Doc Martin Special Collection: Series 1-7

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

Format: DVDVerified Purchase
After watching a half dozen episodes of Doc Martin on PBS, I ordered this collection and was won over by the story and characters. In many ways this is an English Ballykissangel. The characters and stories are very different but they’ve created another quirky village as a pretext for a comedy of culture clash. While BallyK was more of a comedic soap with the ensemble playing their expected roles, Doc Martin is a personality driven comedy about an uncompromising high achiever completely out of his element. So far they’ve avoided the downward spiral Ballykissangel took after season 3, though a cast change in Series 5 has had a few detractors and I thought it the weakest of the 5 sets.

Martin Clunes is in rare form as the cantankerous Dr. Martin Ellingham who is seemingly tormented on a daily basis by the odd assortment of village patients inhabiting picturesque Portwenn. Forced to give up his practice as a London surgeon due to a comedically ironic bout of haemophobia he’s selected to replace the former GP in this Cornish fishing village. A less suitable candidate could hardly be imagined. Martin’s brusque manner and insulting intolerance to his patients’ country ways set the stage as the episodes follow one hilarious plot after another. Along the way he enters into an improbable romance with the local school teacher (surely the most forgiving woman in all of Cornwall) and becomes an object of the local chemist’s sexual obsession. It’s hard to explain just why this is so terribly funny when the core joke is that Martin is such a disagreeable person, but it is. As the series plays out you start to empathize with him as he slowly becomes an essential part of the community even while planning a return to his former life.

– J. Janssen

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Martin Clunes, Dominic Rowan, Richard Dillane, Oliver Fox, Mathew Bose
Directors: Ben Bolt
Writers: Mark Crowdy, Craig Ferguson, Simon Mayle
Producers: Jamie Roberts, Mark Crowdy, Philippa Braithwaite, Sandy Poustie
Format: Multiple Formats, Box set, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Number of discs: 13
Rated: NR-Not Rated
Studio: Acorn Media
DVD Release Date: May 7, 2013
Run Time: 90 minutes
ASIN: B00A27O0N4