Port Isaac
Writers are always selling somebody out, Joan Didion said. She probably meant their subjects (or maybe their families), but in the case of PBS’s season-ending episode of Doc Martin last night, the people being sold out were the viewers.
In a previous post I mentioned our fondness for this British import. Now, not so much. The episode was being set up as a conventional romantic twist, capping a 3-year story arc. I imagine the writers were congratulating themselves on reversing the audience’s expectations for this episode. Unfortunately they achieved this by undercutting the entire premise of all three seasons. Rather than affirming unconventionality in the final episode, they instead affirmed the village’s conventionality and narrow-mindedness, so carefully delineated in the series’ span. Oh, well, it’s just TV. Ross and Rachel, anyone?
I can imagine the writers saying, “We’re not going to give you a feel-good conclusion.” True. They gave us a feel-manipulated conclusion.
cleve callison’s blog 
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