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Warning: This article contains spoilers about plot points of<\/em> The Pitt season two, premiering in January.<\/em><\/p>\n The first thing I see are the scrubs, waiting for me on the golf cart. I\u2019ve just checked into the Warner Bros. lot, site of the immersive 18,000-square-foot set for The Pitt,<\/em> HBO Max\u2019s Emmy-nominated medical drama<\/a>. Currently in production on season two, the show favors a comprehensive, 360-degree filmmaking style, wherein crew members or background actors might find themselves accidentally passing through a shot. Anyone hanging around for the day must blend in so as not to disrupt the flow. We drive from the WB gate to the production offices, where I change, then head to stage 22 and walk inside. It\u2019s a hot day in Burbank, but the California sun fades like a distant memory as the cool AC and fluorescent lighting of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center take instant effect.<\/p>\n The vivid realism is palpable, but one reason why The Pitt<\/em> has caught on so strongly. The 15-episode first season, which aired this past winter and depicted an especially chaotic day inside the hospital (with each episode covering about an hour), evolved into a streaming phenomenon, ranking among the top 10 shows on Nielsen\u2019s ratings charts and cultivating a rabid online fan base. Starring ER<\/em>\u2019s Noah Wyle<\/strong> as a senior attending physician grieving the loss of his mentor, The Pitt<\/em> recalled beloved medical dramas of a past TV era while forging boldly ahead, poignantly speaking to the perilous state of American health care post-COVID and spotlighting both the everyday heroism and the human flaws of the medical workers keeping the system afloat.<\/p>\n Created by R. Scott Gemmill,<\/strong> the show is up for 13 Emmys<\/a>, including for best drama and best actor (Wyle), a major achievement that was celebrated by the cast and crew while they\u2019d just started getting to work on season two<\/a>\u2014which will be set approximately 10 months after season one, over Fourth of July weekend. In other words, they went back to work under very different circumstances. \u201cLast season, I came in with about a month\u2019s notice, moved to America for the first time, had no idea what was going on,\u201d says Shabana Azeez,<\/strong> who plays the wide-eyed medical student Dr. Javadi. \u201cSo this time, people looked familiar. Maybe they looked prettier to me because I loved them already.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWill the show have enough dramatic engine and built-in aggregate tension\u2014and will the characters be just as gripping as what we gave the audiences last year? I hope so,\u201d Wyle tells me from The Pitt<\/em>\u2019s waiting-room set, which is empty for the day. \u201cYou can\u2019t do a major catastrophe<\/a> every season without it feeling like a hospital is not plotted in reality. Hopefully, it\u2019s the characters, the interactions, the behaviors, the nobility\u2014the quotidian detail of the show that people really responded to.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside this hospital, I\u2019m first shuffled into video village. Typically on a set, this means going to a faraway room where crew members watch takes and give notes over headsets. Not here\u2014it\u2019s a makeshift system going from zone to zone (whichever is both unoccupied and safely out of the filming range), with the director John Cameron,<\/strong> writer Cynthia Adarkwa,<\/strong> and others crammed together. A \u201crate your pain\u201d chart and a masking policy sign hover above us, lest we forget this room is usually used for fictional patient evaluations. They\u2019re early in the process of shooting episode four, beginning the day with a long dialogue scene, the cameras roving between simultaneous conversations. The Pitt<\/em> moves fast, but you also see the actors taking advantage of the authenticity of their space. Their movements are fluid from take to take.<\/p>\n \u201cThe set is the secret hero,\u201d says Katherine LaNasa,<\/strong> a longtime character actor who was just nominated for her first Emmy for her portrayal of the indefatigable Nurse Dana. \u201cIt\u2019s why the acting seems so good. You can actually really live in it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s almost torture to be a fan of The Pitt<\/em> and watch a juicy scene like this out of context. At one point, Dana asks Wyle\u2019s Dr. Robby if he\u2019d like to pull Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball<\/strong>) out of triage to help him out. \u201cWe are doing just fine without him,\u201d Robby replies. This should pique any regular viewer\u2019s interest, since season one ended with Robby refusing to forgive Langdon after discovering the young doctor had stolen doses of lorazepam and Librium. Season two takes place both on Langdon\u2019s first day out of rehab and, Wyle tells me, on Robby\u2019s last day at the hospital before taking a lengthy break.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n