Acorn Media released the complete collection of one of the best shows I’ve seen, today. The Doc Martin series follows the cynical, brutally honest Dr. Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) in his adventures in a small port town called Portwenn. Forced to go there due to his incapacity to see blood (sucks when you’re a surgeon), he soon finds that his common sense clashes horribly with the town folk. His only relief in this ‘non-London’ is the beautiful schoolteacher named Louisa, who seems to be the only one to put up with the doctor’s nasty demeanor. Through various adventures and happenings, Martin slowly finds himself attached to a village he originally wanted nothing to do with.
What I find absolutely brilliant about this show is Clunes’ ability to be the biggest a-hole that side of the pond. He carries a beautifully consistent ‘I’m better than you’ attitude and that truly makes the show work. Creators Mark Crowdy, Craig Ferguson (yes, THE Craig Ferguson) and Dominic Minghella did a spectacular job on making this man and not letting him bend or flex much in regards to character credibility. Even when Martin falls in love with Louisa he still fights the urge to become soft, which works out splendidly.
And because Martin Ellingham carries this type of persona, it allows other characters to play off of him beautifully. For example, his secretary Pauline (played by IT Crowd‘s Katherine Parkinson) constantly battles him about things. In the very first episode Pauline appears in his office out of nowhere and pretty much adopts being his secretary without his permission. This one moment defines four series of a relationship between Pauline and Martin. She does what she wants despite his feelings towards it. Without his grumpy demeanor then Pauline’s character looks completely different (we might hate her).
As for the overall story, the series ends when it absolutely needs to end; that’s why British television is leaps and bounds better than American television. You get a nice, definite conclusion that could lead into something else, but the creators decided (wisely) to end it where it needs to end. Sure they could have taken it like Friends and extended it three to four more series, but it might have dulled the previous material (don’t worry, I’m not revealing the ending). Anyway, the first series is brilliant, as you get use to Martin and you start to see his love interest with Louisa starting to bloom towards the end. The second series is more of the same, but this time around there’s a bit more freedom with storyline, mainly because you already established all the characters. The third series is suspect, as the fallout between Martin and Louisa is a bit forced. At one point in the third series it actually feels like you’re viewing something in slow motion. I’m not sure how the creators could have cleaned that up, but I suspect there could have been another solution. Regardless, you get a great ending in the third series, which leads right into the fourth. I won’t talk too much about the fourth, but there’s a great back and forth exchange in a warped love triangle in Martin’s life; enjoy that one.
In between the love affair in the entire series, you’ll find some really great moments where a doctor is needed. You’ll find some funny moments, but most of what you see in this series is pretty intense when it comes to the doctor side of things. For example, there is one episode in the series where an elderly lady is being held captive by her sister, after the older lady has had her knee replaced. Her sister is a biochemist who is trying to feel useful by making medicine for her to heal up her knee. Regretfully, she not only isn’t helping her ailing sister, but she ends up creating a spore-based poison that affects the entire town. Pretty intense stuff for a tiny town, but neat to put together in a single episode. You get a lot of moments like this and some that are witty, which makes for a great up/down story session within the Doc Martin series.
Let’s talk about features now…
The only thing disappointing about this collection is that it lacks some solid features. It’s nice having cast trivia and filmographies, but it really needed some ‘making of’ featurettes and maybe even some outtakes. I’m not sure how BBC feels about outtakes in serious shows like this, but that would have been absolute gold (especially considering Martin Clunes’ character). Regretfully, you only get a morsel of fun and it’s not enough really for me.
With that said, the show is still damn good and it’s worth the price of admission.