Code 3: The Underrated Medical Comedy Drama For Fans Of The Pitt

Spoiler Alert: This features spoilers for Code 3 and The Pitt.It could be argued that the most popular or most talked about show on TV right now is HBO's The Pitt and fans of it are likely to enjoy an underrated movie on Hulu. The Pitt follows one shift, with each episode spanning an hour, of doctors working in the emergency room.

The show holds nothing back, giving us the grim, gruesome, and often tragic moments that these doctors experience. Fans of The Pitt continue to flock to new episodes each week, often due to its unique format. However, there's a hidden gem of a movie that takes a similar approach to great results.

Code 3 Is A Great Medical Comedy Drama

Code 3 is a movie that came out in late 2025 but began streaming on Hulu in January 2026, allowing it to reach a wider audience. The film follows three people working a 24-hour shift as paramedics, meaning we get to see them answer calls for the wildest and sometimes most tragic of situations.

The focus of Code 3 is on Randy (Rainn Wilson), a man who has been working as a paramedic for nearly two decades and is very worn down by it all. He's joined by Mike (Lil Rel Howery), a more lighthearted companion who isn't as emotionally drained by the job, and Jessica (Aimee Carrero), a rookie.

The rest of the supporting cast is also quite strong. Rob Riggle plays an arrogant emergency room doctor who acts as an antagonist of sorts, Xolo Maridueña appears in a fun small role at the start of the story, and Yvette Nicole Brown pops up as Shanice, the supervisor of the paramedics.

Code 3 has been relatively well-received by both critics and audience members. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie sits at a 78% rating, while the score from the audience (the Popcornmeter) is at a whopping 96%. Here on Screen Rant, Code 3 was given a 9 out of 10 rating, further adding to its positive reception.

As noted, fans of The Pitt are sure to find a lot to like about Code 3. While the movie leans more heavily into the comedic sides of things than the show does, they have a fair bit in common. For starters, there's the clock on each of the stories.

We follow one shift in real time on The Pitt and one shift in Code 3, just over the span of a little more than an hour and a half. Both the series and the movie showcase the gritty, often gory side of things, which is par for the course in the harrowing jobs the characters work.

The Pitt doesn't shy away from showing broken bones, someone actually giving birth, and brutal burns. Meanwhile, Code 3 doesn't go quite as far but has a tough-to-watch scene involving a stick in someone's eye. Both projects also have key scenes involving young children dying, which are hard to get through but are part of the job.

Another important similarity is that the focus is on the medical side of things rather than the personal. In The Pitt, we casually learn about the personal lives of the doctors through dialogue and how they interact with patients, but the emergency remains the focal point.

In Code 3, the same is true, as we mostly learn about Randy, Mike, and Jessica through their interactions with people and how they handle the situations around them. It allows both to feel more realistic rather than act as a soap opera. That appeals to a lot of viewers and makes this easy to access.

Code 3 Still Stands Out As Its Own Thing

While the setup is a lot like The Pitt, there's a lot that allows Code 3 to stand out as its own thing. For example, there's the aforementioned comedic bits. The Pitt has funny moments but Code 3 is more rooted in laughs than the series. That comes from the comedic talents of Wilson and Howery.

Both actors are well-versed in the comedy genre, as are supporting actors Rob Riggle and Yvette Nicole Brown. They know how to take a serious situation and do just enough to add levity to it. For example, there's a scene where they discuss the worst thing they've ever seen, only to punctuate it with a joke.

The movie also gives us a small look at Randy's life outside of his job and shows how much he wants something different, whether it ends up being the right thing or not. There's also the fact that paramedics really only see the earliest bits of the emergency, while The Pitt doctors deal with how to treat it.

These aren't the biggest differences but they're enough to allow Code 3 to exist without having to deal with comparisons. Both projects are their own thing and both are great in their own right.