It’s nothing new or extraordinary to remake a overseas TV present for a distinct nation.
“All in the Family” was modeled on the British sequence “Till Death Us Do Part,” as “Steptoe and Son” turned “Sanford and Son.” The favored CBS sitcom “Ghosts” comes from the present yow will discover retitled as “U.K. Ghosts” on American Netflix. The British mysteries “Professor T” and “Patience” (from Belgian and Franco-Belgian productions, respectively), have been profitable on PBS. And there may be, in fact, “The Office,” which outlasted its unique by many, many seasons and almost 200 episodes. It doesn’t all the time work out (“Life on Mars”; “Viva Laughlin,” from “Blackpool,” which lasted a single episode regardless of starring Hugh Jackman; “Payne” and “Amanda’s,” two failed stabs at adapting “Fawlty Towers”), however there’s nothing inherently incorrect with the apply.
The brand new Fox sequence “Best Medicine,” arriving Sunday as an advance premiere earlier than its time slot premiere on Tuesdays, remakes the U.Okay. “Doc Martin,” beforehand tailored in France, Germany, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. For higher or worse, I’ve a protracted, admiring relationship with the unique, having signed on early and attended each season in flip — and interviewed star Martin Clunes 3 times throughout the run of the sequence (10 seasons from 2004 to 2022). And I’m absolutely not alone. Not like with most such remakes, whose fashions could also be comparatively obscure to the native viewers, “Doc Martin” has lengthy been broadly out there right here; yow will discover it at present on PBS, Acorn TV and Prime Video, amongst different platforms — and I like to recommend that you just do.
In “Doc Martin,” Clunes performed a superb London surgeon who develops a blood phobia and turns into a common practitioner within the Cornwall fishing village the place he spent summers as a toddler. He’s a terse, stiff, delinquent — or, extra exactly, non-social — one that doesn’t stand on ceremony or endure fools gladly, however who repeatedly saves the folks of Portwenn from life-threatening situations and accidents or, typically, their very own foolishness. A slow-developing, on-again, off-again love-and-marriage arc with schoolteacher Louisa Glasson, performed by the divine Caroline Catz, made each season finale a cliffhanger.
Clearly, the honest factor can be to take “Best Medicine” as fully new. However assuming that some studying this may need to know the way it follows, differs from or compares to the unique — which was definitely the very first thing on my thoughts — allow us to rely the methods.
Josh Segarra, Josh Charles and Abigail Spencer in “Best Medicine.”
(Francisco Roman/FOX)
The names have largely not been modified. For no clear motive — numerology, possibly? — Martin Ellingham is now Martin Greatest (Josh Charles); Aunt Joan is Aunt Sarah (Annie Potts), a fisherwoman as an alternative of a farmer. Sally Tishell, the pharmacist in a neck brace, has grow to be Sally Mylow (Clea Lewis); and distracted receptionist Elaine Denham has been rechristened Elaine Denton (Cree). Conserving their full names are Louisa Gavin (Abigail Spencer), father and son handymen Bert (John DiMaggio) and Al Giant (Carter Shimp), and peace officer Mark Mylow (Josh Segarra). Portwenn has grow to be Port Wenn, Maine. (Lobsters are as soon as once more on the menu.)
As within the unique, Martin is hounded by canines (no pun supposed, critically), to his displeasure; youngsters are impolite to him, as a result of they’re impolite youngsters. Mark Mylow is now Louisa’s lately jilted ex-fiance. Liz Tuccillo, who developed the variation, has added a homosexual couple, George (Jason Veasey) and Greg (Stephen Spinella), who run the native eatery and inn and have a pet pig named Brisket (delicate of them to not title it Again Ribs); and Glendon Ross (Patch Darragh), a well-to-do blowhard who bullied Martin in his youth. Other than the leads Charles and Spencer, few have a lot to do apart from strike a unusual pose, although Segarra, lately acquainted as faculty district consultant Manny Rivera on “Abbott Elementary,” makes a meal of Mark’s each line, and Cree, who will get loads of scenes and a private plotline, makes a captivating impression. Spencer is nice firm; Potts, whom I’m all the time joyful to see, is extra an instrument of exposition than a full-blown character, and it feels a little bit unfair.
The primary episode is modeled intently on the “Doc Martin” pilot, from Martin and Louisa’s antagonistic meet cute — through which he offends her, leaning in unannounced to look at her eye — to the episode’s principal medical thriller (gynecomastia), a punch within the nostril for our hero. Different particulars and plotlines will arrive, however there was an try to offer “Best Medicine” its personal identification and unique tales.
On the entire, it’s cuter, milder, extra cuddly (a number of vomit jokes however), extra apparent and extra whimsical, however much less actual, much less intense and fewer sharply written than “Doc Martin.” The sides and angles have been sanded down and polished; tonally, it resembles “Northern Exposure” greater than the present it’s adapting. Port Wenn (represented by the coincidentally named Cornwall, N.Y., with a large a part of the Hudson River subbing for the Atlantic Ocean) itself comes throughout as comparatively upscale; the physician’s workplace and quarters are right here plushly appointed, slightly than spare, practical and a little bit shopworn.
As Martin, Charles stiffens himself and retains his facial expressions usually between impartial and aggravated, although he’s softer than Clunes, much less a prisoner of his personal physique, much less abrasive, much less otherworldly. The place Dr. Ellingham remained to a big diploma inexplicable — the sequence expressly refused to diagnose him — Tuccillo has given Dr. Greatest a rapidly revealed childhood trauma to account for his blood phobia and make him extra conventionally sympathetic.
I freely admit that in judging “Best Medicine,” my familiarity with “Doc Martin” places me at an obstacle — or a bonus, I suppose, relying on the way you take a look at it. However taken by itself deserves it strikes me as a slightly apparent, completely peculiar instance of a kind of present we’ve typically seen earlier than, a feel-good celebration of small city values and traditions and togetherness that may presumably enhance the persona of its oddball new resident, because the townspeople come to simply accept or tolerate him anyway in flip. Within the first 4 episodes, we get a celebration of baked beans, a town-consuming baseball championship and a once-a-year day when the ladies of Port Wenn doll themselves off and exit into the woods to fulfill a jacked, shirtless, off-the-grid he-man, proper off the quilt of a romance novel, who steps out of the forest, ostensibly to supply wilderness coaching. It’s like that.
All in all, “Best Medicine” lives very a lot in a tv actuality, slightly than making a actuality that simply occurs to be on tv. To make sure, some will favor the previous to the latter.
