The Pitt spent its second season slowly but surely preparing us for Dr. Samira Mohan’s (Supriya Ganesh) departure from the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. She learned early on that her plan to move back to New Jersey to take care of her estranged mother wasn’t going to work out because her mom was getting married, selling the house, and going on a cruise. Samira, a fourth-year resident, was suddenly adrift because she hadn’t chosen a specialty or applied to stay longer at her current workplace. Her day got progressively worse thanks to her unrelenting boss, Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle); a panic attack; and a patient fleeing the hospital against her advice, only to be re-admitted in worse condition. So when Variety broke the news this month that Ganesh will not be a part of the forthcoming third season of the show for “story-driven reasons,” it was a bummer but not a shocker. It makes sense, plot-wise, that Samira wouldn’t want to train in a fast-paced ER under a male boss who yells at her often and where she tends to feel out of place.
However, in the couple of weeks since, parasocial fans have run wild with conspiracy theories about her exit, including accusations of inherent racism. Series co-creator R. Scott Gemmill reiterated to the trade that, “Unfortunately, the way the medical profession works, you come in, you learn, you move on, and we want to try and be as truthful to that process as possible.” The heights of the backlash are surprising because characters rotating in and out of medical dramas is not a novel concept, going back to M*A*S*H and ER (which counted Gemmill and John Wells as EPs) to ongoing shows like Chicago Med and Grey’s Anatomy (whose audience just celebrated the announcement of two annoying characters leaving after season 22).
Of course, criticisms about only women of color being expendable, like series regular Tracy Ifeachor after season one and now Ganesh, have merit. For a TV show praised for its authenticity, it stands to lose some of its realism by cutting pivotal WOC roles while purporting to represent the healthcare industry overall. But it’s important to remember that HBO Max’s award-winning series continues to feature various diverse voices on and off the screen, including with its ensemble and with writers like Simran Baidwan and Valerie Chu. So while it’s upsetting to watch Samira bid PTMC goodbye, focusing on rumors or spreading misinformation about the actor’s exit takes away from a glaring and genuine issue of the lack of accurate, layered South Asian representation in this genre and on American TV in general.
After all, The Pitt is a rare medical drama to have two distinct brown female protagonists in Samira and Shabana Azeez’s Dr. Victoria Javadi from the get-go, along with the addition of the latter’s doctor parents (played by Deepti Gupta and Usman Ally). Samira and Victoria have had prominent arcs within PTMC, while also dealing with different familial pressures in a way that feels culturally relevant. By comparison, ER added Parminder Nagra in its 10th season, while newer medical shows like New Amsterdam and The Resident featured a singular Indian male lead each. Even the long-running Grey’s Anatomy has had only a handful of recurring characters of South Asian descent in its 22-season run, all of whom have, sadly, felt one-dimensional.
Perhaps Ganesh’s departure strikes a chord because Samira was depicted as three-dimensional. The show dug into her abilities (focusing on her empathy for older patients), professional ambitions, and even a possible romance with Shawn Hatosy’s Dr. Jack Abbot (a ‘ship that gained momentum because of an enthusiastic fandom). It’s no wonder that, boosted by Ganesh’s earnest performance, Samira became a favorite for viewers. But in setting up her exit, The Pitt sidelined her development in the season’s last few installments. Through that lens, the outcry makes sense because mainstream TV doesn’t usually come with nuanced South Asian portrayals. Actors like Mindy Kaling, Riz Ahmed, and Deli Boys‘ Abdullah Saeed tend to create, produce, and/or star in their own shows to carve their space. Then there’s the fact that actors from recent streaming hits like Bridgerton‘s Simone Ashley and One Day‘s Ambika Mod haven’t gotten nearly as many opportunities as their white male counterparts.
In a poignant essay for Vulture, Ganesh writes about her auditioning experiences, stating, “Many [of them] felt like I was denying parts of myself and my history to fit into a box that other people were trying to impress upon me.” Her remarks address this broader issue of the type of South Asian women we normally see on the screen and how they usually fit into cliché molds without concern for background and cultural context. (There are a few notable exceptions, including Ms. Marvel and New Girl.) Which is all to say that, in discussing this decision or the show’s viewers, it’s necessary to look at the whole picture instead of critiquing the series through a narrow lens.
Admittedly, Samira’s unceremonious final scene in “9:00 P.M.” will leave fans desiring proper closure. But in a season set over the course of only 15 hours, there’s only so much The Pitt can do. So her conversation with Robby in the ambulance bay, about not letting her mother treat her like a child, is satisfying enough. Ganesh may still clock in for another shift in the show’s future. But the commotion over writing out a promising character like Samira should be less indicative of The Pitt—again, ERs, as Wyle has said, have high turnover rates—and more of an industry-wide struggle to move past surface-level and short-term South Asian roles on TV.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
