Medical dramas are a tried and true genre in the TV world, and we recently got a great new addition with The Pitt. The Emmy-winning series (which is streaming with a HBO Max subscription) is currently in the midst of Season 2, showing another insane shift in the Emergency Department of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. I absolutely love the Noah Wyle-led series, but it's making watching current Grey's Anatomy feel almost impossible. Hear me out.
Shortly after its premiere, The Pitt joined the ranks of HBO shows that got the world talking. This largely thanks to Wyle's return to the genre, its real-time format, and its gory medical procedures. I'm a longtime Grey's Anatomy fan who still watches the show's new episodes on ABC (and streaming with a Hulu subscription), but seeing how great the HBO show is makes enjoying Season 22 of Grey's even more difficult.
The Pitt Is Incredible And Makes Me Think Of The Golden Age Of Grey's
I've been watching Ellen Pompeo's show since early in its run, and regularly rewatch classic Grey's to experience the series at its pinnacle. The more recent seasons have been a bit of a slog to watch, but I'm not someone who really quits TV shows... especially ones like this that mean so much to me. But The Pitt's quality is so far beyond the current state of Grey's Anatomy that it's making it hard to even sit through.
To start, the gore that's shown in The Pitt has really highlighted how easy we've had it throughout the 22 season of Grey's (so far). And after watching the HBO show, it's difficult to feel the same thrill and scares from the medical procedures at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.
Then there's the actual storyline of The Pitt, which in many ways feels like the good old days of Grey's Anatomy. The show is filled with compelling medical cases, combined with the interpersonal drama of the Emergency Department staff. It's a reminder of how the ABC series used to be prestige television, and the way that its quality has unfortunately waned in the two decades it's been on the air.
When Season 1 of The Pitt was on, I urged Grey's Anatomy fans to check it out... especially when Perfect Penny actress Samantha Sloyan popped up as the mother of a young patient. Season 2 has been similarly incredible, but now it's actually giving me a sense of ennui about the days of Grey's past. I mean, think about how great we had it in the single-digit seasons!
Another reason the comparisons have been bumming me out is due to how few long-running Grey's Anatomy actors are still in the show. The news of Kevin McKidd and Kim Ravers' forthcoming departures only highlighted how the cast is mostly made up of the newbies, and I was kind of hoping that the show was coming to an end. Alas, it's been renewed for Season 23, so there's no indication that the beloved medical drama is going to wrap up anytime soon. As such, the comparisons between Grey's and The Pitt are likely going to continue for the foreseeable future.
Grey's Anatomy and The Pitt both air new episodes Thursdays as part of the 2026 TV schedule. We'll just have to wait and see how long these two shows end up staying on the air.
