“The Pitt” just wrapped up its massively successful second season, even if there’s a contingent of viewers out there who might not be good at watching this popular HBO Max show. Despite that, the series is a huge hit for HBO Max and seems poised to hold onto its crown as one of TV’s biggest shows for years to come. So, what does star and executive producer Noah Wyle think makes this series work so perfectly, especially considering that it draws in fans who don’t always love medical TV dramas?

“It’s a couple of things that work beautifully in concert,” Wyle told Frazier Sharpe in a profile for GQ. “First: no music. Audiences are so sophisticated, but what they’re not accustomed to is not being told how to feel,” Wyle remarked about the show’s lack of a soundtrack, which he’s cited as an important part of “The Pitt” before.

“You take all that out, and it forces a level of engagement where you’re now looking for clues within the frame of the screen, which forces you to look up from your phone,” Wyle clarified, making it clear that he doesn’t regard “The Pitt” as a “second-screen viewing” show. “And I think that is extremely engaging, especially to young viewers who aren’t accustomed to being asked to participate in a nonpassive way in the viewing experience,” he added. So, what other factors did Wyle point to that can help explain why so many viewers want to spend time with “The Pitt?”

If you’re at all familiar with “The Pitt,” you know that the show uses a “real-time” conceit like “24” did years ago, where each episode takes place across one “hour” of a 15-hour shift. Not only that, but it employs a sort of cinéma vérité approach, which is exactly what Noah Wyle discussed … and what director of photography Joanna Coehlo told /Film’s own Ben Pearson during their interview about how she films this chaotic, constantly moving show.

“Shooting it with almost exclusively 50-millimeter or 65-millimeter lenses, which is the most comparable to the human eye — and only shooting from the point of view of a human being that’s present in this space,” according to Wyle, is the “second thing” that makes “The Pitt” work. “There are no cameras on gurney wheels going in the hallway. There’s no cameras on the ceiling looking down from a God point of view. You are limited to the perspective of a participant,” he continued, noting that this approach draws the viewer in completely: “You can look away, but you can’t leave, and it becomes an endurance test for you to stay on your feet as long as we’re on our feet.”

That’s also why Wyle cited the third thing on his list as being the real-time structure; it adds tension and stress to the proceedings. “Real time has an aggregate sense of tension that you don’t get in any other form of storytelling,” Wyle observed. “What happened before is happening now, and these two things are going to add up to the next thing. And if we throw more ingredients into this cooker and keep ratcheting it up, it’s going to pop.”

Without getting into any political weeds (though Noah Wyle does do that in the GQ interview), the United States is increasingly divided with each passing day, and that political divide makes its way into every aspect of our lives. We see that on “The Pitt,” from patients unwilling to wear a mask or get a vaccine because they don’t believe those things are medically safe or effective, or the ICE storyline in Season 2 of the series. So, what does this have to do with why Wyle thinks the show works so well? He points to the result of the 2024 presidential election.

“We could have been a really good show with a lot of nice things to say in a perfectly normal Kamala Harris universe,” Wyle remarked, referring to the former Vice President who ran as the Democratic candidate and fell short in the electoral college. “And instead we became almost a beacon of hope and humanity in an alternative universe.” To that end, Wyle thinks people just want to … watch fictional doctors be good at their jobs.

“But in the midst of that, fifth point — this is essentially competence p*rn,” Wyle continued. “You’re watching really smart, dedicated people do what only they know how to do at a level that you don’t know how to do it, and you’re so f***ing glad that they’re there doing it, and compartmentalizing their own stuff to put your broken pieces back together.” It’s not just that, Wyle added, but the show’s moments of levity as well: “You’re so reassured by knowing that there are people out there that laugh and joke and have the ability to lock in like that.”

“The Pitt” is streaming on HBO Max.