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Post by francesca on Oct 18, 2011 13:36:52 GMT
I have had a few rants about poor series (Hidden) and about "Creaking past -their -sell-by" series, but sorry, I am about to do it again.
Doc Martin
First I must say that I love Martin Clunes, and when this series began, I loved it for its gentle humour and warmth.
But since this last series began, I felt it was falling into 2nd category above.
Worse
The last two episodes (last night's and last weeks)were an insult to my intelligence.
Martin and his co-star, cardboard cutouts , just going through the motions.
Stupid Stereotypes>>>> simpleton copper and slightly crazy country folk .
Come Now!!!
In an interview in the Radio Times, Martin Clunes said the show belongs to him and to his producer, wife Philippa Braithwaite and they do it to finance their other lifestyle of riding horses.
They sell all sorts of souvenirs with his face on them .
I quote" If we can put Doc Martin on it, we sell it. "
Fine If you want to do that.
Fine,if people want them and if you are turning out reasonable quality programmes, but doesn't this smack of greed?
Don't treat us with contempt.
You no longer care about your audience, Martin and it shows.
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Post by welshdragon on Oct 18, 2011 13:58:03 GMT
I agree with you frannie, this series is dire!
I have really enjoyed Doc Martin in the past (mostly because I know Port Isaac - Port Wen - so well) but this one is terrible.
They have made so many mistakes as well, in last nights episode and the episode with Miriam Margolyes Martin called a number of characters by several different names! We sat there looking at each other mystified - maybe later on it will come out that Doc Martin has a memory problem lol!
It seems very slapdash and careless and I think it's time they called it a day myself.
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Post by megagem on Oct 19, 2011 1:33:09 GMT
Ahh, what a shame! Doc Martin is shown on PBS over here and although I haven't been a fervent follower (I'm not really a fervent follower of anything on TV at the moment) I've loved watching it when I see that it's on. I'm not sure which season is being shown currently, but what a shame that the newer episodes are so flat and obviously done so carelessly!  |
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Post by kygal on Nov 12, 2011 13:31:10 GMT
I like Doc Martin. As Meg says it is on PBS here. I think we have seen the older episodes. The last one I saw was when they had the baby. Are there more seasons after that??
I think with all tv series that some episodes are better than others and most seem to go down hill the longer they run.
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Post by tipou on Dec 30, 2011 19:58:43 GMT
*raising my hand shyly*
i like doc martin...
perhaps you are all british or european or something. if you had to live with mostly american tv, the "defects" you mention would seem very light to you.
american tv shows two models of females (blond and brunettes), they will add a reahead if they really want to be outrageous. but none can weigh over 90 pounds - wet.
they have to add one black and one asian and one latin person to any police team or group of friends or neighbourhood. as if no one in america had any race issue, as if ghettos no longer existed anywhere. you see, they have to show us the way. and they certainly do not want any group to protest a show.
all cops fire their guns at least twice a week, regularly kill people, and then throw a clever line as if it was nothing to them.
everyone is fit and beautiful, except of course the obligatory funny wacky character, who is obese or bald or very much older or wearing huge glasses or having a weird (immigrant) accent.
they ALL live in 1/2 a million $ town houses, lofts, or run down ny apartments with wacky neighbours.
as for american tv doctors, their patients are occasions to turn in the "socio-political issu of the week" violins. every season they save the lives of at least one drug addict, two excentric elderly citizens, one very dark criminal, a couple of adorable kids with cancer, one defrocked priest, while banging the entire nurse staff (except for the older, obese, comic-relief recurring character based on louise fletcher in "one flew over the cuckoo's nest").
and so on, and so forth.
yes, there certainly are sterotypes on doc martin, but at least people look normal. think about the beautiful caroline katz, she would be the butt of "fatso" jokes over here, no jokes!!!!
and of course, the writers seem to have issues with women and anything spiritual, but at least they are not buying into the politcally correct standard b***sh*t that makes everything here look all the same.
EVEN OLD AUNTY JANE HAS SEX WITH A YOUNG ARTISIT ON HER KITCHEN TABLE! you would NEVER see that here. or... perhaps if she weighed 90 pounds, has bleached hair, a fresh facelift, and enough money to indulge in a taste for gigolos (one of the issues of the week mentioned earlier) - and remorse afterwards. an older grey haired obese woman enjoying sex without remorse??? not on u.s. tv ever.
most of all, the characters on doc martin, as stereotypical as they might be, make you WANT to go to portwenn, which seems to be a jolly nice place to visit, as opposed to the superficial mid-size town suburban plastically perfect hollywood crowd that american tv wants you to believe is america today - with the possible exception of one dark seedy neighbourhood once in a while, where the sun never rises ever, and if you happen to walk there (by mistake or to satisfy low instincts or because you had an unhappy childhood) you invariably get shot/raped/kidnapped or all of the above.
cardboard cutouts? me no agree. they certainly are funny, those characters on "doc martin". how not to love mr. large, the big hearted incompetent plumber / restaurateur? even that wacky cop made me rotfl more than once. and the pharmacist... oh lord the pharmacist... with her surgical collar, her estranged husband with a hearing problem, and the unrequited crush for the town doctor.
"doc martin" is not pretentious, it is an honest entertainment product that does not try to look otherwise.
also, to conclude this rant - i find particularly hilarious the crowd of teenage girls eternally walking around the village in "doc martin", invariably present whenever something embarrassing happens, so they can snicker and emit the kind of sarcastic comments of which no one alive would want to be the subject.
just for these girls, the program would be totally worth it for me.
sorry for ranting. where are the radishes???
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Post by anglophile on Dec 30, 2011 23:53:40 GMT
Oh, Tipou, bless you  You make me proud to be an "American who never watches" I'm always the one in the room who is clueless when everyone else is discussing some mind-numbing program they stared at the night before. The first time I watched a British TV series, I thought there had be some terrible mistake. Those people looked normal -- meaning they looked like me and my family and my neighbors and friends. they acted like us, as well. (although they did speak rather strangely) I feel so completely virtuous and full of good taste now, thanks to your "rant" -- and I've never even watched doc martin (but I would now, just to say I had the experience.) |
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Post by tipou on Dec 31, 2011 3:53:52 GMT
this being said, anglophile, i often, too often, indulge in american shows. they allow me to easily do something else at the same time, your whole brain is not required.
altough the ranting rage in my last email might just be caused to the awful awful awful decline of my favourite show "house m.d." it USED to be such a fascinating show. this season i dont even bother, it makes me mad.
canadian tv used to be quite terrible - and still is most of the time. but once in a while some shows show real genius. like "heartland" or "little mosque on the prairie".
and quebec tv is often OUTSTANDING. easy for me to say, most of you dont speak french. you have to take my word for it. although quebec tv has the major defect of aiming to be informative and even educational. even in the quebec equivalent of soap operas, any character is prone to suddenly confide that he/she read this wonderful book about autism, which states quite clearly that authoritative specialists tend to recommend blah blah blah.
which leads me to think, suddenly, that the only really honest tv in north america is... american soaps. they do not try to pass as anything else than opportunity for product placement.
BOY am i in a foul mood today.
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Post by kygal on Dec 31, 2011 13:20:38 GMT
Can anyone answer my question. Are there more episodes of Doc Martin after they have the baby? Thats the last one I have seen.
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Post by tipou on Dec 31, 2011 16:29:00 GMT
Can anyone answer my question. Are there more episodes of Doc Martin after they have the baby? Thats the last one I have seen. that's the last one i've seen too, but during the reruns this fall they showed a clip from martin clunes saying that they are filming new episodes. so i went to some website, bbc or something, and actually found a photo of martin and louisa (holding the baby) - they actually are living together in the new episodes. i hope that pbs will air those new eps pretty soon. |
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Post by kygal on Jan 1, 2012 13:26:18 GMT
Thanks Tipou! Look forward to it.
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Post by francesca on Jan 1, 2012 17:35:08 GMT
I have had a few rants about poor series (Hidden) and about "Creaking past -their -sell-by" series, but sorry, I am about to do it again. Doc Martin First I must say that I love Martin Clunes, and when this series began, I loved it for its gentle humour and warmth. But since this last series began, I felt it was falling into 2nd category above. Worse The last two episodes (last night's and last weeks)were an insult to my intelligence. Martin and his co-star, cardboard cutouts , just going through the motions. Stupid Stereotypes>>>> simpleton copper and slightly crazy country folk . quote] Tipou. I think you missed the point. It was becase I loved the first three series of Doc Martin, that I was ranting about the poor quality of the last . Martin Clunes and his co-star Caroline Catz are brilliant actors who deserve better than the writing in the last series. I believe you have not yet seen the last series so it might be better if you wait and see. Kygal, yes you get to see the baby but as this is the series I was complaiining about you may be disappointed
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Post by tipou on Jan 1, 2012 19:04:49 GMT
to be absolutely honest, fran, i was not too keen about the story with the ex girl friend surgeon redhead who was totally a female version of doc but with a mean streak. i just did not like the character.
so we'll see, perhaps in a few months i will be adding another rant AGAINST the series. knowing myself, i would say it is entirely possible. seems that pbs will air the new series at some point, so i will make sure and keep you posted. i will even swallow my words (virtually) if i have to.
still, fran, really, i swear, most tv this side of the pond is just depressingly emptily stupidly weak. from the start. so by the time they reach 3ed or 4th season, which in itself is a total amazement to me, you just end up thinking of how the world would be better if this production money would be used towards world peace or feeding poor kids. just saying.
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Post by francesca on Jan 1, 2012 23:26:06 GMT
I didn't like her either Tip and she is in tha latest series too ( the one I moaned about)
We have our dreary idiotic series too .
I think this Christmas had the worst ever line up of programmes.
The new Sherlock was starting tonight and I had to miss it because my visitors were departing.hopefully there are more good progs this week .
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Post by tipou on Jan 2, 2012 6:19:46 GMT
makes sense, fran. i guess the best of your shows make it over here, so we dont see your share of bad tv. it just seems better because we see the best.
are you talking about the sherlock with benedict cumberbatch? is this a second series? we saw only 3 eps here and they rocked.
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Post by kissmekate on Jan 2, 2012 7:02:43 GMT
Oh, the new Sherlock is already on in the UK? (I'm afraid we'll have to wait for our badly synched version until summer ) |
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