TV preview 2025: ‘The Pitt,’ ‘Apple Cider Vinegar,’ ‘On Call’

Written by Amy Ta, produced by Angie Perrin

Kaitlyn Dever plays Belle Gibson in “Apple Cider Vinegar.” Courtesy of Netflix.

With the new year comes new TV series: The Pitt, Apple Cider Vinegar, On Call, and Severance season two. Weighing in are Eric Deggans and Jen Chaney, TV critics for NPR and New York Magazine, respectively. 

The Pitt (Max)

This takes place in an ER wing of a Pittsburgh-based hospital. Doctors and nurses juggle the stress of caring for patients, workplace drama, and personal issues. 

Chaney: “It is very ER-esque. … Noah Wyle, who was on ER, is the star of this, and he's also an executive producer. And he even writes a couple of the episodes. It's from John Wells, who also worked on ER, and it was created by R. Scott Gemmill, who also wrote for ER

… Structurally, it's really more like a combination of ER and 24 in the sense that every episode is representative of an hour in the 15-hour shift that Noah Wiley's character is working. If you've ever been to a hospital, you know this … you wait forever and ever and ever. And then even once you get in there, you're there for a while. There are cases that you'll see in the first episode that are still going on in hour six or seven or eight, because it just takes so long for the system to work for everybody. And I think that really comes across. 

… You meet these doctors, these residents, these interns who are doing their best and not always succeeding, and you're just immediately in their corner. It's just really, really compelling and great television.” 

Deggans: “I actually think it's very different than ER … because I recently re-watched ER. … It is in real time, and we don't ever really leave the emergency room. ER took us to the doctors’ homes. … And it is about contemporary hospital issues. So you have this administrator coming down and pressuring Noah Wiley's character to raise their satisfaction scores with people who use the ER. And the guy saying, ‘We're so short-staff that people are waiting three or four hours to get served. So there's no way they're going to say they had a great experience here at the ER.’”

Apple Cider Vinegar (Netflix)

Based on the book The Woman Who Fooled the World, this tells the true-life story of wellness influencer Belle Gibson, played by Kaitlyn Dever (Book Smart). 

Chaney: “[Gibson] was an Australian influencer who … had brain cancer, and she said that she had been treating it through nutrition and was able to start feeling better. The problem with all of that is that she lied about having cancer. This series is looking at her origin story, and then also the attempt to expose what she's actually up to. I just anticipate this show being a talker for a couple of reasons. One, it's about a con artist, and people love, whether it's true crime or a scripted series like this, they love con artist stories. And also, this is reflective, I think, of an attitude that we're going to be talking more and more about in the coming months, about health care. Hard science versus … soft science. Can you trust what your doctor tells you? And if not, can you trust the internet to know better? 

Deggans: “[Dever] does an amazing job with the accent and playing this character. And so I think people will be drawn in, in part because the performances are so good. … It's not just about watching somebody who's a con artist. It's about social media and these images that people present of their lives, in particular, these influencers who are telling you to believe certain things. And then, can you really trust what they're telling you and what's really going on in their life?”

On Call (Amazon Prime Video)

This police procedural follows a veteran officer and her rookie partner as they patrol Long Beach.

Deggans: “I am a sucker for traditional TV genres that I feel are reinvented or amped up or made a little smarter. This was done through Wolf Entertainment, which people will recognize as Dick Wolf's production company. Dick Wolf is the guy behind very formulaic procedurals Chicago Fire and … Law and Order franchise. And it was created for streaming service, Prime Video. And so it is much less formulaic. It is much more action-oriented. … It feels like you're right there in the street with these patrol officers, and along the way, we get a much more authentic look at all the challenges that cops face in a modern policing environment. And it's not LA, it's Long Beach police. So you get a little different view. … And one other thing, there is an ER connection. Eriq La Salle, who was a cast member of ER, plays a supporting role here. He plays a sergeant, but he's also a director and producer on the series.”

Severance

It’s been three years since the final episode of Severance aired. Fans have been patiently waiting for season two. And it’s finally here. The series follows co-workers who undergo a medical procedure that allows a person to separate their work consciousness from personal consciousness. Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) stars as a grieving husband trying to escape the death of his wife by signing up for this procedure. 

Deggans: “I thought they did a really great job of bearing down on all the themes that they started talking about in the first season, that they explore even more fully in the second season. … When they do this procedure where people can only remember what they do at work when they're at work, and they forget it when they go home, that creates two consciousnesses in one body. And the person who is inside the office is trapped inside a windowless office, where all they do is meaningless work that no one knows the purpose of. That might sound like some people's version of hell or … prison. And so towards the end of the first season, we saw the consciousnesses that were in the inside figure out a way to briefly be on the outside. And they learned a few things about outside life while they were out there. And as the new season picks up, they all have to cope.”

Chaney: “I was nervous about season two because season one was so singular and so well done. And then you had this long break between them, partly because of the writers’ strikes and the actors’ strikes, but also because there were some creative issues behind the scenes. And I was just absolutely delighted by this season. It is so, so good. It is very cryptic. This is a mystery box show where you're constantly trying to figure out what's really going on at … the company they work at. … And it's also just so well directed, every single frame of the show feels very meticulous about what is located where, where the actors are standing. And I would also say it's a really funny show, it has this very deadpan, surrealist sense of humor.”

Credits

Guests: