Robert Duvall captured the essence of journalism in movies better than anyone

There was a hilarious short bit on my Reels feed the other day which showed a husband and wife watching “The Pitt,” with the husband — an ER doctor himself — providing a running commentary, either predicting the diagnoses of Dr. Robby a few seconds before they arrive, or critiquing various and sundry lab orders, blood squirts and other fun details. 

I get that. I have a buddy, Dr. Paul, who spent the entire 15-year run of “ER” (and the shorter but even better six-season stint of “Chicago Hope”) taking great joy in spoiling most of those shows’ more intriguing plot points. 

I have another friend, a financial planner I’ll call Charlie Back, who has gone to great pains explaining the finer points of “Wall Street” and “Margin Call” and “The Big Short” — it’s easy to tell the unrealistic aspects of those movies by the disgust in his voice. 

And I can only imagine what “Breaking Bad” did to high school chemistry teachers.