Anyone watching Best Medicine?

[LogDog75]

Best Medicine is the American version of the British program Doc Martin. I've watched the first five episodes and I'm not very impressed with it. For full disclosure, I'm a big fan of Doc Martin and I'm currently re-watching season 1. The first episode of Best Medicine is almost identical to the first episode of Doc Martin. The main characters have the same first names as in Doc Martin as well as the town of Portween.

I find the character of Martin Best to be boring even though his character is supposed to evoke comedic situations with being a bit aloof but he just doesn't pull it off.

Abigail Spenser does a good job as Louisa Gavin, In Doc Martin, Louisa and Martin gradually fall in love but in Best Medicine it seems she's falling in love with Martin faster than he is with her.

One redeeming character is Annie Potts who plays Martin's aunt Sarah. Her character kind of reminds me of her playing Meemaw in Young Sheldon. She's great in making her character seem more real than the other characters.

I'll watch a couple more episodes and if it doesn't get better I'll stick with the original Doc Martin.

What's your take on Best Medicine.

[EverHopeful]

1. Haven't seen it but the only American version of a British show I've ever enjoyed was House of Cards

but can't bring myself to watch it again.

What is it about American TV that the shows never seem to be able to bring the depth and engagement of British shows they try to recreate?

[Tim S]

2. I couldn't bring myself to watch it. The commercials looked like a vulgar parody to me.

I’m a huge Doc Martin fan and trying to “Americanize” it feels like a blatant ripoff being sold to people who don’t know the original. Or maybe designed for Doc Martin viewers curious to see a “car wreck” of a show (eyeballs are eyeballs when selling commercial time). It feels like crass commercialism lacking any artistry.

I haven’t watched American network television since Hugh Laurie starred in “House”. These days I find myself watching either MS Now or streaming British shows. I’m currently bingeing “The Bill” on YouTube. The creators are uploading higher resolution versions of the entire series which ran from 1984-2009 (it sometimes ran 3 nights a week, over 150 new episodes per year).

There’s all kinds of great content out there that’s free to watch without any subscriptions, so I hold no interest in watching “Best Medicine”.