The Pitt s2 delivers more of the same. This is not a complaint.
ALSO: It is time to rewatch The X-Files. AND: A whole lot of news & trailers
Your favourite show of 2025 and mine, The Pitt, is back this week for its second season. The promise of the show is that it is a return to old-school TV vibes, meaning weekly episodes which are mostly stand-alone, and delivers new episodes with a new season every year.
Already the show has delivered on all of that. And know that for season two, everything you liked about season one is back. The formula for the show is intact, with every episode delivering new patients, most of which will see their cases resolved by the end of the hour, along with several patients who we follow through multiple episodes.
The show retains its honesty as well, in regards to the nature of an emergency room. While the show is pitched as a return to US network TV style storytelling, the show was always good about taking advantage of the liberties a streaming environment can offer - the surgery scenes are appropriately gruesome, while the human body is often seen with all manner of fleshy realism. There’s a scene involving a patient on Viagra which leads to something I have NEVER seen on television before.
Most of the cast have returned (Tracy Ifeachor is the only cast member not to return), with a handful of additional cast members thrown into the mix. While the newbies are all welcome on the show, the additional bodies does reduce the screentime for some of the favourites from the first season. Of the nine episodes I have seen so far, it does feel like Taylor Dearden who plays Dr Melissa King and Fiona Dourif as Dr Cassie McKay are underserved. I’m hoping we see more of them in the back-end of the season.
A very welcome addition to the show is the moderate tension introduced with the introduction of Sepideh Moafi as Dr. Baran Al-Hashim. The show never quite takes it as far as making her the Dr Weaver of the series, but the character has some similar attributes. It’s also funny that they have named her Al-Hashim. The name translates to ‘crusher of evil’ or ‘baker of bread,’ but written down, the ‘Al’ looks like ‘AI’, which the character is a huge proponent of. Her passion for AI tools are one of her key characteristics.
The show seems obsessed with the idea of making AI (and a reliance on technology, broadly) the bad guy in the series, almost ignorant of the reality of just how many doctors rely on AI note taking in their day-to-day work already. It was a reality back when the first season debuted and it shouldn’t be seen as a novelty here.
You’ll note that I mentioned having seen nine episodes. That’s all that I was provided, along with a note advising not to post reviews without having seen all nine. There’s a great reason for it, with the show following a specific patient through a good bulk of those nine episodes. While the show never quite achieves Love’s Labor Lost levels of TV-induced heartbreak, it gets pretty close.
The one criticism I have with the season is that it feels like the show is in a constant battle with itself to top the intensity of the mass shooter casualty event of episode ten in the first season. I hesitate to say more than that, but there’s a pretty rigid formula established in the show and hour ten always seems to be the one to look out for…
The Pitt is back. I’d hesitate to say that it is better than ever, because that’s not quite true. But it is just as good as season one, which was already setting impossibly high standards
The truth is out there, so I’m pressing play
2026 is a great time to re-watch The X-Files.
Sinners & Black Panther writer-director Ryan Coogler is turning his attention on a reboot of the TV show, which he is reportedly working on at the moment. It seems like the show will be a spin-off of sorts, continuing in the established world of The X-Files, but with new characters and a fresher approach.
A new direction is warranted, I feel. I remember being slammed by fans of the show when I wrote just prior to the 2016 revival of the series that the franchise would be better served by shaking up the dynamic of the show and introducing a broader cast beyond just Mulder and Scully. Two seasons and 16 episodes later, I felt pretty vindicated by what we saw: a tired retread that was quickly cancelled. There were a handful of good episodes.
Pluto TV this past week also launched a new The X-Files FAST channel in the US, playing on loop the series from start to finish - all 11 seasons. Here, in Australia, the show is available to watch on-demand anytime on Disney+.
I started rewatching the show a few days ago and am going to try and see it through to the end. If successful, that will be the first time I’ve seen it in full.
During the early years of the show, I was crazy for it. Absolutely besotted. Each week I’d watch (and tape and rewatch) the shows, I’d read articles in imported sci-fi magazines from the newsagent, I bought the merchandise, I read the novels, I read the comics. I was even a regular contributor to The X-Files Fan Club of Australia newsletter.
The show debuted in Australia in January of 1994 (in the US it was Sept 1993), just days after my family moved interstate. With my life completely uprooted, it makes sense to me now that I found that show to latch onto.
But, The X-Files lost me a bit when the show moved production from Vancouver to LA for season six and beyond. It just started feeling different and my enthusiasm waned. By the time David Duchovny left the show at the end of season seven, I was only occasionally watching the show. Most of seasons eight and nine I never saw.
If you’re interested in the show and/or doing your own rewatch, I’m tweeting thoughts out as I’m watching on my Bluesky acct.
News Desk
Following the season four Mayor of Kingstown finale, Paramount+ has renewed the show for a fifth and final season. It will run just eight episodes instead of 10. Read: Deadline
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the US, which aids the funding of PBS shows like Sesame Street, will be dissolved following last years decision by the Trump government to rescind federal funding. Read: Indiewire
Apple will stream six Lakers games live in Apple Immersive format to local Vision Pro owners. Read: UploadVR
Emily in Paris has been renewed for a sixth season by Netflix. Read: Variety
If you’re up-to-date on Industry and are eagerly awaiting the new season, Variety has a good preview article interviewing the series stars and the showrunners.
Versant media Group, the company set up to manage the cable channels spun-off from Comcast, has now officially separated and is trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Read: C21
At CES, Samsung has unveiled the world’s first 130-inch Micro RGB TV. No, there’s no price announced for this, which means that you won’t be seeing it at your local JB Hifi store anytime soon. Read: Samsung
Amazon has updated the Fire TV interface, putting an emphasis on reducing search time for users. It has also launched a TV set that competes with Samsung’s The Frame - the Ember Artline (terrible name) is billed as a “lifestyle TV” and is designed to showcase artwork and photos. Read: Amazon Blog
Google’s AI platform Gemini is getting an update on Google TV. It will add Nano Banana (that’s Google’s text to image image generator) and Veo (text to video). Read: The Verge
Trailer Park
I don’t include many theatrical-release movie trailers in the newsletter, but my dudes, you need to press play on the trailer for the new comedic horror They Will Kill You. This is wild.. and very much NSFW. I cannot wait to see this.
The Rip stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and terrible facial hair. It is a movie debuting on Netflix Jan 16. It looks pretty entertaining.
“Are you a snitch, Mike?”
The Beauty is the latest Ryan Murphy show, so be warned it will probably be awful. But, I really like the comic series it is based on. So, I’m cautiously optimistic. It debuts on FX/Hulu Jan 21.
To Love, To Lose debuts on Netflix Jan 15.
Can This Be Translated? debuts on Netflix Jan 16.
The emotions of a celebrity and her interpreter get lost in translation as they travel the world filming a TV show. Will love find its own language?
One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 debuts on Netflix Jan 12.
Is It Cake? Valentines debuts on Netflix Feb 4.
WWE: Unreal returns for season 2 Jan 20 on Netflix.
Hope Valley 1874 debuts on Hallmark+ in March.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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Calling everything AI doesn’t make it so. Voice to text has been around for years.