Latest / Podcast Portwenn: Doc Martin & Best Medicine / BONUS Episode: Best Medicine Episode 9 — The Best Family vs. the Ellinghams
Transcript
- Chesla Wechsler: This bonus podcast on Best Medicine is full of Doc Martin spoilers. If you do not want to be spoiled by Doc Martin spoilers for your Best Medicine viewing experience, now is your time to bail. This is your final warning. So I had at least one request for Chris's impressions. People missed that from last time. So welcome back, Chris. And it's good to be here. Nice to have you in the same room. In the same state. That's right. That's right. So we decided that we would talk about really keep the focus on the Best family. and Louisa's interactions with them as far as Best Medicine goes and compare that to ⁓ Doc Martin and the Ellinghams and Louisa. what was your impression of the Best group? The Best group? Yeah. Well, just a summary of my to the episode, I thought it was the episode that I enjoyed the most ⁓ because it the most character development. We got to see parents. We to see Louisa and Martin a moments together. We got to see Louisa and Mark have a couple moments together. the development there, I thought was very good. I thought Mark was good. So, but ⁓ yeah, so looking between the Ellinghams and the Bests. The Ellinghams. The Ellinghams. The Ellinghams. Gotta keep the watchers happy. Between the Ellinghams and the Bests, I the Bests better. Where do we start? We can see Martin Ellingham be usual monosyllabic and... ⁓ having be a very laconic person with little emotion at all. Now, is season two. It is season two. Season two, Martin Ellingham can He can say, tell snarky jokes. He does smile a couple of times. does. And snarky. ⁓ Yes. favorite Martin Ellingham. But in terms of his reactions to Louisa, sadly. ⁓ gotta give him a little slack. He had just been told by his mother. True, true. Okay. Yes. True, true. So Doc Martin people recognize the scene we're talking about where Margaret Ellingham basically tells... Martin how he ruined her life by being born. Right, right. And for 40 years she's been paying for that. Yes. So he's trying to digest that and poor Louisa comes and just rattles on and doesn't read the room. She doesn't see that he's in a bad state. But let me even before that, ⁓ even before occurs, they have their moment at the school and Louisa's a little put out and says, I was like somebody waiting at a restaurant, waiting for somebody to show up. Martin says, well, I had something with a patient, a friend of yours. Louisa says, oh, well still you could have called. And Martin says, yes. Does he apologize? Does he say, oh, I'm sorry, I could have done that? No. And that's even before. I know, I know. Although his parents are there the whole time. His parents did little tense, little tense, did come in. Yeah, yeah. So dynamic of Martin and Martin, Ellingham and still needs a lot of work. ⁓ as viewers of Doc are aware, It takes a long time. ⁓ The lifelong thing. As Chesla will know. The Best men are difficult. Progress takes time. I don't know if you can show this. Progress takes time. As far as Martin and his parents go... It's clear that Martin Ellingham and parents have not spoken to each other for years. Yeah, seven years, he says. Right. ⁓ And Best and Robert Best. I think it's a surprise when he shows up. you don't get the impression that it's been like seven years and they haven't, it's perhaps been a long while, he wasn't expecting them, but it's not a distant relationship, it's cordial. It's like, oh, you're here, what can I do? Cordial within reason, because you get this whole Robert and Vanessa thing going, right? Which is a little odd. I am their offspring than they are my parents. So mean, they, ⁓ they have these little things when they come in, know, you don't get a sense that there's a lot of closeness in this family. Right. There's a little awkwardness. I mean, it is, the waiting room is full. A lot of people and so yeah, you don't over and hug although may not anyways. Yeah, no, there's not a lot of hugging here. Yeah, although Aunt Sarah hugs. ⁓ yes, Aunt Sarah's a hugger. She's different. She did not Rosemary. Right. Right, and I'm sure she was grieving because it would have been her niece. Yeah, but it's within the family. There's a cordiality and like the estrangement that that the Ellinghams have. With the Ellinghams. ⁓ And also, we do the sort of between... Christopher Ellingham telling Joan yes, right you're having an affair Right and you've got Robert Best telling Sarah you're having an affair right the two sisters make different choices But they both end up with a lose-lose result true true So there's no love lost between brother and sister right and when they're sitting down at Sarah's table and she gets right to the point. What are you here? What are you doing here? Yeah? And ⁓ so very direct. It sounds like ⁓ Christopher Ellingham actually had been writing to Joan and she'd just been throwing his letters away. So it's possible he was warning her what was going on. Right. And that's why he... But he actually planned his trip because Martin picked him up at the train station. Right. Whereas Robert Best just wanders in with Vanessa. Right. Right. you have the, in the Ellingham ⁓ a poor investment farming. No, in the Ellingham case it's an investment in a golf course. Golf course, I'm sorry. ⁓ Golf course, farming, you both have of land. it's green on ⁓ top. ⁓ So yeah versus gambling debts versus gambling debts and in the Best case it's a gambling right so one thing I would say is Ellinghams Margaret and Christopher cause the trauma with Martin. They are the cause of this trauma. the Bests a shared trauma. Yes, an accident. ⁓ But a shared trauma and then they never discuss it. So it happened then it's just in Martin like it probably festers. ⁓ Whereas in it gets suppressed. ⁓ Yeah, in Robert, mean, Martin is a kid. It's his older sister. Is probably a very big part of his world. Yeah, because he says he thinks about her every day, though she was a pest. Yeah, in Robert's case, Robert and Vanessa's case, they're adults. They more of Yeah, but it was a child. mean, a death of child is supposed to be like the worst thing ever. No, no, it's death of a spouse. Okay, alright. Then a child. Then loss of a job. Seriously? I think so. No way! Those are the two, and then you have the I can't, it can't be right. I believe you, but it can't be right. You know, not for nothing. so Martin was six Rosemary was eight. Yes. just, you one of these things that you think of. ⁓ When I five, ⁓ I lost four-year-old playmate. ⁓ I'll never forget, as a five-year-old, still remember he had aplastic anemia, and I remember my parents telling me that he got a bruise and it killed him, basically. There was no discussion around it. It was just kind of similar to other things. Just, we'll explain it and then it's done. a kid who's five or six, you can't really understand what's going on. Mmm. Yeah, I actually the things was on I remember I had a little plastic barrette Mm-hmm, and I remember chewing that thing until there was like nothing left of it But this massive gnawed plastic and it was I that was just a stress response because I didn't know what to do with myself And nobody was talking to me about it. Mm-hmm. You know ⁓ little aside there. I just have a weird life So have this the Best have a shared trauma mm-hmm and ⁓ Ellingham's Martin Ellingham has a trauma that is imposed upon him a lifelong of neglect abuse and lack of love One other thing, comparing series that... I mean, they're sort of like slice and dicing the Doc Martin series ⁓ putting the pieces into Best Medicine Vanessa is a psychiatrist. ⁓ we don't know what she did. ⁓ just sort of like a wife of a doctor, I think. Yeah, yeah. But Vanessa is a psychiatrist. in the original Doc Martin, they have their Aunt Ruth, ⁓ a psychiatrist. ⁓ I think that sort of bleeds in. ⁓ Ruth is a very forthright Ellingham. her emotions are very kept within. I suppose she might hug Martin. from time to time. does, Within limits. But when she's super grateful that she's not dying of lupus, that was a big day for her. Right. So they've taken sort of the profession and understanding of Ruth and putting that into Vanessa. And you at Margaret and Christopher, right? You've got a supposed, all we know is from Margaret's perspective, that they were the perfect couple. ⁓ We don't if they were from Christopher's perspective, but you know, let's just take it ⁓ for a ⁓ I will it. Not sure I'll Just for a minute. ⁓ And then they've got basically this marriage that's fallen apart because Christopher could never see her again as anything other than a deflated balloon. And it's all Martin's fault. ⁓ And Christopher's obviously a womanizer and he's a slimy son of a gun. Womanizer and slimy, yes. Whereas Robert Best and Vanessa do seem to be a couple. Yes. ⁓ does. With With problems. they get on together. They get on together and they're still married. ⁓ and it looks like they might even be able to negotiate this gambling thing because she seems kind of like At first it looks like she's gonna like just that's it. Yeah, you got the idea She might get over her anger and be able they might be able work it out. They're going back. She's driving Yeah, so right, right, she apologizes to Martin at the end and why? we don't know why. have been any of several things. What do you think? ⁓ would never apologize. ⁓ Yeah. But why, what is Vanessa apologizing for? Well, she could be apologizing for their hasty departure. ⁓ could be, after revelation of her husband's gambling debts, could be apologizing for the they treated him after Rosemary's death. Could be. ⁓ We don't know. mean, that's just a thought, right? Because there's no hints to that. Or apologizing for the current state of their relationship, which could be better. Or I was thinking just now that she could be apologizing just for the fact that they came here and they were going to completely upset the apple cart with Aunt Sarah. Someone who Martin really loves. And also, like, The reason Martin didn't get to see Aunt Sarah anymore is because of Robert not allowing Martin to see Aunt Sarah. Now Aunt Sarah, of course, very different from Aunt Joan. So Aunt Joan chooses Marty and loses John Slater and then Christopher doesn't send Martin. So lose, lose for her. Whereas Aunt Sarah picks principal and Martin's not sent and then she loses principal. So it's like lose, lose, but two very different choices. They lose one by choice. other they lose by happenstance. but Christopher is a slimier because it's like, I'm not sending my son because you're having this affair. She ends the affair, he doesn't send the son anyway. It's like, you son of a gun. Yeah, that's true. about Louisa? Like, Louisa doesn't meet the Ellinghams. ⁓ ⁓ Louisa Gavin meets the Bests. At least Vanessa. Right. Vanessa. ⁓ ⁓ well, they certainly at the point where they're in the ⁓ ⁓ the school. Right. Everybody's there. yeah, there. It's not really a meeting as much as an emergency. But yeah, Vanessa and Louisa do have a moment together. Vanessa is... ⁓ Kind. Yeah, kind. And she even recognizes that Louisa is in love with Martin. Right. Well, Vanessa is a psychiatrist, so she's probably skilled at being able to ⁓ read people, pick things up from people, and able to them out. ⁓ she's figured out Louisa is in love with Martin. Yep. My son would be a fool not to love you back. And the Best men are difficult. That's a great place to end. hope you guys enjoyed this little extra segment. We to do this but the schedules did not permit. And I've being ⁓ able to this together. Yes. ⁓ So thanks watching. Little extra bonus. ⁓ Take care Bye bye. ⁓