REVIEW: "Best Medicine" is silly but satisfying

Audio By Carbonatix

Much of the early humor from Best Medicine comes from the simple but inarguable fact that most of the characters share too much information to everyone within earshot. As the lead character asks in the second episode, “Why can’t anyone in this town have a private conversation that’s private?” That's the running joke in the show's first few episodes but the program slowly improves in its first four episodes (four were available for review) and becomes something far more likeable than the pilot suggests. 

Adapted for American television from the British show Doc Martin, this is a show that relies on eccentricities and audiences taking everything with a grain of salt for it to succeed.

Josh Charles (The Good Wife) stars here as Dr. Martin Best, a Boston heart surgeon who moves to the small Maine town, Port Wenn. He’s belligerent and standoffish but in this land of eccentricities, he’s also a doctor who gets freaked out by blood. He arrives in town days before the would-be wedding of the patient local schoolteacher Louisa Gavin (Abigail Spencer) and the over-confident Sheriff Mark Mylow (Josh Segarra).

Of course, the entire town knows about the wedding that fell apart. In fact, everyone in the town seems to know everything about everyone else. As Dr. Martin’s aunt (played by the loveable Annie Potts), “This place won’t let you hide and that’s a good thing.”

As soon as he sets up his office with the over-the-top social media loving Elaine (Cree) as his secretary, Dr. Martin begins seeing patients. During the first two episodes, the medical ailments (including two men growing bosoms in the pilot) are silly and exaggerated like much of the show but by the third episode, the show settles into a smoother routine. By the fourth episode, the story feels far more assured. 

Throughout the first few episodes, there are a number of surprisingly funny moments. From a gag about the baked bean barbecue being once a month (to the shock and horror of Dr. Best) to jokes about Elaine's twin sister in the third episode, there's a lot to like about some of the story's wry sense of humor. Charles does a great job inhabiting the personality of a non-nonsense doctor in a town with so many quirks but it's Segarra, who was so wonderful in The Other Two, who steals the spotlight whenever he's onscreen.

In the first episode of Best Medicine, the show feels over-the-top and overtly silly. It feels like every character has a quirk or a eccentricity built in. However, by the second pair of episodes, those quirks don't feel as silly. After a rocky start, the show seems to settle into a more rewarding routine offering some silliness but offering something far more satisfying.

Like the frustrated doctor at the center of the show who wants to leave the town only days after arrival, it feels tempting to exit this community early but it's far more satisfying to stick around to see what else this program has to offer.