FOX’s Best Medicine Gives Doc Martin a Charming American Update

As Anglophiles already know, the United States gets a ton of television from our friends across the pond, whether that means directly importing British hits or just making American versions of some of the United Kingdom’s most successful properties. Many of our most popular reality programs are simply carbon copies of shows created in the U.K. — you can thank a Brit for everything from American Idol to Dancing with the Stars — and U.S. attempts to recreate hit British scripted series have historically run the gamut from the great (Ghosts, The Office, House of Cards) to the genuinely awful (Gracepoint, Skins, Life on Mars). This is all to say that the new FOX drama Best Medicine is merely the latest in a long line of American remakes, but one that is nevertheless much more charming than it probably has any right to be.

Best Medicine is a remake of Doc Martin, the popular ITV comedy-drama series that ran for ten seasons, spread over nearly two decades. Starring Martin Clunes as the titular physician, the original is probably already familiar to many American viewers, thanks to its widespread popularity (and consistent reairings) on PBS stations across the country.

(*We covered the early seasons of the show fairly extensively here at Telly Visions, though you’ll have to wait till we get the archives back up and running to see any of that.)

This version has tapped the perennially puppy-eyed Josh Charles (The Good Wife) to play its take on the series’ famously irascible lead character, a casting decision that immediately softens some of the show’s sharpest edges. It’s certainly a choice to turn the character formerly known as Martin Ellingham into a kind of adorable woobie who keeps getting annoyed by charming small-town traditions like a monthly baked bean supper. But Reader, I don’t hate it. 

Overall, the series’ premise is essentially the same: A grumpy big-city doctor with a fear of blood moves to an idyllic small town, where he learns valuable lessons about love, community, and the importance of human connection. In Best Medicine, the physician’s name is changed to Martin Best (Charles), and he’s from Boston instead of London. His new home is the Maine town of Port Wenn, which may technically be spelled differently from the original seaside village in Cornwall, but has all the same quirky vibes and oddball locals, most of whom share names with their British counterparts. There’s schoolteacher Louisa (Abigail Spencer), local sheriff Mark Mylow (Josh Segarra), the father-and-son handyman duo of Bert (John DiMaggio) and Al Large (Carl Shimp), and receptionist Elaine (Cree), though she now sports the last name of Denton rather than Denham.

Most of these characters have been tweaked or updated slightly for this remake. Louisa and Mark are now childhood best friends turned ex-fiancees — she actually called off their wedding just before Martin arrived in town — but after the local community center had already been decorated. (Awkward.) Martin’s beloved Aunt Joan (Annie Potts) is now a lobsterwoman named Sarah, and a slightly aged-down Elaine is now chasing viral fame through her influencer-style daily TikTok show, which she films from the reception desk. A few new faces have been added — most notably, Greg Garrison (Stephen Spinella) and George Brady (Jason Veasey), who are Port Wenn’s token gay couple and owners of its apparently only restaurant and pub — but this isn’t a remake that’s terribly interested in rocking the boat or changing what’s worked in the past.

Out of the four episodes initially available to screen for critics, at least three feature some version of a plot reworked from the first season of the U.K. original, and the medical mysteries of the week are fairly low-stakes. (Will what appears to be a foodborne illness outbreak shut down The Salty Breeze? Can the Port Wenn high school baseball team defeat its longtime rival? What happens when there’s a medical emergency during the town’s yearly outdoor survival training session?)

There’s something delightfully cozy about it all, like a Hallmark Christmas movie in reverse or a slightly lower body count version of the murder mysteries that power the bulk of Acorn TV’s line-up. Port Wenn is effortlessly diverse and supportive, and though it pays some degree of lip service to the economic conditions of its presumably lower-income residents — a genuinely interesting addition! — things like social class and political ideology don’t really seem to exist here. (An interesting choice for a show that’s ostensibly about healthcare set in America in 2025!) But the most significant change is how the show approaches Martin himself.

One of the challenges of the original Doc Martin has always been that Martin, as a character, is…difficult. He’s not particularly warm or nuanced, has little understanding of things like manners or social filters, and is often incredibly mean to those around him, even those he claims to care about. The character was and remains beloved by many, so his overly brusque attitude has never been as big a problem as you might expect. However, the original recipe Martin’s inability to display much character growth for long stretches starts to feel pretty frustrating over time. 

Charles, by contrast, gets to play a much less stoic take on the character, who comes off as more troubled and huffy rather than outright mean. His Martin, more than anything else, reads as awkward and lonely, a man who rejects things like friendship and community simply because he fears they’ll reject him if given the chance. It’s difficult to imagine him somehow maintaining his removed, misanthropic attitude for ten episodes, let alone the ten seasons of the original. Martin’s already warming up to these people despite himself! 

Most of the show’s supporting characters are still relatively underdeveloped at this point. Spencer’s Louisa is almost painfully perfect, regularly idealized by pretty much everyone in town. Thankfully, the show does give her a bit more immediate agency than her British counterpart and an actual arc of her own that exists outside of meeting Martin, so there’s hope she may become genuinely three-dimensional in the weeks ahead. (Spencer, a favorite around since her days on Sundance’s Rectify, remains great.)

Cree’s Elaine is another highlight, though it doesn’t entirely feel as though the show’s really gotten a handle on her personality or priorities just yet. Still, the fact that she knows the truth about Martin’s backstory and chooses to help rather than humiliate him is a point in her favor, and it slowly allows the two to open up to one another in a genuinely personal way. Also, just like the original, there’s a cute dog involved. (Yay!)

Best Medicine, like Doc Martin before it, isn’t a particularly deep or serious show, and even if you haven’t seen the original, plenty of its narrative beats are going to feel deeply familiar. But once again, the journey’s more important than the destination, and the cast is gamely committed to the bit. But it’s Charles that’s the reason to tune in here, who has charm enough to cover plenty of the show’s flaws. It’ll be worth seeing where this goes.

Best Medicine's Season 1 premiere will air on Sunday, January 4, at 8 p.m. ET on Fox, with streaming to follow on Hulu and Tubi. The series will continue with new episodes debuting in its new regular Tuesday 8 p.m. slot starting January 6th, 2026.