The Pitt is a medical drama on HBO that turned a lot of heads when it kicked off in 2205. Each episode covers one hour in the lives of the doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals working at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. That structure gives The Pitt a propulsion not often seen in these kinds of shows, and it’s all held together by top-notch writing, acting, and directing.
All in all, The Pitt proudly carries on the grand HBO tradition of great TV, but it’s not the only game in town.
This Is Going to Hurt is a criminally overlooked medical drama
All of the bitter realism of The PItt, with a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down
This Is Going To Hurt is based on the book of the same name by Adam Kay, which is also the name of the main character, played by Ben Whishaw. Before he became a writer, Kay worked as a doctor, so everything in the series is drawn from real experience. That gives This Is Going To Hurt a level of authenticity that can be hard to come by. It’s kind of like the medical drama equivalent of a science fiction TV show that actually bothers to make sure its science is accurate.
Anyway, the show follows a number of junior doctors working in the obstetrics and gynaecology department in a National Health Service hospital in England. Adam is our main point of contact, but we meet other characters like Shruti Acharya (Ambika Mod), a junior doctor who comes into the job excited but who is slowly broken down by the pressure, lack of support, and trauma of the NHS system.
Over the course of a single season, we come to understand how things like under-staffing, lack of funding, and outdated, inefficient processes can be just as difficult to deal with as a challenging medical problem. All of that is addressed in The Pitt as well, but while that show rarely leaves the confines of the titular ER, This Is Going To Hurt casts a wider narrative net, bringing in the doctors’ family and friends. The show is still honest about the rigor and stress of the medical profession, but these breaks provide people who might be exhausted by The Pitt’s unrelenting rhythm with some respite.
Drama cut with humor cut with blood
Delivering babies is gross and hilarious
Seriousness can be a double-edged sword. Doctors deal with life-and-death situations every day, and staring that kind of thing dead in the face, as The Pitt does, can make for a stressful viewing experience. The show makes sure to sprinkle in flashes of humor, and sometimes the characters will break the fourth wall and address the audience directly, reminding us that this is a show and we can relax.
There are also more traditional gags, like in the first episode when Adam stitches up a caesarean section for an abusive, hateful patient in a way that messes up the alignment of her tattoo, using his position to get a little bit of revenge. Is that ethical? Almost certainly no…but it is funny.
Later, a patient pulls a cord to call for help, and a section of the roof comes down due to shoddy workmanship that Adam enabled. When Shruti is working with a new trainee doctor named Al (George Somner), she’s frustrated to find that he faints at the sight of blood, obviously a problem for doctors who deliver babies.
All of this is humor of the pitch-black kind, but it is humor, which helps alleviate the unflinching intensity of the rest of the show. And there’s something very believable about humor in a hospital. The people here deal with life and death every day, so when something ridiculous happens, it feels all the more absurd.
There will be blood
But what else do you expect in an obstetrics ward?
That said, This Is Going To Hurt knows how to deliver a gut punch when it’s time for one. The show deals with burnout and stress in a very real way, and not all of the characters make it out unscathed. There’s a reason why Adam Kay ended up leaving a medical career to work in TV. On top of that, there’s a lot of blood and body parts on display, so the show may not be for squeamish, something else it shares in common with The Pitt. At the end of the day, This Is Going To Hurt depicts the life of a hospital doctor as thankless and punishing, but that doesn’t mean a show about it can’t be fun to watch.
The Pitt now has two seasons to its name, with a third already ordered. By the end of 2027, it will have racked up some 45 episodes. That’s great if you’re looking for a new epic to dive into, but at just seven episodes of around 45 minutes each, This Is Going To Hurt can be binged, enjoyed, and finished in the space of a single weekend, so you won’t have to commit to anything huge.
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This Is Going To Hurt is widely available
Even better, This Is Going To Hurt can be watched on a variety of platforms. It’s available to stream on Netflix, which pretty much every has or can at least get access to. And if you can’t, it’s also available on Tubi, where you can watch it for free with no subscription, provided you sit through a few adds. It’s hard to argue with the price there.
