I Think Post S2 Is When It Really Sinks In For Him That It's Not All Just A Clerical Error And He's Never

The Pitt – 1.03: 9:00 A.M.

The fandom is definitely sleeping on this knowledge. Every serious runner I know is ready to gnaw their own arm off after max three days without vigorous exercise.

i don’t think we’ve addressed that langdon runs marathons and takes 13 minutes in an ice bath yet. that’s fucking crazy. it also shows us how devastating a back injury would’ve been for him if he went from running marathons to not being able to run at all. kill one healthy coping mechanism and an unhealthy one develops in its place maybe.

— Mhairi McFarlane.

Well, I read the OP differently, as suggesting that we should assume he is at home as we see him at work with an emphasis onnhis positive qualities, not the negative effects of his addiction-driven behavior. And also contrasting his presumed parenting (we shouldn't assume he's bad but rather loving and engaged) with his presumed behavior toward his wife (he's probably checked out) - both of which are highly speculative.

I don't know if OP was responding to something I haven't seen but most of the comments I've seen on this show seem to presume that he's either an evil druggie or father of the year and I hate both of those takes because the reality is almost inevitably much more complex. You can be very loving and still be a "bad" parent because of addiction.

Of course my thoughts are speculative - so are OP's. We have seen him have one brief interaction with one of his children of which we only see his side.

You could as easily extrapolate from the canon fact that we have seen him put patients at risk at work through drug diversion and say that he'd likely make similar decisions at home that could affect his children.

frank langdon isn't a bad dad because the whole point is that he's an addict that doesn't "appear" to be an addict. he's functional, he's alert, he is focused and engaged and yes, at times, erratic on account of the drugs in his veins but he is always present and if he's that way in the e.r., it stands to reason that he would be that way at home too. he's probably a bad husband to his wife because they don't want to be with each other. if we're being honest. that tends to make you a bit shit at things, when you have to do them and you don't wanna. but he wants to be a dad. he wears his kid's bracelet on his wrist. he calls them just to hear their little voices. he's locked in on the dad thing and, finally, i think that if you're a person who is analyzing the pitt and the conclusion you come to is that frank is a drug addict ergo frank is a bad dad then i think that speaks more to a subconscious and unjustified association between addiction (an illness) and one's personal value to the tune of addicts have no distinguishable personhood outside of their addiction and non-addicts do which is probably not great but understandable considering how disdainful and hateful the world at large is to addiction as a concept. anyway.

'You... thumped?

🏛️ THE GREEK PITT-THEON 🏛️

Jack Lowden as River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft

RIVER CARTWRIGHT ● Slow Horses S02E05

kingdon isn't popular just because Mel is a popular character, Langdon is conventionally attractive, the two of them get a lot of scenes together, and the actors have chemistry

their relationship is thematically relevant to the show

the pitt is about burnout in the high stress environment of an ER post-COVID and making connections, both to do the work well and to survive it

between doctors and nurses and between them and the patients and the patients to the social worker as needed

and there are connections between other pairs of people, super young Javadi is paired with mature student McKay for a while which does open Javadi's eyes to life she's been sheltered from, Javadi gets a crush on Mateo who invites her to the park at the end of the day, Dana is the first to figure out Collins' pregnancy on her own and also speaks with Javadi on her new crush, Robby and Collins come together for a deep conversation after her miscarriage and before he sends her home, Mohan helps the sickle cell patient and the mercury poisoned influencer, Santos overtly tries to make connections to the two med students and is ultimately successful with Whitaker but she also gets protective over the daughter whose mother poisoned her father with progesterone and gets another patient to open up about their suicide attempt while Javadi over identifies with the baseball kid, lots of little new connections or longer formed ones

and then there's Mel on the verge of caretaker burnout as the only one supporting her sister

and Langdon who is basically on a different planet from his wife and gets outright rejected by Robby when he asks if they're friends

both so desperate for connection, someone on their level

and they click, they're the only ones that show up excited to be there (Mel more so than Langdon but he's not nearly as dismayed as Collins by the board when they first come in), Langdon offers Mel opportunities like the crike and Terrence, and compliments her successes and checks in with her and tells her to take breaks as needed while Mel seeks him out for his opinion and keeps up with him

they are the connection in the show, they just met and they make each other better at the job, if only all the doctors and nurses could get along this well, right?

except Langdon is an addict, through Robby the show implies the job broke something in him before the cameras even showed up and what Robby sees as a betrayal from Langdon contributes in turn to Robby's collapse on his worst day, and the parallels and what ifs come out

what if Robby had been as attentive to Langdon as Langdon was to Mel? What if Robby had allowed the connection instead of rejecting Langdon? What if Mel had shown up earlier? Would she have just burned herself out faster?

Langdon and Mel are the high point so Robby and Langdon yelling at each other and trying to tear each other down and talking more at each other than to each other can be the low point

Langdon and Mel improving their relationship in future seasons, moving beyond a day one spark to having more time and experience to deepen their relationship and making each other better doctors in the process is proving the themes of the show, that you need support and connection to do the job well and survive it

so of course people want to extend that into their personal lives so Mel is not alone with her sister and Langdon isn't in a crumbling marriage so they can have connection and support and be better people in their personal lives and not just professionally

Langdon and Mel are also shown as foils to Robby and Collins who once dated and Mel's single with a sister pushing her to make a romantic connection when the connection she's made is with Langdon and Langdon seems well on the way to divorce even before the addiction reveal

and the actors have a lot of chemistry