dana Evans), Taylor Dearden (Dr. King), Supriya Ganesh (Dr. Mohan), Fiona Dourif (Dr. McKay), Isa Briones (Dr. Santos), Gerran Howell (Whitaker), and Shabana Azeez (Javadi), and Jalen Thomas Brooks (Mateo).
“The hospital drama is not a new thing; there’s many manifestations of this genre. It was very important for us to do something different and really put the medicine forward,” says Patrick.
When discussing the fast paced nature of the show, he adds, “All the backstories of the doctors, the nurses, and characters you follow throughout the season are full, but we never stop to learn about them. It’s all kind of suitcased inside. So, we sit there overtop of a patient and we go through the workday like anybody in an actual workspace would go through.”
The most recent episode (episode 10), had a shocking ending for Dr. Langdon which resulted in him being relieved of his duties and told to go home by Dr. Robby (Wyle) after he was caught stealing drugs from the hospital.
Patrick goes into detail about episode 10: “It’s definitely been a big [storyline] for me and a joy and feels like a very big responsibility for me to carry this story. On set, we have real life doctors; we have a medical director but we also have a number of med techs who are actors and also nurses and doctors that are actually practicing in hospitals. Every time I come on set [they] will come up to me and say ‘just so you know this is a real problem’; this really happens all the time in hospitals where you have emergency workers for whatever reason that fall into the trap of self-medicating through drugs that are made very available to them. And this is a real thing that happens. So, it was important to tell that story as responsibly as I can and as truthfully as I can.”
Watch the full conversation with Patrick Ball below.
A new episode of The Pitt drops Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET on Max leading up to the season finale on April 10.
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