...If you like The Pitt

Hi friends,

Welcome to SCREEN SOMM, a newsletter filled with recommendations of what to watch, from me, Kristen, a screenwriter. Last week we watched Westerns with granny. Next week, a very talented Guest SOMM shares her recs. I post daily recs and more and host Thursday check ins on the Substack site or app.

To help cover me while I was on vacation, this week’s post is guest written by THE Mia Katherine Iverson. Mia is a writer and photographer living in Brooklyn. When she’s not writing a script or shooting a wedding in Italy, she’s probably nabbing last minute ballet tix, catching a Liberty game, or rooting for all things Kansas City. She also writes the substack The Not So Mystery Files of MKI. Like many a writer, Mia once saw herself bound for medical school (🙋🏽‍♀️) and has a fondness (expertise? obsession?) with medical shows. (I consider her the world renowned expert on ER.) Two years ago The Pitt took television by storm. Not because it invented the medical drama, but because it revived it. If you’re left wanting more, she’s got a rec for you. And no, it’s not ER.

If you like The Pitt but miss going home with the characters or want a bit more soap in your next medical drama, may I suggest the series This is Going to Hurt. I liken it to The Pitt meets Fleabag with a dash of that timeless and groundbreaking OG ER. This is Going to Hurt is a BBC/AMC one-season medical series starring Ben Winshaw and Ambika Mod, who you may recognize from Netflix’s series adaptation of One Day. This is Going to Hurt is an adaptation based on the non-fiction memoir by Adam Kay. It follows junior doctors (aka what we call residents in the US) in an underfunded and overcrowded OB and Gynecological ward in an NHS hospital (think ER’s County General or The Pitt’s Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center). This is Going to Hurt is dark, frank, honest, witty.

While I think it compares to The Pitt with it’s in-your-face dryness of the dire and grave realities of patient care and medical provider’s mental health, with odds stacked against all parties, Fleabag comes to mind as Ben Winshaw’s “Adam Kay” talks to camera to give his own morose two cents as the scenes play out. And like ER, in This is Going to Hurt we go home with our overworked characters and bear witness to their lives outside the claustrophobic hospital walls and wince at their lack of work-life balance, which isn’t entirely their fault. If you love The Pitt and ER and wouldn’t mind a dash of dark wit in your next medical drama, then you’ll love This Is Going To Hurt. Just brace yourself for the ending.

And if you want even more heart pounding international medical drama recs, may I suggest Germany’s entry “Krank Berlin” (available on Apple+) and Spain’s “Respira” (Netflix). You can find This Is Going To Hurt stateside on AMC+. Happy Watching!

That Aren’t Law & Order or Written/Directed by Nora Ephron or Spike Lee

• Just Another Girl on the IRT – one of my born and bred New York friends (Bed-Stuy, Do or Die!) put me onto this one. She said her first time seeing this made her feel seen on the big screen. This Leslie Harris film has all the twists and turns you will not see coming in this coming-of-age 1992 dramedy.

• Saving Face – discovered this when I was going down a Joan Chen rabbit hole. Seeing Y2K era Flushing, Queens was such a treat in Alice Wu’s 2004 feature length directorial debut. The multi-generational, romantic dramedy plot is so fun and unexpected!

• Crossing Delancey – such a cozy trip back in time! Wish we could make more movies like this today. I’ll watch again and will be studying up on Joan Micklin Silver.

• Broad City - as someone who moved to NY in 2012, the same month Girls premiered no less, Broad City was a breath of fresh air as it accurately depicted the millennial New York I jumped into when I jumped ship from Kansas City. I never crossed paths with a Hannah, Marnie, or Sosha (Jessas, yes), but my worlds were filled abundantly with Abbis and Ilanas.

• On The Rocks - one of Sofia Coppola’s lesser acknowledged films (and one that has Black people!) follows “Laura” (Rashida Jones) as she reluctantly reunites with her absent father (Bill Murray) during a rut in her marriage. Antics ensue. Also starring Marlon Wayans. The texture of lower Manhattan is ever present and felt true to real life.

MOVIES • ‘Series’ • Did Not Finish* • Rewatched • Ongoing… •  🍼= first rewatch >20 years

• THE ODYSSEY - In a regular theater with no assigned seats.

• ‘Fringe’ - Rewatching, halfway through Season 2.

• ‘Furious’ - Slowly making my way through this excellent new Hulu drama. Quincy Tyler Bernstine is a scene stealer.

• INCEPTION - Had to go back to a Nolan classic that I love and miss after watching The Odyssey.

New releases on Mia’s radar - (Editor’s Note - they’re all bangers, check ‘em out)

• Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother - Hey there Mahershala!

• Thomas Crown Affair - The new Michael B. Jordan version, obvs

• Children of Blood & Bone - Gina Prince Bythewood can do no wrong and s/o to editor extraordinaire Terilyn Shropshire

• Switches - Mad this is just a short but curious about it

• Verity - Judge me, I don’t care. The book is unhinged and I hope the movie is too!

This week, last week, next week? Have you seen all of Mia’s recs? (I haven’t!!) Let’s discuss! And remember, life’s short. Make every watch a great one. If you ever need a rec, I’m your SOMM.

Happy watching, everyone!

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