4. The Pitt

At this point, if you see Noah Wyle in a Chicago emergency room, either hand him lidocaine or hand him an Emmy. The ER legend is leading a fresh group of doctors and nurses through an eventful and exhausting 15-hour shift during which disgruntled patients assault nurses, a mass shooting happens at a music festival, there’s a car chase involving a stolen ambulance vehicle, and Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) dishes enough dry humor to rub anyone the wrong way. What makes The Pitt special is that nothing happens yet everything happens. Since each episode is one hour of the 15-hour shift, there is no central plot point that is wrapped up by the end of each episode. That, paired with the type of immersive camera work that made ER great, makes each episode an unflinching look at the many different human experiences that can fit into one hour in an emergency room.

The Pitt eschews distracting medical drama tropes. There are no make-out sessions in Exam Room 1, or jokes that last beyond a chuckle. There’s no holiday-themed episode in which Christmas cheer makes the doctors forget there’s a terminally ill patient wasting away in triage. The Pitt is a beautifully self-contained drama that can break your heart more times in one hour than the best shows can in an entire season.