Summary
Best Medicine improves a little in “Bean There Done That”, with a better sense of place and evolving relationship. It’s still early, but early signs are positive.
Good news! I think Episode 2 of Best Medicine is definitely better than the premiere, which is a good sign. “Bean There Done That” has a nice sense of place to it, a sense of small-town insularity that helps to inform the overbearing relationship dynamics. Martin gets a bit more development, his connection to Port Wenn is better expressed, and even at a glance, you can imagine multiple different relationships – platonic and otherwise – that are starting to spring up here and there. All of this is pretty solid stuff.
It’s not groundbreaking, sure, but it was obvious from the first episode that Best Medicine was never going to be that. It’s a small-town medical drama with the nice hook that the local doctor is serving a community so tight and regimented that they believe they have diagnosed themselves before they even step through his door. In their mind, he’s more of a drug dealer than anything else.
That’s the underpinning of this week’s case. Apparently, every year, Port Wenn is besieged by a local variety of moth that causes allergic reactions. Martin’s waiting room is full of self-diagnosed people who are looking for a usual treatment so that they can get on with their day. But the first young boy Martin sees presents with symptoms that aren’t characteristic of a moth allergy, which makes Martin suspect that he might be sick with something else – something that’s very contagious. And that means shutting down the monthly baked bean supper, which everyone in town attends mandatorily.
Here’s something interesting about Best Medicine – it’s not a medical drama, really. Instead, it starts with a medical premise, but Martin proceeds to “solve” it like a mystery, giving the whole thing a cosy whodunnit feel that rather suits it. The whodunnit in this case just so happens to be a wealthy local who used to bully Martin as a kid and is doing some renovation work on his house. He’s also the dude who funds the bean supper and nobody likes him, leading to a satisfying scene later when Martin stands up to him.
But the arc for Martin isn’t really being accepted as the local doctor or detective or whatever role he happens to be fulfilling for the town at the time, but being accepted as a member of the community in general. Port Wenn is big on this idea, which is why Martin has been treated as an outsider from the second he arrived – despite having a personal connection to the place – but it also means that as he gradually becomes more accepted by the locals, the effect is sweeter. Martin spends a lot of this episode having better interactions with people who had previously been hostile to him, not just as their doctor, but as their neighbour, and potentially even their friend.
In Louisa’s case, potentially something more. Best Medicine Episode 2 includes slapstick-y light romance stuff like Louisa accidentally falling on top of Martin, but it also includes a couple of nice scenes of openness as Louisa chews over whether to attend the baked bean supper on account of the sheriff having moved on a bit quicker than expected. And the best scene of the episode is between these two, wherein Martin finally opens up about his backstory. He had a sister named Rosemary who died in a car accident when they were kids, and he summered in Port Wenn every year after that. His mishap in Boston involved a little girl of the same age who had similarly been in a car accident, causing him to freeze. This is easily the most vulnerable we have seen Martin be thus far, and it’s no accident that it’s Louisa he has chosen to be vulnerable with.
Again, I must stress this isn’t going to change the television landscape in its totality. But I do think it’s pretty charming and will definitely find a keen audience, especially as we begin to get more comfortable with the locals and their various relationships. It’s still early days yet, but early signs are at least positive.
