A decade ago, we wrote an AJOB blog post critiquing the then-new medical drama Chicago Med. We took the pilot to task for its lack of verisimilitude, despite the myriad ethical issues highlighted in that episode. We watched the show with some regularity for a few seasons but eventually lost interest as the show veered into increasingly more implausible situations and well-worn tropes. Unfortunately, as a genre, the medical drama is guilty of a plethora of stereotypes, such as the savant physician (The Good Doctor), romantic couplings in the workplace (Grey’s Anatomy), or insufferable main characters (The Resident). In the 1990s, ER was lauded as an example of a medical drama that surpassed the expectations of the genre. And now we have The Pitt, which has been hailed as the most realistically accurate medical drama ever shown on TV. In addition to The Pitt’s accuracy with regard to emergency medicine, it is also one of the few television shows to portray neurodiversity in a multi-dimensional manner.
Historically, television has badly mishandled representations of neurodiversity (the aforementioned The Good Doctor being a much-derided example). The Pitt features Dr. Mel King, a second-year resident who excitedly blurts at the beginning of her long shift in the emergency room: “I’m so happy to be here!” As recounted by Sarah Kurchak (who was a staunch critic of Atypical, another show that features a neurodivergent character), The Pitt depicts neurodivergent resident Dr. Mel King as “a nuanced person with strengths, weaknesses, charms, and foibles.” Portrayed by actress Taylor Dearden (who is neurodivergent herself), we see Dr. King as a fully realized character who has an autistic sister with whom she is close.
One of the story lines follows the tragic drowning of a young child, which results in her death. Dr. King is tasked with talking to the patient’s young sister, who has been waiting in another room with her grandmother. Dr. King attempts to talk to the young girl but is overcome with emotion and leaves the room. When she returns, she comes back with a small teddy bear, whereupon she asks the sister to talk to the bear as if she was her sister. The scene is beautifully poignant and showcases Dr. King’s empathy and compassion (although when one of us shared this vignette with our graduate students, they were concerned that an inexperienced resident would have been tasked to do this instead of a more experienced chaplain or social worker).
In another instance, Dr. King is examining an adult autistic patient with an ankle injury. Where her neurotypical colleague, Dr. Langdon, is clearly frustrated, if not irritated, by repetitive questions from the patient and is non-responsive to the patient’s obvious sensory discomfort, Dr. King immediately dims the lights and talks to the patient rather than at the patient. The patient soon becomes calmer and more receptive to their questions.
Such a storyline is not only relevant in how it portrays a neurodivergent physician but also highlights the need to have physicians better trained in providing care to neurodivergent patients. As medical educators, we have seen our own medical students at Loyola take the lead in creating a disability health elective that is focused on educating medical students to become more effective clinicians in caring for patients with disabilities.
In contrast to The Good Doctor’s Dr. Murphy character, who is depicted as a “cardboard cutout of what people believe an autistic person should be like,” Dr. King’s neurodivergence is handled with nuance and depth. She is a fully realized, complex character with both strengths and deficits and no “alien” superpowers beyond compassion and patience – traits one would hope to find in any physician. Characters such as Dr. Mel King matter because “it is important for children and adult consumers of screen media to see accurate and non-stereotypic portrayals of ASD and other disabilities so that the stereotypes … do not continue to be translated into societal perceptions and behaviors.”
The Pitt deserves its critical acclaim, not just for its realistic depictions of a busy urban emergency room, but in its thoughtful and sensitive portrayal of a neurodivergent clinician. This is more important than ever, especially considering persistent negative stereotypes perpetuated by officials such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. We hope this paves the way for more television shows that are similarly thoughtful in their depictions of neurodiversity.
Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD, HEC-C and Nanette Elster, JD, MPH are both Professors of Bioethics & Health Policy at the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics, Loyola University Chicago.