When it comes to medical dramas, The Pitt has become the one to watch. It’s been dubbed the most realistic of medical dramas by those working in the field, and one of the stars of the series agrees. In fact, if it wasn’t for The Pitt, star Supriya Ganesh was considering a career change to actually go to medical school.
However, just as she was thinking this, she landed the role of Samira, everything changed. Not only did she finally get another big role, but she also got to work on a project that was both creatively and artistically rewarding.
Supriya Ganesh wants Samira to get more personal storylines in The Pitt season 2
There is one small flaw in the writing in the first season. It doesn’t focus on the personal lives of many of the doctors. This show is a lot like 24 where every episode is one hour in a 15-hour shift in the emergency department. To remain realistic, the personal lives don’t get a lot of development, but that can change a little with The Pitt season 2.
The second season is going to be set over the July 4 weekend, which means a lot of extra emergencies and potentially the talk of plans. Samira has already been painted as a bit of a loner in the series, and that’s something Ganesh hopes to see if focused on more throughout the next set of episodes.
"I think they explored how lonely she was in Season 1. Does she socialize a little bit more? Is there something going on with her mom? Does she reach back out to her after this, or does she not? I think looking a little bit more into what her life outside the hospital looks like to the extent that they can, I think, would be so wonderful."
There are a lot of questions just outside of her social circle that have come up as well. One of those is about her relationship with her mom, and Ganesh would love for that to be explored more.
A focus on pronouns and gender in The Pitt
Something Ganesh would like to see a bit of focus on is Samira’s gender. Ganesh herself uses she/they pronouns, due to the way she was raised in India. She explained to Variety that India is a lot more fluid in terms of gender, with a third gender that allows for different expressions in both men and woman. When she moved back to the U.S. — she was three when her parents moved her to India — she was shocked at how rigid gender is.
"Coming to America [Ganesh was born in the U.S., but was three years old when her parents moved the family back to India], I was very shocked by how restrictive the gender roles are, because in India you have the existence of a third gender. There is a little more fluidity in how men present themselves, women present themselves. So I think coming here, I felt this instinctive need to want to react against it, which I think is interesting because I feel like a lot of the times I do present as pretty femme."
Something that Ganesh would like is for “queer brown women” to look at her and see her as something that they can look up to. Arguably, the best way to do that is to offer a character that does that on the screen, and The Pitt season 2 opens that door as long as there is a bit more focus on her character’s personal life.
The Pitt is available to stream on HBO Max.