Remember the conceit of Fox’s action-drama series 24, wherein each season covered 24 hours in the life of a counter-terrorist federal agent? Max’s new show, The Pitt, does something similar, but with fewer assassination attempts and more anesthetizations. Each show covers one hour of “real” time, with the first episode beginning at seven A.M. The setting is the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, and the lead physician is Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch, played by Noah Wyle. A slew of characters surround him: various senior and junior resident physicians, some nurses, an intern. In the basement of the hospital—”the pit,” get it?—Rabinavitch and the rest deal with everything from a crying baby to gunshot wounds. Considering the premise, one might assume that The Pitt gets its thrills from fast-paced, anxiety-inducing realism. But it’s the characters themselves—especially Rabinavitch—who make this show worth watching. —Jack Sullivan