I think I mentioned this already but we made Chooch sign up for a student HBO account so I could watch Heated Rivalry (lol it’s so good and I would like to add that those two actors have way more palpable chemistry than Emily* has had with ANY guy they pair her up with in Paris OR Rome!!) but then Henry and I started watching The Pitt because Chooch told us to and I am always doing what he says because I so desperately want him to think I’m cool and to have things in common with him.

*(Soft swerve, but I’m officially over with Emily in Paris. It’s the same shit, different city!)

I will admit – I HATED THE FIRST EPISODE. And not just because I’m queasy and have to spend most of the time looking away when it’s a medical show, but I thought the writing was corny AF. I think I was just hypercritical from the start though because this is a Pittsburgh based show and I was ready to sit on my throne and judge. But then after the first 2 episodes, I started warming up to some of the characters and became sucked in. It just wasn’t instant. Sometimes, you gotta let these things sink in organically you know?

Anyway, in honor of Friday, here are 5 things that I had to say now that we’re caught up and into season 2:

1. JESSE

Hi, hello. This is the best character on the whole damn show. I told Chooch and he said, “WHO” because if we’re being real, Jesse is kind of an NPC but if you really watch him in the background, he is generally the only one who is giving a believable medical performance. When I googled him to find a picture to send to Chooch after his rude “WHO” response, I learned that the guy who plays Jesse is actually a real nurse, so this makes so much more sense!

2. Posh McDonalds

There is this one storyline with a patient who is trying to hide the fact that she’s unhoused and she says something about McDonald’s who cares why, and the doctor (WHO IS ON TO HER, BTW) tricks her by saying, “Wow, the McDonald’s must be really nice where you live in Shadyside, huh?” because she has Shadyside as her address and that’s like, one of THOSE areas. I whipped my head around to gape at Henry and yelled, “AS IF SHADYSIDE EVEN HAS A MCDONALD’S!” I mean, correct me if I’m wrong any local readers, but I don’t think they do!? And even if they did, it would probably still suck. Maybe I’m just being bitch eating crackers over here, but that annoyed me. (Mostly because the doctor who says this is one of my least favorite characters on the show – SHE IS SO ANNOYING GO BACK TO ACTING WITH CHUCKY.)

3. EDGEFest

The first episode of the second season of The Pitt opens to a song by a local Pgh band called THE CLARKS. As far as local bands go, it could be worse. But they’re actually not too bad and have been around for—at least the 90s? In 1997, I was working at Olan Mills as a telemarketer and the morning shift manager always had our classic rock station playing so to this day, if I hear The Clarks’ “Penny on the Floor,” I immediately hear Linda singing it with robust bravado.

But The Clarks story I want to tell here today – it isn’t that great because I told a work friend on Teams the other day and she was like OK – is about the time in the early 00s when Henry and I went to Buffalo, NY for a music festival called Edgefest. (Their alt radio station was/is The Edge. Come on, guys, try to keep up.) I had gone several times and I want to say the big draw for me this particular year was The Tea Party. I had never seen them before and they alone were worth the drive. The Clarks were also in the lineup for that year’s Edgefest, so good for them! Always nice to see a local band getting some out-of-town love.

I bought an Edgefest t-shirt and had gotten some of other bands there to sign it (sadly, I’m not even sure I still have this shirt…), so I had it in my arms when Henry and I were walking up a hill only to run smack into Scott, The Clarks frontman. I wouldn’t really call myself a fan by any means but I felt compelled to show him some hometown love so as he about to pass by, I stopped him and said we were from Pittsburgh. I remember him being very nice and offering to sign my shirt because he misunderstood me and thought that we had come to Edgefest JUST for The Clarks. I didn’t have the heart to correct him though – he such a nice guy!

Before I close the loop on #3, I want to go back to that Season 2 opener because in addition to being soundtracked by The Clarks, the scene also has Noah Wyle riding a motorcycle to work behind a pick-up truck with American flags billowing in the breeze. UGH. “Great now everyone thinks Pittsburgh is MAGA,” I cried to Henry. We do have the distinction of being about an hour away from the site of the fabricated assassination attempt, though.

Anyway, this was the song that played in The Pitt:

4. Excuse me, what accent now?

The head nurse lady, Dana, is another one of my favorite characters and I think the actor that plays her is so great in this role. But….well. She has this accent, right? It was really bothering me all during season 1, and I would say out loud, “WHAT ACCENT IS THAT??” I eventually settled on fishing town in Maine. But then last night, I was like, “No, this is ridiculous, I need to know” because she doesn’t talk like that in real life. So I Googled “Dana The Pitt accent” thinking maybe her character’s backstory has her moving to Pittsburgh for college from Boston, I don’t fucking know, you know how they usually have backstories online somewhere. But instead, a Reddit thread came up and you guys.

Hold on, I have to compose myself.

You guys. According to the comments….

….it’s supposed to be….

…a Pgh accent. Like, a Yinzer dialect.

Um. As someone who was born and raised here, that is NOT that. Like, not even close. Henry sent me a video from her on the Today Show where she was talking about her struggle to learn it (I don’t doubt that it’s a struggle because as I mentioned, I was born and raised here but JUST FAR OUT ENOUGH IN THE ‘BURBS that I managed to avoid picking up one for myself and I cannot for the life of me imitate it) and whoever the fuck was interviewing her said, “Well, you nailed it.”

No, I’m sorry, no offense to this actor and her skills but she didn’t nail anything because whatever accent she came up with does not send chills down my spine like a true Yinzer accent does.

5. ADDITIONAL SUNDRY

• Guy who has a table tennis tournament in South Park doesn’t say South Park like how someone here would say South Park.
• A guy chokes on broccoli at PAMELA’S DINER which is one of my favorite places to have breakfast with Jeannie and Wendy. Really, they had to drag Pamela’s like that??
• DR. LANGDON
• I feel like they reference New Castle more than is necessary.
• Annoying Primanti’s shout out.
• I’m pretty sure they refer to the T as “the train” at one point too and we do not do that here. Trolley? Sure. Train or subway? Never.

OK, you’re dismissed. If anyone needs a Pgh expert to advise on Pgh projects, you know where to find me. (Unless it involves questions about the Steelers, the Pirates, the Steel Industry, the rivers, directions…)

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