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| Doc Martin's family |
Doc Martin is an English comedy series which is on TV One at 8:30pm
every Friday. My mum loves it and she is letting me watch it for this
assignment, unfortunately for her I am hooked on it too. I centres around the
life of Dr Martin Ellingham and his partner, Louisa Glasson. In the series
showing at the moment they have a baby boy and are trying to juggle parenthood
and work.
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| Louisa Glasson |
My mum has the first two seasons of Doc Martin on DVD so she let me
watch them to find out about the beginning of Doc Martin. The first time we see
him he is on a plane sitting opposite a woman who tells him "you have
issues" as he is staring at her. We find out that she is Louisa Glasson a
teacher from Portwenn who is on the comity that is looking at appointing Doc
Martin as the GP for Portwenn. When we see this connection at the start, the producers
of the series are portraying that there is going to be something more with
their relationship during the series. And low and behold in the season on
at the moment they have a child together.
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| Doctor Martin Ellingham |
Doc Martin was a top surgeon in London before he became a GP in
Portwenn. The reason he changed his practice was because he developed a phobia
of blood. This phobia dawned on him in the theatre as he realised he was
operating on someone's wife and a mother. The media use his phobia to make the
show comical as he is still in the medical profession as he sees blood quite
often. In an emergency situation he tries to focus on the task at hand and
looks away quite often so he doesn't have to see the blood. This poses both
external and internal conflict for Martin. An internal conflict as it is
psychological fear (all in his head) he is trying to concur to continue doing
his job. His external conflict is the fact that every time he sees blood he
passes out or vomits, also when the villagers first find out about his phobia
they give a hard time about it - thus creating an external conflict for him.
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| Eleanor Glasson |
Every episode either has a new character or a big event. the script
writers of the show do this to create an excitement or tension in every episode
so that the audience stays drawn to it and will continue watching it. For
example this week Louisa's mother, Eleanor Glasson, who showed up a couple of
episodes ago without warning got very sick. She had a strangulated hernia which
she hadn't told them about. Because of this Doc Martin had to do an emergency
operation on her because the ambulance wasn't coming quick enough and she would
die. This showed me that he takes every course possible to keep
his patients alive no matter who they are (he doesn't like Louisa's
mother). Therefore every episode has a mini plot climax with a resolution.
And at the end of a season there is a bigger plot climax which is either
resolved then or in the next season. This bigger plot climax makes the audience
want to watch the next episode.
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| James Henry Ellingham |
During the episodes we see Doc Martin getting better at looking after
his child and is starting to show affection for him. He struggled to show
affection for James as his parents never loved him. however I would never known
this if I had not watched the previous episodes. Therefore the producers were
clever in linking previous episodes and seasons into one. So that the audience
has the see the previous seasons to understand why the characters act the way
they do about certain things. In season two Martin's parents visit and his
mother admits she never loved him or wanted him; and that was why he always was
at boarding school or with his Aunt Joan and it is because of this that he
struggles to show affection to James. This shows he is experiencing character
development as a father as he is becoming a better father for his son.
In conclusion, Doc Martin is a successful British Comedy. As the media
portrays his character well, it catches its audience's attention every single
episode. And it links different events in the seasons together for a better
meaning and understanding.
This is a trailer of the current season and it was enough to get me hooked on the show.
Interesting topic - you are obviously easily addicted to television shows - last time it was X Factor! I watched the trailer because I used to live in Cornwall, where the show is set. Unfortunately I can't stand Martin Clunes so won't be watching the show! Your blog is detailed, well set out, and you discuss some of the narrative aspects that we have studied in class, such as character development, plot climax and external conflict - although you didn't actually name them! It would be good if you could do this. Also, you refer to 'the media' in your blog, but this is very broad and you could be more specific - this is a television drama so instead of 'the media' you could talk about 'the producers' of the show. You change font size for one paragraph which isn't a good idea. I had to move closer to my laptop to read it!
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