7 TV Shows Similar to ‘The Pitt’ for Fans of Medical Drama and Real-life Challenges

The new Max series The Pitt took audiences by storm with its unique and realistic depiction of a day in the life of our frontline workers. 

Unlike most medical dramas centering on the sexual tension between its characters — and especially unlike ER, what you automatically think of when you hear “Noah Wyle in a hospital show” currently suing for the similarities between the series — The Pitt takes a different approach to its version of a medical drama. The first season takes place in the entirety of one single 15-hour work shift at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, nicknamed “The Pitt.” Each episode accounts for one hour of the shift. Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Wyle) is the chief attending physician of the emergency department, grappling with trauma from the 2020 COVID pandemic while trying to survive the harrowing day and facing an array of modern day problems. 

Decider’s Joel Keller bestowed upon the HBO hit the STREAM IT stamp of approval, writing, “The Pitt is a medical drama that doesn’t try to make its doctors and nurses into superheroes and doesn’t try to sugarcoat the problems that medical personnel have in the world of 2020s American healthcare. Yes, you could look at it as ER 2025, but you’d be missing a lot if you do.”

While the debut finale just recently aired, The Pitt is already set to return for a second season, promising another haywire shift set during Fourth of July weekend. If you’re looking for new watches to fill the pit left on your screen (too much?), here are 7 more similar shows to stream now:

1. Based on the memoir of the same name, the British miniseries follows junior doctor Adam Kay (Ben Whishaw) balancing his personal life with the draining profession of working in obstetrics and gynecology at an NHS hospital. With a painfully honest look at what it takes to be a part of the labor ward, the emotional tolls of the job and lack of support weigh heavy on the staff. (Shades of the tense conversations between Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby and hospital management.) Also starring Ambika Mod (One Day) and Kadiff Kirwan (Slow Horses), this is the right watch if you’re looking for more angst and heartbreak. 

   watch this is going to hurt on amc+

2. Directed by multi-Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, this part period piece, part medical drama takes us to early 1900s New York. Knickerbocker Hospital, based on a real institution in Harlem, is one of the last places that tends to the immigrant and lower-class populations of the city. With sepsis raging and modern antibiotics yet to be invented, the doctors and nurses led by Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen) attempt to serve both poor and wealthy patients while discovering new medical advancements. On the down low, Thackery is dealing with a drug addiction — paging Dr. Langdon! — debilitating his work performance. 

   watch the knick on max

3. Based on the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, the limited series details the brutal days at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in the aftermath of the natural disaster’s rampage on the city. Based on a book of the same name, the medical staff are forced to make impossible, haunting choices when floodwaters continue to rise and thousands are trapped in the facility without power. The stress and strain of doctors doing their jobs under immense pressure will feel very familiar to Pitt diehards.

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4. You might be familiar with this TV classic. While it doesn’t mirror the challenges of medical professionals in the year 2025, the dramedy is a fun mixture of medical mysteries and coworker conflict. Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is an unorthodox Sherlock Holmes of sorts when it comes to puzzling diagnoses. Despite a heavy pain medication addiction, House works away in diagnostic medicine, ruffling the feather of his fellow colleagues all throughout.

   watch house on peacock

5. Dopesick doesn’t necessarily take place in a hospital, but like The Pitt does with the healthcare system, the miniseries takes an honest look at the devastating opioid addiction crisis in America, remembered as the worst drug epidemic in the country, and who aided in instigating it. Based on the book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, the show uses fictionalized characters to take audiences through how one Big Pharma company triggered the national catastrophe and calamity in the lives of thousands. 

   watch dopesick on hulu

6. In the same vein of tackling real world issues, We Own This City portrays the disturbing corruption that exists within the law enforcement system. Based on the book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption, the crime series follows the true story of the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force. Jon Bernthal stars as Wayne Jenkins, one of the main offending sergeants in the descent into mass corruption. 

   watch we own this city on max

7. watch code black on prime video

   An understaffed and overcrowded emergency room is tended to with insufficient resources by the doctors, nurses and surgeons at the fictional Angels Memorial Hospital. The CBS show is based on a documentary, also entitled Code Black, that details the lives of young residents working in the trauma bay at Los Angeles County Hospital. A “code black” referring to an emergency room being at full capacity, and a long day for staff. 

Claire Waheed is a recently graduated freelance writer currently based in Texas. She loves all things pop culture and new adventures.