Drama
When Calls the Heart
This beloved Hallmark romantic drama about life in a small, 1900s Canadian mining town returns for its tenth season.
In the small seaside town of Port Wenn, everyone knows everyone.
Friends share drinks at the local diner. Acquaintances greet each other at the town’s only grocery store. And everyone loves to share their thoughts and feelings with anyone who’ll listen.
Port Wenn sounds like a pretty pleasant community, right?
Well, award-winning Boston surgeon Dr. Martin Best doesn’t think so.
Upon his arrival at Port Wenn, Dr. Best—or Doc Martin, as the town folk call him—claims that he relocated to relive childhood memories he had with his Aunt Sarah. But as Martin spends more time in the seaside town, his reason for coming to Port Wenn starts to seem … fishy.
For one thing, Martin doesn’t bother to visit Aunt Sarah when he arrives. For another, Martin clearly hates people—especially small-town people who badger him with their oh-so cheerful attitudes and non-medical problems. Particularly irritating to Martin is his administrative assistant, Elaine, who’s attempting to become a YouTube star. And he’s also annoyed with the numerous people who try to include him in their gossip about a woman named Louisa (who broke off her engagement with her high school sweetheart). Even though Martin says he wants to relive childhood memories, the small-town lifestyle just doesn’t seem to be Martin’s “thing.”
And typical doctor duties don’t seem to be his “thing” either. You see, every time Martin glimpses as much as a cut, scratch or bloody nose, he panics and becomes dizzy.
Despite these factors, Martin decides to keep his job as Port Wenn’s doctor—treating and diagnosing the town’s quirky residents. And perhaps the warm members of the seaside community will help Martin diagnose his own problems, too.
From 2004 to 2022, the British network ITV aired 10 seasons of Doc Martin, which follows an uptight city doctor who moves to a small town with eccentric residents. Sound familiar? Fox’s 2026 dramedy Best Medicine (ahem) borrows Doc Martin’s characters, setting, plot and even the main character’s name.
And the show also borrows medical-based television’s most common content concerns.
Scraped skin, bodily fluids and blood appear onscreen—though the volume isn’t excessive. Characters utter light profanity including “b–tard,” “d–n” and misuses of God’s name. Additionally, two Port Wenn men are in a relationship and refer to one another as partners.
While Dr. Martin Best would likely never prescribe laughter as any kind of medical solution, Best Medicine’s writers treat viewers to a generous dose of it—or at least they try to.
Characters frequently make sexual references and innuendos, which are almost always intended for comedy. One episode makes light of marital infidelity, using it as the premise for several comedic moments. And characters’ rude—sometimes even mean—comments are often played for laughs.
Frankly, even if laughter is the best medicine, you might want a different television comedy to fill your prescription.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out. )
Port Wenn residents eagerly welcome Dr. Martin Best, the town’s new general practitioner. But their loud and eccentric personalities irritate Dr. Best, who’s unsure he can deal with Port Wenn’s overly friendly culture.
A boy’s bleeding knee is visible, and someone’s bleeding finger is shown. A man gets a bloody nose, and the blood runs down his face. Dr. Best states that the only thing he likes about people is “cutting them open.” During two separate appointments, male patients share that they are growing breasts. Dr. Best jokingly suggests that he could prescribe a training bra. Later, the men learn that their condition was caused by accidental exposure to estrogen medication. The two men argue about their breast sizes.
A gay couple is introduced in the episode. A husband catches his wife cheating on him with a much younger man. When caught, the young man runs away—wearing only his brief-style underwear. Later, the wife attempts to justify her cheating by saying that she just likes to flirt. A group of teenagers make fun of Dr. Best and hypothesize about his sexual preferences. Standing in a public space, a woman shares the intimate details of her sex life with a doctor, and her description is loud enough for passersby to hear. Other characters jokingly make sexual innuendos.
Characters occasionally use profanity including “h—,” “d–n,” “b–tard” and misuses of God’s name. There are also a few uses of “crap,” and someone utters the phrase “darn you.”
Rude comments—especially from the show’s protagonist, Dr. Best—are frequently played for laughs. A man named Mark talks callously about his ex-fiancée—who dumped him two weeks before the wedding—claiming that “the devil lurks beneath” her. A girl states, “If there’s one thing that’s real, it’s magic.”
People drink alcohol at a restaurant. One of them is clearly drunk, and he vomits onscreen. A woman slaps a man in the face. Later, men engage in a fist fight.
This beloved Hallmark romantic drama about life in a small, 1900s Canadian mining town returns for its tenth season.
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