The Texas Chain Saw Massacre wasn’t the only Ed Gein-inspired horror film to be released in 1974. That year also saw the release of a movie called Deranged, which stuck closer to the details of the Gein case than Chain Saw did but still took plenty of dramatic liberties – and changed the name of the lead character to Ezra Cobb. Vinegar Syndrome has announced that they will be giving Deranged a 4K release later this month, and copies are available for pre-order at THIS LINK! This release is limited to 6,000 units.
Directed by Jeff Gillen and Alan Ormsby from a screenplay written by Ormsby, Deranged features special effects by the legendary Tom Savini (some of which are shown in the trailer embedded above, which you should only watch if you have a strong stomach) and tells the following story: Ezra Cobb leads a simple life on an isolated family farm with his overbearing, god-fearing mother, who spends her days ranting about the evils of women and the sins of the flesh. When Ma Cobb suddenly and violently expires, Ezra is plunged into a deep despair, and his already troubled mind crosses over into full-blown psychopathy. Wracked with loneliness, Ezra begins plundering the local graveyard to obtain companions to bring home with him, starting with his dear mother, whom he props up in her bed and holds conversations with. But soon, even this collection of cadavers isn’t company enough for old Ez’, and he decides to turn his attention to fresher subjects…
Roberts Blossom, who you may remember as LeBay from the John Carpenter / Stephen King movie Christine and/or Old Man Marley from Home Alone, stars as Ezra Cobb.
Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K release of Deranged has the following features: – 2-disc Set: 4K Ultra HD / Region A Blu-ray – 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range – Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative – Commentary track with writer and co-director Alan Ormsby – Commentary track with special effects artist Tom Savini – Commentary track with film historian Richard Harland Smith – “Very Unnatural Deaths” (12 min) – an interview with special effects artist Tom Savini – “It Was a Fun Time!” (12 min) – an interview with actor Brian Smegal – “Disturbed, Demented, Deranged” (24 min) – an interview with Nightmare USA author Stephen Thrower – “The Making of Deranged” (13 min) – an archival documentary – Interview with producer Tom Karr (17 min) – Introduction to the film by Tom Savini – Original trailers – TV spot – Image gallery – Reversible sleeve artwork – English SDH subtitles
Are you a fan of Deranged, and will you be buying a copy of Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K release? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Put away your dice and pour yourself a flagon of ale to wash down your Nachos Supreme because Stern Pinball is back with a brand-new pinball machine that sets you up for adventure! Today, Stern Pinball is teasing its Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye pinball machine, available now in Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition models.
In celebration of 50 years of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game, Stern Pinball, in collaboration with Hasbro and its Wizards of the Coast division, brings you the pinball adventure of a lifetime in Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye! Stern’s thrilling journey into the Forgotten Realms features iconic enemies, including a red dragon, gelatinous cube, mimic, Sammaster the lich, Xanathar the beholder, an owlbear, and locations including those in Faerûn such as Arabel and Westgate.
All models for Stern Pinball’s Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye feature artwork by prolific artist Vincent Proce, music from world-renowned composer Cris Velasco, and voiced by a talented cast including Michael Dorn, Kevin Smith, Luke Gygax, Chris Prynoski, Brendon Small, Gerard Way, Matthew Mercer, Laura Bailey, Marisha Ray, Anthony Carboni, and Mica Burton.
According to Stern Pinball’s official press release for the Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye pinball machine, players are chosen members of the Dragonshield Guild, trying to defeat the dragon queen Tiamat, who is hatching a plan to rise again, triggering the War of Dragons, with Xanathar, Balinor and Sammaster all fighting for power. Players will experience the game’s fantasy world under the glass, fusing pinball with the iconic franchise like never before.
Battle Rath the Relentless, the red dragon, the most advanced animatronic mech in pinball, intelligently reacts to player action with multi-axis motion and features omnidirectional impact sensing technology. Voiced by the iconic Michael Dorn, players will attempt to defeat Rath the Relentless with pinballs and by hitting the 3-bank target, steal its treasure. When Rath the Relentless breathes his magnificent fire, multiple pinballs shoot from its mouth but be prepared. Players can activate a metal shield between the flippers to not only defend against attacks but also assist with playfield shots.
Enjoy mysterious and exciting features by navigating through hidden passageways, experience an electromagnet-powered gelatinous cube that freezes the pinball, and explore dynamic dungeon levels that are accessed through a disappearing playfield trap door. Other features include Fizmo’s store that allows players to acquire unique items, a treasure chest that unleashes mimic monsters, and more secrets to uncover.
Roll the dice with randomness as players unlock where shots and choices control the path of the game’s campaign, driving toward different story endings. Each path is different for players, spanning from characters to trinkets to weekly items and more; once the game campaign has concluded, additional characters will be unlocked.
For more details about Stern Pinball’s Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye, including information on how you can pre-order your game of choice, check out their official website.
Dungeons & Dragons has offered players unique and imaginative experiences across far-reaching realms with inspired storytelling, gameplay, and character design for decades. Stern’s latest pinball machine brings a new level to the D&D experience with precision gameplay, a high skill ceiling, and dazzling effects. It’s the perfect pinball machine for any Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast and a must-play for silver ball wizards across generations.
While Paramount‘s Sonic the Hedgehog3 continues to rake in dollars at the global box office, fans of the “gotta go fast” franchise already anticipate the next installment in the live-action animated series. Following the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Paramount announced plans for Sonic the Hedgehog 4. Like its predecessors, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 promises to add new fan-favorite characters to the cast, including one I’ve been waiting to see since the first installment. While new critters will appear in Sonic 4, fans wonder if Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik is returning, given the character’s fate at the end of Sonic 3. Thankfully, Jim Carrey told Cinema Today he’s “definitely open” to reprising his villainous role in Sonic the Hedgehog 4.
It will take some fancy writing to bring Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik back for Sonic the Hedgehog 4. It wouldn’t be his first return from a seemingly impossible scenario. However, Dr. Robotnik exits Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in more than a few pieces. What do I mean? Spoilers ahead! Jim Carrey pulls double duty in Sonic 3 as Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his very much alive grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik. During the film’s finale, after Ivo realizes Gerald aims to destroy Earth, Ivo sacrifices himself to destroy the ARK and Eclipse Cannon. Robotnik exits the movie as a hero, leaving his villain status in question for any follow-up films.
“I’m definitely open. I’m open to the idea, and generally, they come to me with the next idea, and if I go, “That sounds fun,” then I’ll do it,” Carrey told Cinema Today. “I don’t feel locked to anything in life, unless it’s something that interests me. I certainly love this crew, I love this gang that makes these movies, and I love the fans. There’s a lot of really great energy around it, great responses, and the fans jump in and say, “How about if you do this?” They’ve been super helpful. I think we’re all making this movie together.”
A mid-credits sequence in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 teases the arrival of two anticipated characters from the franchise, Metal Sonic, and the giant hammer-wielding hedgehog, Amy Rose. Amy’s inclusion in Paramount’s Sonic cinematic universe could introduce a love interest for the Blue Blur. In addition to feeling flirty around Sonic, Amy is a bubbly, kind, and battle-ready do-gooder with attitude and a temper. Amy does not speak in the mid-credits tease, leaving the door open for Paramount to weigh their options.
Should Jim Carrey return for Sonic the Hedgehog 4, or is it time to find a new villain for the franchise? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
At the end of September, JoBlo Media and Octane Multimedia teamed up to launch a new YouTube channel named JoBlo TV, which hosts multiple feature films to watch for free throughout the week. The genres we’ll be focusing on at JoBlo TV are Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Thrillers – and the free movies we shared this week delivered thrills, action, and horror!
This week’s line-up consisted of the crime thriller Danny’s Game, the Western action movie The Price of Death, and the horror film An English Haunting. Here’s some information on each of them:
Directed by Bill Cooper from a screenplay by Joshua Ungaretti, Danny’s Game has the following synopsis: Danny Bishop is a gambling prodigy. After exiling himself to prison, he returns to his brothers home only to find himself back in the game because of a large debt for his protection in prison. He cons a group of high stakes gamblers, including his vicious rival, Alex, to a tournament. The story is a delicate balance between the tension of the game and the strained relationship with his brother. Ungaretti stars in the film alongside Ava Justin, Mike Bredon, Megan Mac, Al Saks, Gilbert Asuncion, Brent Myrand, Alex Galick, Tim Herkenhoff, and Chari Eckmann.
Directed by Chip Baker, who also provided the story idea that Danny Garcia, Aaron Stielstra, and Jose L. Villanueva fleshed out into a screenplay, The Price of Death tells this story: A gambler turned bounty hunter transports a high-priced outlaw to his hanging, unaware that they are being chased by a ruthless murderer and his gang of thieves for money hidden by the outlaw. The film stars Al Matthews, Russell Quinn Cummings, Ken Luckey, Dan van Husen, Crispian Belfrage, Danny Garcia, Juan Manuel Torres Gómez, Aaron Stielstra, Daniel Jordan, Cesar Mendez, Ray Gange, Joaquín Ortega, Daisy Hughes, Nick Reynolds, Tano Sánchez, Erica Lawrence, Chema Bascón, and many more. This one has a big cast list.
An English Haunting was written and directed by Charlie Steeds, and has the following synopsis: In 1960s England, Blake Cunningham and his alcoholic mother are forced to move into the mysterious Clemonte Hall, a vast isolated manor house, to care for his dying Grandfather who resides in the attic room. Soon, ghostly goings-on fill the house with dread, as it becomes apparent Grandfather’s illness may have a supernatural cause that can only be cured by uncovering the terrifying secrets of the house and its dark history. The film stars David Lenik, Tessa Wood, Barrington De La Roche, Emma Spurgin Hussey, Jéssica Alonso, Rory Wilton, Swainley Whipps Eden-Entwistle, Richard D. Myers, Mark Jones, and Klay Mobius Trip.
To follow our JoBlo TV releases, click over to the YouTube channel and subscribe! We also recently launched a new page at JoBloYouTubeNetwork.com, where you can access all of our YouTube channels from one place.
In the same The Hollywood Reporter interview where he revealed that Netflix is developing three more Fear Street movies, author R.L. Stine also spent some time hyping up another streaming adaptation of his work: Goosebumps: The Vanishing. The second season of the new Goosebumps TV series, Goosebumps: The Vanishing is set to make its premiere on January 10th on Disney+ and Hulu – and Stine described this as an “elevated” Goosebumps that’s more terrifying than the source material.
The first season of Goosebumps centered on a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle — while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past. The show is taking the anthology route, so we can expect a second season that has “an entirely new cast and setting based on Stine’s iconic Scholastic book series.” Season 2 will also consist of eight episodes, two shorter than the first season. Season 2 will pick up when teenage siblings discover a threat within their home, setting off a chain of events that unravel a profound mystery. As they delve into the unknown, the duo find themselves entangled in the story of five teenagers who mysteriously vanished in 1994.
The cast of Goosebumps: The Vanishing includes Arjun Athalye (Are You Afraid of the Dark?), Eloise Payet (The End of the Party), Christopher Paul Richards (The Kids Are Alright), Kyra Tantao (Zombies 3), Stony Blyden (American Born Chinese), and Sakina Jaffrey (Billions), and the only details that have been shared about their characters are their names. As Deadline reported, “Athalye plays Sameer; Payet is Hannah; Richards plays Matty; Tantao portrays Nicole; Blyden is Trey and Jaffrey portrays Ramona.” Also in the cast are Sam McCarthy (Dead to Me) and Jayden Bartels (Side Hustle) as fraternal twins Devin and Cece, respectively; Elijah Cooper (That Girl Lay Lay) as CJ; Galilea La Salvia (Party Down) as Frankie; Francesca Noel (R#J) as Alex; and Ana Ortiz (Devious Maids) as Jen, “a dedicated police detective who remains rooted in her Brooklyn neighborhood after experiencing a tragic event that involved her friends in adolescence.” Friends‘ David Schwimmer is also in there as Anthony, “a former botany professor and divorced parent of teenage girls who is juggling the responsibilities of overseeing an aging parent while having his kids for the summer.“ The twins Devin and Cece are the children of Schwimmer’s Anthony.
Rob Letterman, who directed the first Goosebumps movie, created this series with Nick Stoller, and Hilary Winston serves as showrunner on the new season. Stoller is executive producing the show through his company Stoller Global Solutions. Letterman and Winston are also executive producing Goosebumps alongside Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty of Original Film, Conor Welch of Stoller Global Solutions, and Erin O’Malley. The show comes to us from Sony Pictures Television Studios.
Stine told The Hollywood Reporter, “When I write a Goosebumps book, that’s my most important thing, the twists and the shocks. Someone wrote a line that I wish I had written for the Goosebumps movie, where Jack Black played me, and at the very end, Jack is teaching a class, and he says, ‘Every story has a beginning, a middle and a twist,’ which perfectly describes [Goosebumps]. It perfectly describes it and it describes the TV show as well. I think they’re not predictable. So much of children’s literature is so linear, and so many horror movies, you know what’s coming. But I always try to have something that turns it all around that no one’s expecting. Another thing I like, and this is true to the books, [is that] the parent is always useless. In Goosebumps, either they don’t believe the kid or they’re not around and they don’t help.” When he sat down to check out Goosebumps: The Vanishing, Stine said, “I was kind of shocked at first to see all these teenagers walking around. But what they’ve done, they’ve made it older — high school kids — and they’ve hyped up the scares as well. It’s scarier. I just watched the first two episodes of the new season, and man, it’s very different, and it’s terrifying. The thing about Goosebumps is that no one ever dies. That’s the difference between Goosebumps and Fear Street [where] we kill off teenagers, right and left. We kill them all. Everyone loves it when you kill teenagers. There was a death in these first two episodes of the new [Goosebumps] season, but they have it happening 30 years ago. That’s a big difference. So it’s still Goosebumps. It’s just been elevated.“
Asked which Goosebumps book he would like to see receive the adaptation treatment in the future, Stine answered, “A Goosebumps book that nobody likes and no one’s ever interested in: Brain Juice. It’s about kids who drink this purple liquid and get smarter and smarter. They get too smart for everything. They get thrown out of school, they lose all their friends, and then they’re kidnapped by aliens, and on the way to the other planet, they get stupider and stupider. It’s my favorite Goosebumps book, but nobody knows it and it’ll never be adapted.“
Are you a Goosebumps fan, and are you looking forward to Goosebumps: The Vanishing? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Director Leigh Janiak and the Netflix streaming service brought us a really fun horror event back in the summer of 2021 with the Fear Street trilogy. Three films that were filmed back-to-back-to-back and then released over the course of three weeks – those films being Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, and Fear Street Part Three: 1666. It was an instant franchise, and had the potential to lead to many more films… because, after all, author R.L. Stine has written over 100 books that have been published under the various Fear Street banners. While we won’t be getting another trilogy event this year, we do know that a new addition to the franchise, Fear Street: Prom Queen, will be reaching Netflix sometime in 2025 – and Stine has told The Hollywood Reporter that there actually are three new Fear Street movies in the works!
After telling the interviewer there are three Fear Streets in development, Stine said, “The writers are working. So I’ve got my fingers crossed.” If The Hollywood Reporter understood correctly, Fear Street: Prom Queen is not among the three that Stine mentioned; rather, Netflix is developing three Fear Street movies that will follow the release of Prom Queen. So, counting this year’s release, we might have at least four more Fear Street movies to look forward to.
While the initial trilogy of films wasn’t directly based on any specific Fear Street book, the new movie will be telling a version of the story Stine crafted for his 1992 book The Prom Queen. Here’s the description: A spring night… soft moonlight… five beautiful Prom Queen candidates… dancing couples at the Shadyside High prom — these should be the ingredients for romance. But stir in one brutal murder — then another, and another — and the recipe quickly turns to horror. Lizzie McVay realizes that someone is murdering the five Prom Queen candidates one by one — and that she may be next on the list! Can she stop the murderer before the dance is over — for good? The official synopsis says Fear Street: Prom Queen takes us back to the town of Shadyside, Ohio, where prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider is unexpectedly nominated to the court, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.
Back in 2022, we heard that Chloe Okuno, who recently made her feature directorial debut with the thriller Watcher, would be directing the next Fear Street movie, but she left the street behind at some point in the last couple years. The film is actually being directed by Matthew Palmer, who made his feature directorial debut with the 2018 Netflix thriller Calibre. Palmer has written the screenplay with Calibre cast member Donald McLeary.
Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and Kori Adelson of Chernin Entertainment are producing Fear Street: Prom Queen, with Yvonne Bernard, Joan Waricha, and Jane Stine serving as executive producers. Caroline Pitofsky is overseeing the production for Chernin Entertainment.
The cast of Fear Street: Prom Queen includes Katherine Waterston (Alien: Covenant), Lili Taylor (The Conjuring), Chris Klein (American Pie), India Fowler (The Nevers), Suzanna Son (Red Rocket), Fina Strazza (Paper Girls), David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie), and Ella Rubin (The Idea of You).
Are you glad to hear that Netflix is planning to make three more Fear Street movies beyond Fear Street: Prom Queen? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Sometimes, there’s nothing worse than needing to pee at an inopportune time. I encounter this scenario every time I go to the cinema or a concert venue. You don’t want to miss a moment show, unsure of what the bathroom line looks like or what you’ll need to contend with after you enter the stall. The call of nature is especially sensitive for actors, who wear complicated costumes throughout the day. Some costume designers design outfits with bathroom trips in mind, but not all ensembles come with zippers and butt flaps. Moreover, some bathrooms are a considerable distance from the set, making trips to the washroom time-consuming and inconvenient for all involved. While working on Dune: Part Two, Zendaya learned a thing or two about dire bathroom needs and even put her health at risk to avoid “having an accident.”
Speaking with W Magazine, Zendaya said she suffered heatstroke on the set of Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Two because she stopped drinking water on the film’s scorching Jordan desert set. “I had such a fear of peeing myself or shitting myself, honestly, in the suit on set,” Zendaya told W Magazine about her fear of soiling her Fremen warrior body armor.
“We were in Jordan. It was very hot, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, man, the bathrooms are so far away,’ because we had to hike to the locations,” Zendaya said. “If you have to pee, you need at least 10 minutes to get out of the costumes. I was like, ‘Damn, I don’t want to drink too much water.’ I had such a fear of peeing myself or shitting myself, honestly, in the suit on set. One day, I didn’t drink enough and I had a heatstroke. I felt so barfy. I remember calling my mom on the bathroom floor, saying, ‘I feel terrible.’ She was like, ‘Did you drink water today?’ I said no. I thought I was being smart, but you can’t do that. So, lesson learned.”
While I understand the impulse to skip your water intake in a situation like this, do not follow Zendaya’s example. Water is a crucial part of your existence; we need it to survive. Not drinking water in a desert is ill-advised, and Zendaya is lucky to have recovered quickly. Hollywood should have costuming, and restroom location mandates that guarantee easy costume removal and bathrooms within a specific distance from the set. Someone smarter than me can figure out the logistics, but it’s not a bad idea.
When is the worst time not to have easy access to a bathroom? Let us know in the comments section below.
My favorite animated film of 2024, The Wild Robot, is getting a streaming release on Peacock on Friday, January 24, 2025. Debuting at the latest Toronto International Film Festival, the animated epic based on Peter Brown’s New York Times bestselling novel series, The Wild Robot, stomped to over $324 million at the global box office. If you’re not a Peacock subscriber, you can rent or purchase The Wild Robot on Prime Video, Apple TV+, and other Video On Demand platforms.
Directed by three-time Academy Award nominee Chris Sanders, The Wild Robot is an epic adventure staring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, the Black Panther franchise) as Roz, a robot that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must adapt to the harsh surroundings. Gradually, Roz starts building relationships with the animals on the island, including a clever fox voiced by Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian), and becomes the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling named Brightbill, voiced by Kit Connor (Ready Player One, Heartstopper). The Wild Robot is a powerful story about self-discovery, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature, and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things.
The Wild Robot features an incredible supporting voice cast alongside Nyong’o, Pascal, and Connor, including Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Rango), Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fall Guy), Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise), Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, What We Do in the Shadows) and Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2). Showcasing music by Emmy and Grammy-nominated composer and Oscar winner Kris Bowers, the film also boasts two original songs by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and music sensation Maren Morris.
In my estimation, The Wild Robot is Dreamworks Animation’s best and most mature movie. Beyond the life lessons, laughs, and heart-stopping heroism, it is a carefully crafted tale about breaking the bonds of isolation, trying to fit in where others feel you don’t belong, and going about life your way and no one else’s. Roz’s winning the island over through her selfless acts will surely be a topic of conversation come awards season.
Speaking of awards, I would not be surprised to see The Wild Robot nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. It has a good shot at taking the crown if movies like Inside Out 2, Flow, or Memoir of a Snail don’t beat it to the punch.
Are you excited about The Wild Robot coming to Peacock on Friday, January 24, 2025? Let us know in the comments section below.
Nearly three years have gone by since we heard that Ben McKenzie (Gotham) and Bojana Novakovic (Beyond Skyline) were the stars of the Japanese horror film Bloat, which had already started filming at that time. Now, it looks like Bloat might finally be almost ready to make its way out into the world, as the Motion Picture Association ratings board has announced that they’ve given the film an R rating for language and some violent content. The film will be released by Lionsgate, but they haven’t set a release date for it yet.
Written and directed by Tokyo-based filmmaker Pablo Absento, Bloat is a co-production between Timur Bekmambetov‘s company Bazelevs, the Russian streaming service Okko, French production and sales company Pulsar Content, and Japanese production company flag Co., Ltd. Filming took place in New York and Japan. Bloat does indeed use Bekmambetov’s Screenlife filmmaking technique, “in which the story unfolds on the screens of the devices used by the movie’s characters.” So this is something along the lines of Unfriended, Searching, etc.
Bloat tells the story of a military officer stationed in Turkey while his wife is vacationing in Japan with their kids. During the stay, their younger son almost drowns in a lake. Soon after the accident, the parents realize that something is wrong with their boy.
Sawyer Jones (Antlers) and Malcolm Fuller (New Amsterdam) are also in the cast.
McKenzie and Absento produced the film with Bekmambetov, Maria Zatulovskaya, and Anna Shalashina of Bazelevs; Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett of Pulsar Content; Hiroko Oda of flag Co., Ltd; and Dzhanik Fayziev of Okko. The Fantasia Film Festival’s artistic director Mitch Davis and Aleksandr Fomin serve as associate producers.
This marks the feature directorial debut of Absento, who previously directed the short films Call My Name, Shi, and Slit. Variety noted that she has also directed several episodes of SMA Horror (Smartphone Horror), a series produced by Takashi Shimizu, the creator of the Ju-on / Grudge franchise.
Does Bloat sound interesting to you, and are you glad to hear that it has finally been given a rating? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
PLOT: 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. Each episode follows an hour of Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch’s 15-hour shift as the chief attendant in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room.
REVIEW: Back in the 1990s, two competing medical dramas debuted on network television the same year. CBS series Chicago Hope hailed from David E. Kelley and lasted for six seasons, while NBC’s ER, from creator and medical doctor Michael Crichton, stayed on for fifteen years. ER launched the careers of Juliana Marguiles, George Clooney, and newcomer Noah Wyle. Fifteen years after its series finale, ER veteran Noah Wyle is back in scrubs in a similar yet unique medical drama. The Pitt, from ER showrunner John Wells. Shifting away from the relationship melodrama to focus on the actual emergency room cases faced by the frontline heroes at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, The Pitt is told in an almost real-time format, with each hour-long episode set in a single hour of a fifteen-hour shift in the emergency room nicknamed “The Pitt.” With minimal forays into the personal lives of doctors and nurses, The Pitt is a harrowing and powerfully realistic look into the frontlines of emergency medicine in the post-COVID-19 world.
The first episode of The Pitt begins at seven in the morning on an average day at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. As Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch (Noah Wyle) arrives for the start of his shift, the waiting room of the ER is packed with dozens waiting to be seen. As the supervising doctor for the emergency room, Dr. Robby is still reeling from PTSD surrounding the death of his mentor, Dr. Aaronson, to COVID four years ago this day. As the shift begins, the team of doctors and nurses at The Pitt take on patients handled by the previous medical experts and take on incoming emergencies along with those in the waiting room. Unlike ER and similar medical shows, which focus on patients within an hour, The Pitt has some patients seen and addressed within an hour. In contrast, others span multiple episodes due to the severity and complexity of their diagnoses. The first episode introduces the viewer to the staff of The Pitt, namely, Dr. Collins (Tracy Ifeachor), who is handling her unannounced pregnancy, Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), a cocky and experienced doctor, as well as second and third-year residents Dr. McKay (Chucky’s Fiona Dourif), Dr. Santos (Star Trek Picard‘s Isa Briones) and Dr. Mohan (Supriya Ganesh), recent transfer Dr. King (Taylor Dearden), and brand new residents Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and Dr. Javad (Shabana Azeez).
While we get moments that provide character development for each supporting character, the insights are quick and peppered between cases. On ER, each episode would see one or two main patients with a handful of minor ones but there was still plenty of time for romantic entanglements, hospital politics, and conflict between doctors. The Pitt still has elements of those subplots, but the focus is on realistic medical situations that never stop coming. Over the ten episodes made available for this review, the doctors of The Pitt treat dozens of patients, with the total nearing a hundred, with some successfully handled and others ending in tragedy and loss. There are recognizable faces in the patients and their next of kin, including actors Joana Going (House of Cards), Drew Powell (Gotham), and Samatha Sloyan (Midnight Mass). Most of these characters are organically woven into the heightened tension and anxiety of an overloaded emergency room suffering from understaffing and lack of resources. There is plenty of blood and lots of grisly injuries, but not much we have not seen on network medical shows. The biggest shift I noticed in this series airing on Max is the profanity, which is not overused but enhances the events’ realism.
What works in The Pitt outweighs what does not. Because of the focus being on the medical emergencies, none of which are as crazy as some of the stunt events seen on Grey’s Anatomy or Chicago Med, when a case comes into the emergency room, the doctors spout technobabble which sounds realistic but is likely beyond vetting by anyone who did not go to medical school. When the series shifts to the interactions between the doctors, we get hints of the melodrama that boosted ER and Chicago Hope. There are complaints from the nurses about the lack of support for frontline workers and discussions about the financial challenges coming from the top down. While COVID is referenced as a key event for many doctors, it is not as in your face as it could have been. Yes, there are a couple of blunt moments involving the vaccine debate, with the writers’ beliefs coming through loudly and clearly. Noah Wyle navigates most of these moments with aplomb from his prior medical show experience, and the rest of the cast is also solid.
Created by R. Scott Gemmill, a veteran of series including JAG, ER, and NCIS: Los Angeles, the fifteen episodes of The Pitt include entries written by Joe Sachs, Simran Baidwan, Cynthia Adarkwa, Valerie Chu, and star Noah Wyle, amongst others. Directing duties on the premiere fell to John Wells with Damien Marcaro, John Cameron, Silver Tree, and others, with Amanda Marsalis helming four episodes. The series has minimal music accompaniment, with non-stop action and movement, an impressive balance of handheld cinematography, and guerilla editing. Some of the heavier-handed elements did not work either for me, including the theft of an ambulance from outside the ER doors and how much screentime that takes up. There is also an ongoing narrative involving a doctor suspecting another, a pregnancy mystery, and a patient who may be a potential school shooter. Because of the real-time element of The Pitt, I get why these stories keep coming up episode after episode, but where some plots wrap up well, others linger too long.
A medical drama with significantly less soap opera tendencies and an increase in the gritty, medical focus of the story has been missing from television for a long time. The intensity of this series will likely give a new generation of future doctors and nurses the boost they will need to take care of those in need. If you like fast-paced drama without the frills of a standard formula procedural, The Pitt will be right up your alley. I found myself binging episode after episode without losing interest a single bit. This is a solid reinvention of the medical drama series and one I hope continues for future seasons. Noah Wyle may not deviate far from his tried-and-true experience on ER, and his return to the genre is a welcome one. I would have loved it if this series had been a true sequel to ER, but I will take this as the next best thing. I am writing you all a prescription for fifteen episodes of The Pitt to be taken stat.
