"I bring you this sad news as a Josh Charles fan. I can still conjure just how devastated I was when his Will Gardner shockingly departed from "The Good Wife." And this new sitcom, with episodes inexplicably stretched to an hour, sounds, at least on paper, like it could be a good match for him-he plays Martin Best, of the beloved ITV show "Doc Martin," brought to the U.S. for our convenience."
"A big-time city doctor returning to the small town of his childhood summers (the fictional Port Wenn, Maine), Martin is supposed to be a loveable grump. Clearly a skilled doctor, he goes to extreme lengths to help his patients and manages to solve at least one medical mystery per episode. But he grates against Port Wenn's community, finding himself against everything from the town's only restaurant to its high school baseball team. A fear of blood only makes his situation that much more silly."
"Unfortunately, "Best Medicine" fails to duplicate its source material's charm. It translates the scaffolding, but none of the wry humor or heart, giving us a hackneyed, low-stakes adaptation. Our weekly medical mysteries? They're less "House" and more "where did the food poisoning come from?" And this town? It's "Stepford Wives" perfect but earnestly so. There are no problems in Port Wenn that a baked-bean supper can't fix."
Martin Best is a big-city doctor who returns to the small Maine town of Port Wenn, where he spent childhood summers. He is portrayed as a lovable grump, skilled in medicine but socially abrasive, and he solves at least one medical mystery per episode. Episodes are stretched to an hour and focus on low-stakes cases such as food poisoning. The town is depicted as unrealistically perfect, diverse, and consistently supportive, with frequent community events and baked-bean suppers. The show lacks the wry humor and heart of its ITV source, offering a hackneyed adaptation with little conflict beyond a wealthy town antagonist. Class tension is only lightly suggested.
Read at Roger Ebert
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