Let’s get this right: there’s two different Doc Martin characters played by Martin Clunes (Men Behaving Badly). The TV series of Doc Martin has Clunes playing Dr. Martin Ellingham. He gives up being a vascular surgeon when he becomes overwhelmed by a fear of blood. He retreats to the country village of his youth to be a general practitioner. The Doc Martin in Doc Martin: The Movies is Dr. Martin Bamford. He heads out to the countryside for an entirely different reason in the two made-for-TV movies.
“Doc Martin” introduces the character as an extremely successful obstetrician. He’s able to treat his three best friends to a posh lunch. He learns fast that the trio are hiding a major secret from him. He gets a surprise when he calls his wife’s pager and the beep comes from an unexpected place. Turns out that while he’s busy at his practice, she’s been keeping her bed active. This is too much for him. Instead of going completely insane, he flees to a small town he remembers from his childhood. In the midst of his crisis, he volunteers to help a local with his lobster boat. Mostly he does it to get a cellphone signal, but he gets into yanking the traps from the sea. He gets tangled into a controversy about stolen lobster traps. He quickly discovers the strange joys and frustrations of the small town. Things get tense when he gets suspected of being the thief. Can he stay or will he return to his life in England?
“Doc Martin and the Legend of the Cloutie” makes him want to be a full-time resident of the seaside town. The problem is when he finds his ideal home, it gets snatched up. He despises the family that moves into where he belongs. He resorts to local magic to scare these people out of the house. There’s a continuing romance between Doc Martin and a local gal. Things get controversial when the bartender’s brother gets into an illegal alien issue. What about the Cloutie? It’s the town monster that might be real after all.
The Doc Martin TV movies have a more semi-serious tone than the series. There is plenty of humor, but not extreme sitcom jokes about this fish out of water in a fishing village. It’s comedy out of frustration instead of pure slapstick. Clunes has the right kind of face for not playing things for constant yucks. You can believe he’s a doctor yet also know he’s a guy completely off balanced. If you’re used to the Doc Martin series (that were adapted by Craig Ferguson), the TV movies will take you a few minutes to orient yourself. Doc Martin: The Movies presents a different character on a different mission in the same kinda town.
The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The transfer brings out the details in the seaside location. You’ll probably want to boil up a lobster after the first movie. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. It’s not an overwhelming sound mix. If you put your ears to the speakers, you’ll hear the ocean. There’s subtitles in case you can’t quite grasp the local accents.
Bonus features have not been included.
Doc Martin: The Movies is a fine double feature about a doctor attempting to lose himself in a quaint seaside town. It’s easy to see why he’d flee to such a nice place. But can he really handle life in the village? This is a bit of a change for fans of the Doc Martin series.
Acorn Media presents Doc Martin: The Movies. Directed by: Ben Bolt. Starring: Martin Clunes, Dominic Rowan and Lynsey Baxter. Boxset Contents: 2 Movies on 2 DVDs. Released on DVD: August 30, 2011. Available at Amazon.com.
