'The Pitt' Is Making Once-a-Year Seasons Cool Again

I’m not sure which show officially started the trend that it was OK for streaming series to wait two or three years between seasons (I want to blame Game of Thrones, but The Sopranos did it first). But that trend caught fire during the pandemic, which completely normalized long gaps between seasons. Now we have to wait two-and-a-half years for new episodes of For All Mankind or three years for Severance or, what? Forty-eight years between seasons of Stranger Things? (Seriously, though: It will take a full decade for that series to air its full five seasons).

The long gaps are a great way to make us lose interest. Whereas HBO Max’s The Pitt is like: F**k that. We’re going to make 15 episodes a season and we’re going to do it annually. When is the last time a legit cable series aired 15 episodes a year? The Walking Dead probably, but even the AMC zombie series had two- or three-month breaks between the first half and the back half of each season.

The Pitt returns in January. Most everyone is returning (except for Tracy Ifeachor’s Dr. Collins), and the big tension in the second season will be between Dr. Robby and Dr. Langdon, who will have to work together for the first time since the events of last season because of a big scheduling mix-up. Langdon has apparently done all the right things to return to work, but Dr. Robby still feels betrayed.

Here’s the first teaser trailer. In August! Only four and a half months since the most recent episode. I love this for us.

The Pitt returns in January.