By BILL HARRIS
\nSpecial to The Lede<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is John Wells the most employee-friendly boss in history?<\/p>\n
After all, there aren\u2019t many bosses in the world who would issue this supposedly pressure-reducing declaration to his workforce: \u201cStop being so good at your jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s exactly what happened on the set of THE PITT<\/a>, the acclaimed medical drama starring Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael \u201cRobby\u201d Robinavitch that is returning for its second season on Thursday, Jan. 8<\/a>, only on Crave.<\/p>\n Wells is a co-executive producer of THE PITT, which is set in a Pittsburgh hospital emergency department, with each season of the show taking place during a single 15-hour shift. As both Wyle \u2013 who also is a co-EP \u2013 and Wells recalled, a specific concern emerged as the series progressed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re almost too smooth \u2013 in fact, that was John\u2019s big note to us,\u201d Wyle revealed during a media conference. \u201cThings are starting to look too polished, too choreographed. You guys look too efficient, and the composition is too perfect. You know, don\u2019t be so good at your jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Wells agreed and added, \u201cour actors didn\u2019t know what they were doing at the beginning, literally physically. Then doing it for seven months (as the first season of THE PITT was being filmed), you get better at it, but the character is only one or two hours farther along in their training, not seven months farther along in their training. We had to continue to keep the discipline of, \u2018what do you actually know in the amount of time you\u2019ve spent as a physician in this setting?\u2019 There\u2019s nothing easy about what Noah\u2019s character does, but his character has been there for a long time. The others started to get too good.\u201d<\/p>\n And that went for the behind-the-scenes people as well.<\/p>\n \u201cOur camera crew also started to get too good,\u201d Wells said. \u201cPart of the rawness is bumping into things, and not knowing exactly where you are, and trying to keep up, because we\u2019re really trying with the camera to say, \u2018you are someone who\u2019s trailing behind these physicians, and so you\u2019re going to be in the way, and it\u2019s not going to be a perfect view, and you\u2019re not going to see everything all the time.\u2019 And so, we had to remind ourselves to not get too good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, in a wider sense, THE PITT had no such concerns, as the first season won multiple awards, and topped many 2025 \u201cbest of TV\u201d lists. Season 2 picks up 10 months after the compelling events of the first season, and follows another grueling 15-hour emergency shift, this time on the busy July 4 holiday weekend in the U.S.<\/p>\n After the first season of THE PITT was so celebrated, Wyle admitted that the cast and crew were fully cognizant of a possible sophomore slump, and were determined to combat it.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have something that\u2019s as impactful and as successful as our first season was, it\u2019s inevitable that you\u2019re going to be combating expectation,\u201d Wyle said. \u201cBut I will say that John (Wells) alleviated us from a lot of that pressure early on, by saying, \u2018you don\u2019t have to do it bigger, better, faster, stronger, you just have to do it again, and remember what you did the first time, and stay true to the characters, and be honest, and go from there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That still sounds like a lot of stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we realized that certain things were working, and that was validated by the viewers, it gave us a little confidence to come back and put a little bit more emphasis on certain things and less on others,\u201d Wyle said. \u201cWe learned that it\u2019s a really delicate balance between the cases and the characters, and that a lot of people respond to the medicine, for sure, but a lot of people respond more to the internal journey of our characters. So, coming back, it was less about coming up with sexy cases, and more about being really faithful to the interior architecture of the characters, and where they were, and how these cases that they\u2019re working on reflect on them even to a greater degree, I\u2019d say.\u201d<\/p>\n The status of healthcare in both the United States and Canada is a hot topic, and THE PITT has pointed yet another bright spotlight on those concerns. But Wells stressed that when any show reaches for contemporary relevance in a way that\u2019s too obvious, it can be a mistake.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important not to follow the headlines, which is kind of top-down, but rather to actually hear what the concerns are of the people who do this job,\u201d Wells explained. \u201cNow, the people who do it also read those headlines, and sometimes those are also their concerns. But sadly, there are a lot of stories to talk about in American healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n