Let's Talk Television: Give Noah Wyle his Emmy now.

Plus my favorite HR mess of a cop show not starring Christopher Meloni is back.

New This Week

• White Lotus (Max)

• Alert: Missing Persons Unit (Hulu)

• Chicago Med (Peacock)

• 9-1-1 (Hulu)

• Doctor Odyssey (Hulu)

• The Pitt (Max)

The Good

These are the episodes I recommend watching.

The Pitt

Give Noah Wyle his Emmy now.

Honestly, I want to leave it at that, but I will elaborate a tiny bit. This hour is both less and more chaotic than last week. It’s slower. They are tired. They are low on supplies. The injured and dead pile up. SWAT is on site. One patient arrives with a concealed gun. David, the kid from the first hour, remains the main suspect in the shooting and is taken into custody. Cassie (Fiona Dourif) destroys her ankle monitor. Abbott (Shawn Hatosy), Langdon (Patrick Ball), Whitaker (Gavin Howell), Samira (Supriya Ganesh), and Santos (Isa Briones) all use strange tools and unusual techniques to save a variety of trauma patients. And it ends with Robby (Noah Wyle) breaking down. The episode and the breakdown are effective because of the build-up. We have experienced all the stressors that led to his panic attack. We lost all those patients, too.

Two more observations. First, Dana (Katherine LaNasa) makes Robby her priority, and I love their relationship more than I can express. When she gives up her primary title/vest? And the look she shares with Abbott? There are so many amazing characters on this show, but I would also watch one with just Robby, Dana, Abbott, and Collins (Tracy Ifeachor, though she didn’t appear).

Second, something’s up with the woman Mel (Taylor Dearden) suspects has PTSD. Maybe she saw the shooter, maybe she knows the shooter, maybe she is the shooter—but I think she’s important.

Finally, as aside: Robby’s helicopter rules laid out last week and followed this week are the funniest easter egg for ER fans ever.

The Bad

Bad equates to “I don’t have much to say about this.

Alert: Missing Persons Unit

Woo, the most unrealistic of my unrealistic cop shows is back! If you’ve forgotten or never knew, MPU is the cop show where Captain Nikki (Dania Ramirez) runs a unit staffed by her husband, Mike (Ryan Broussard), her ex-husband, Jay (Scott Caan), Kemi (Adeola Role), who is a shaman as well as a detective and brings the expertise of her past lives to the unit, Helen (Diana Bang), their neurodivergent and excitable forensic scientist, and consultant Wayne (Alisha-Marie Ahamed), super hacker and Jay’s girlfriend. Yes, four of the six have slept with at least one other member of the team (that we know of), and 50% of the team have been or are currently married to another team member. Very HR-approved.

Plus, in this episode, we also catch up with Nikki’s confidential informant, Charlie (recurring guest Ian Tracy), the head of the Irish mob in Philly. The missing persons this week are Charlie’s daughter Bella (guest Roan Curtis) and her rowing teammates, kidnapped by Charlie’s accountant, who became his enemy when he didn’t help her get rid of her abusive husband. It’s a pretty boilerplate plot for these shows and this show: Nikki and team find the girls, Charlie and team kill the bad guys while they’re awaiting trial, and being kidnapped together forces the bickering individuals into a team that wins the regatta.

All last season, Wayne was under house arrest in a hotel unless she was working with MPU, but now she’s freed from her ankle monitor and allowed to go wherever she wants. She chooses brunch on the river, shopping, and the Liberty Bell (cute). In a more ominous set-up, Charlie tells Nikki, “Now all I’ve got is you,” in terms of people he trusts, and later, when Jay and Mike tell him to stay away from Nikki, he agrees but looks shifty and nervous about it.

Chicago Med

Good (?) news: they chose to go dark with the Frost (Darren Barnet) and Ainsley (recurring guest Jessalyn Gilsig—I knew they cast her for a reason!) relationship. Frost and Ainsley had a “fling” on the set of their hit show in which she played his mother. Maggie (Marlyne Barrett) is rightly horrified because Frost was sixteen years old when the show ended. So, however and whenever it happened, he was not old enough to consent. Frost doesn’t think he’s a victim but does turn down dinner/sex with Ainsley now to which she replies “You loved me,” and I hope she goes to prison. Frost’s child-star past seemed bizarre when it was introduced but if this is what they’re doing with it, I’m on board.

This week’s patients are a young woman who wakes up from a coma after 22 years, a gay kid who tried DIY conversion therapy by inducing vomit whenever he had “impure” thoughts, and Ripley (Luke Mitchel), after the whole well thing last time. The coma-girl had history with Goodwin (S Epatha Merkerson) when she was a nurse, which is fun. The gay kid’s dad chooses to support his son and stand up to his bigoted wife, which is satisfying. And Ripley is reinstated, making his arc parallel Doug Ross exactly, but I’m not mad about it.

Finally, Naomi (recurring guest Ashleigh Sharpe Chestnut) is officially matched with Gaffney thanks to a glowing recommendation from Lenox (Sarah Ramos). Lenox’s brother Kip (recurring guest Ato Essandoh) returns, asking to stay with her while his apartment is flooded. When he bails on their adorable sibling plans to eat ramen and watch the sing-along version of Newsies, she takes his suggestion to live a little aka dress sexy and go to the bar where hot doctor Hayes (recurring guest Brendan Hines) is toasting Naomi. Hayes is super into Lenox, and I am super into that. But the scene with her brother strongly suggests Kip has the disease that killed their Mom, and it echoes Thirteen’s Huntington’s arc on House MD the way Ripley’s arc echoed Ross’s on ER.

9-1-1

Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) loses her voice in the middle of her first call after returning to work post-kidnapping. The loss is psychosomatic due to trauma—taking the call of a manipulative serial killer who then kidnaps you and slits your throat will do that. Maddie is distraught because her job depends on her ability to speak but she gets it back when her daughter briefly disappears and she needs to call out.

Meanwhile, in Texas, Eddie (Ryan Guzman) doesn’t get the firefighter job he moved there for and has to be an Uber driver. He’s awful at it at first but gets tips from a passenger who was a former driver and improves. Christopher (Gavin McHugh) wants him to stay in El Paso more than he wants a PS5 and I cry.

Doctor Odyssey

There is a persistent theory that Max (Joshua Jackson) is still in his COVID coma and the Odyssey is a dream. I think it’s silly to look for this show to be anything more than what it is: a modern version of Love Boat focused on the medical staff. That’s it, and that’s GREAT. Nor do I want the COVID stuff to be anything beyond Max’s motivation. So, I didn’t love that they brought it up again to make Max seem paranoid instead of practical.

I did like seeing Heather (recurring guest Shania Twain) again and learning that she and Captain Massey (Don Johnson) are expecting a baby. That’s the kind of crazy I can get behind and her scene with Avery (Philippa Soo) was nice. Baby Massey can have a playdate with Baby Morgan-Bankman-Silva.

The synopsis of this episode starts with “Tristan strives to prove himself to Avery,” and I repeat: Tristan (Sean Teale) deserves better.

The Ugly

Don’t bother.

White Lotus

Landed in Ugly because it took me all week to watch this. Literally, I watched it this morning because I didn’t want to, and I’m only writing about it because I feel obligated to. As you see below, it is clearly all set up, and that’s normal for a mystery, but I feel manipulated, and I don’t like it.

Ladies Who W(h)ine: Kate (Leslie Bibb) sees Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius) leave Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) in the early hours and tells Laurie (Carrie Coon). They all bicker about gossip and trust, and, to paraphrase Laurie, it is all very tenth-grade. Grade B for Boring.

Lindseys: Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) arrives just in time to find Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) in bed with Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul), but they all act delightfully normal about it. Grade C for Cute.

Ratcliffs: Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) talks/cries at the Buddhist leader and at her mother’s urging, agrees to spend the night with the monks. Tim (Jason Isaacs) asks the same leader what happens after death, and he describes it as a “happy return, like coming home,” prompting Tim to daydream about suicide. Lochlan (Sam Nivola) supports Piper’s decisions and also chooses to stay with the monks. Victoria (Parker Posey) thinks the overnight will convince them both to fear poverty and tells Tim that if they were suddenly poor (which, unbeknownst to her, they are), she would want to die, prompting Tim to daydream about murder-suicide. And Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) spends the episode haunted by the threesome he unwittingly had with Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) and his brother. Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) notices he’s upset, but when he asks why she won’t hook up with him, she says it’s because he doesn’t have a soul (damn, that’s cold). Ratcliffs get a Grade H for I hate these people, Chloe and Chelsea get a Grade P for What is the point?

Murder Party I: Chloe and Gary/Greg (Jon Gries) invite Chelsea, the Ratcliffs, and the Lindseys to their house on the hill for a party. Chloe, Chelsea, and Belinda are all textually worried about being murdered. Grade M for Moderately interesting.

Murder Party II: Rick (Walter Goggins) manipulates Sritala (Lek Patravadi) into inviting him and his imaginary friend, the director, into her house so he can kill her husband, and convinces his real friend to play the part of the director. Grade M+ for Moderately interesting plus Walton Goggins and Sam Rockwell, who continue to steal the show.

Murder Party III: Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) successfully retrieves his gun from the Ratcliffs and proves to be an acceptable to good shot in practice. Grade A for Anxiety.

Also Watching

Top Chef (current), Twin Peaks (season 2), Law & Order (season 4).

Mental Illness Sidebar

Maddie’s psychological loss of the ability to speak has happened to me! It is very real and very scary, and I think they did a good job of portraying that. The best part of the episode was when Athena (Angela Bassett) visited her to talk about trauma. First, it’s important to talk about trauma. Second, Athena introduced Maddie to the missing persons detective who turned out to be a serial killer—they both trusted her, and they both have some guilt about it, and again, they need to talk about it. And third, way back in season three, Athena was brutally attacked while on the line with Maddie, and I still think about that sequence all the time. This felt like a call back and I love it.

I have one potentially negative thought about The Pitt. David would have to be a real sociopath to show up at the hospital and yell at the cops the way he does here. On the one hand, he seems unaffected by the trauma that surrounds him, so maybe he is a sociopath, but on the other hand, I don’t like that at all. Please don’t disappoint me, show!

Ship of the Week

In Thailand, I’m scared for both Pornchai/Belinda and Gaitok/Mook (Lalisa Manobal). In Philadephia, Nikki and Mike just got back from their honeymoon, while Jay and Wayne start and end the episode in bed together, but I still think Nikki and Jay could be endgame. In Chicago, Mitch and Hannah (Jessy Schram, but she didn’t appear) still have to talk. In Los Angeles, Maddie and Chimney (Kenneth Choi) are having another baby. In Pittsburgh, there’s too much trauma for love.

In the middle of the ocean, the love triangle continues to annoy me, but the captain and Heather are adorable, and I’m pulling for them.

Show of the Week

The Pitt and I cannot WAIT to watch the whole thing from the start again.

What are YOU watching?