In Best Medicine, Josh Charles plays a doctor who ditches Boston for small-town life in coastal Maine. When Dr. Martin Best moves to Port Wenn, where he vacationed as a kid, he expects a quieter life — one in which he’s bothered less by humans, a populace he’d prefer to avoid. But he soon realizes that no one in this town (not even the scruffy dog that keeps barging into his new private practice) seems to know how to leave him alone. Add a recently acquired phobia of blood to his innate aversion to social interactions, and the citizens of Port Wenn may push him to his breaking point. 

Tudum spoke with the actor about taking on the role in the dramedy, which is streaming on Netflix. The series from Liz Tuccillo (Sex and the City) stars Charles alongside Abigail Spencer (Rectify), Josh Segarra (The Other Two), Cree (Turtles All the Way Down), and Annie Potts (Young Sheldon). 

Best Medicine is an American adaptation of the beloved British series Doc Martin, and Charles says it was the original show’s tone that first hooked him. “Once I started watching it, I was immediately taken by its humor and charm,” he tells Tudum.

While Charles’s career has been peppered with comedic roles — among them, Wet Hot American Summer follow-ups Ten Years Later and First Day of Camp, plus guest spots on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Inside Amy Schumer — his turn in the quirky dramatic comedy is a bit of a swerve. He’s spent the last few years taking on dark dramas and thrillers like The Handmaid’s Tale, The Veil, and We Own This City. Returning to comedy, he says, was part of the draw of taking on Dr. Best. “I had been living in darker material of late, and it was one of the reasons this show was appealing to me. I love doing comedy and was searching for something lighter to explore.”

Still, Charles approaches Martin the same way he’d approach any character, regardless of genre. “For me, it doesn’t matter what the job is,” he says. “My work starts in the same place with the same questions: who I am, who I am with, what do I want, what am I doing to get what I want, and what are the consequences if I get or don’t get it. I start with those and move on from there.”

Martin isn’t an easy man to like on paper. He’s a gifted doctor, but he’s brusque, private, and not looking to make friends. Over time, though, the people of Port Wenn slowly break down his defenses — especially schoolteacher Louisa Gavin (Spencer), with whom he grows close over the course of the season … even if he later throws a wrench into the relationship by introducing her to his ex, Eden (Eliza Coupe). But it’s not unlike Martin to be contradictory, Charles says, and that’s part of what he likes about him.

“I found his contradictions compelling,” Charles says. “He had his heart broken at such a young age in a traumatic way with the death of his sister. I don’t think he’s ever recovered from it.” That trauma, he says, is what shaped Martin into the guarded, high-achieving man he is today. “He’s become this incredibly successful surgeon, but putting so much into his work for all those years comes with a cost. For him, that cost is that he’s an extremely lonely person. He’s scared of intimacy, has social anxiety, and just doesn’t know how to be with people.”

Which is what makes his reluctant return to Port Wenn so complicated. It’s an “unwelcome blessing in disguise,” Charles says. As much as he pushes people away, he longs to foster deeper connections with them — if only he could figure out how. “As mean and cranky as he can be, underneath he has a heart of gold.”

Martin is perennially reluctant to help people, much less speak to them, despite his profession. But over the course of Season 1, he begins to thaw ever so slightly, even rallying with the townspeople in the face of adversity. For one, he saves Port Wenn’s most beloved restaurant, Salty Breeze — and its resident pot-bellied pig, Brisket — from the threat of a health-code violation. (It was, despite his time in the industry, Charles’ first time working alongside this particular species. “And hopefully the last,” he says. “We had to fire the first pig. The second one was better.”) 

The doctor also comes to the rescue in the latter half of the season, when Port Wenn agrees to become a sister city with a town in Norway. At first, when the Norwegian delegates, overly intense couple Ludvig and Sigrid, arrive, they charm everyone with their Scandinavian whimsy — even hosting a dance at the Salty Breeze — but Martin is suspicious. His instincts eventually prove correct: The Norwegians plan to set up an offshore salmon farm and are trying to manipulate the people of Port Wenn into accepting the deal. But after Martin unexpectedly delivers two of Sigrid’s children in quick succession, he uses the chaos of the moment to thwart the Norse duo’s ill intentions, saving the town from environmental and financial straits. 

He’s not free of trouble just yet, however. His childhood bully and staunch salmon farm supporter, Glendon (Patch Darragh), has dirt on him: Martin’s assistant, Elaine (Cree), has been drawing blood due to her boss’s phobia — a big no-no since she has no medical credentials. Glendon uses this secret to coerce Martin into supporting the fishery deal, but when Martin doesn’t take the bait, Glendon reports him to the medical board, jeopardizing his career. The rest, though, is for Season 2 to tackle. 

“We’re five episodes into filming, and I’m excited for everyone to see it,” Charles says about the second installment. He dishes that not only will Martin be dealing with monitors sent from the state’s board of health, but also Eden’s increased presence in town will ruffle feathers among Port Wennians. “We are diving in deeper with all the characters, which is fantastic, as we have such an incredible ensemble of actors,” Charles says. “It’s such a fine and welcoming cast and crew that grew even closer as [Season 1] progressed.”

Dive into Best Medicine on Netflix now. 

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