#gotta say this for Dominic minghella - he sure writes shows that I can have opinions about

[buildarocketboys]

Doc Martin finale - spoilers if you watch it!

So if that was the last ever episode of Doc Martin (which The Sun seems to think it was - not usually a source I'd particularly trust but it is the most recent source talking about it as far as I can tell) it makes sense, but also - is that it?

First of all, I get it from a storytelling perspective - if (HUGE SPOILER if anyone actually cares about this show at all lol) Martin isn't a doctor anymore, then it doesn't make sense to continue "Doc Martin" if he's no longer the doc.

I also get it from a character perspective. I like the fact that (it seems to me) Martin has decided he can live without being a doctor because he has people who love and care about him, and a place where he fits - not just with his family, his wife and son and aunt, but in Portwenn in general - sure, the locals may not like him, but he's their doc (and a bloody good one at that, whatever the gmc say) and he's part of their lives, and he even has good relationships with some of them (I loved him walking Morwenna down the aisle, Al gets along with him pretty well, even the vet in the last episode had a nice working relationship thing going on with him). Ruth makes the point that James has parents who love him, whereas Martin did not, but Martin does have people who love him and more importantly who respect him and who he can rely on, because they know they can rely on him. So he feels able to take the decision for himself to resign as a gp, rather than just let it happen to him. As Martin himself said, it's none of his mentor's or the gmc's business how he chooses to live his life and why - that's his business, and he's totally confident in his decision and his place in life.

Unfortunately, what is the gmc's business is whether he can do his job, and as far as they're concerned, the surgery shows that, contrary to what he said, his haemophobia can affect his job, in potentially life-threatening ways. But the point here is, he still has a choice - he can choose to turn a blind eye to the other surgeon's condition and he'll turn a blind eye to Martin. Martin can't do this, but it does force him to face up to the fact that if Mr Surgeon whatshisname can't safely continue to perform surgery, his condition means he also can't safely perform his job. He takes responsibility for that (which he has pretty much been refusing to do throughout the season) and takes it upon himself to resign.

Now for the criticism. The whole handling of the assessment by the gmc was really poorly done by the show. Maybe that was on purpose, to get to this ending, but really? You have last series ending with Martin basically being like "I'll do anything to keep my job with my wife and kid" and then he just? doesn't do anything about his haemophobia until the literal day of the assessment? I know he's vaguely tried stuff before, but surely if your entire livelihood is on the line, you at the very least make the effort to look into therapy and have a proper go at it, rather than ignore it completely and hope your medical genius makes up for your queasiness at the sight of blood 🤔🤔

To be fair, even though the assessment was allegedly about the blood thing, and that did play a big role - another big reason he would have been struck off was his bedside manner. I'm not saying that's unimportant in a gp, of course, but clearly Martin is autistic, the bluntness and honesty kind of comes as standard, and yes, maybe he could make more of an effort to be kinder, nobody has ever given him a reason why that makes sense to him. He does his job and does it well - he has a responsibility to his patients which means he goes above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis (and I know that's sort of the point of the show, but still), and he's honest with his patients because as far as he can see, sugarcoating it does nothing except encourage patients to take poor care of their health and misunderstand the urgency (or lack thereof) of their medical situation. Yes, he ruffles feathers and hurts some feelings and people think he's a tosser. But he saves lives, and plenty of the villagers respect his honesty, even if they don't particularly like it. This isn't really a criticism of the show itself per se (although its refusal to acknowledge Martin is autistic, even though James is clearly showing similar signs - Ruth calling him "gifted" and Louisa saying "like Martin" was so close and yet so far - is), but it really does show off the ableism present in medicine - if Martin had a perfect bedside manner, as a gp, would his blood phobia really have been so critical? Maybe so, but maybe they would have overlooked it. And the ironic thing is, the haemophobia started in the first place as a hyperempathetic reaction to a patient he was operating on.

My biggest criticism really, though, is the way they rounded it off. Martin tells Louisa he quit (after she's told him she's pregnant lol), he says "bad timing?" and then "I love you" (ie my love for you is more important than my life's work, which is A LOT, but really not given the gravity it deserves) and then...that's it? If there's no more Doc Martin then...what are we supposed to assume from that? What is Martin Ellingham going to do if he's not a doctor? Again, this is more than just a job for him - it's his life's work and his passion, and on a more practical level, it's how he fits into Portwenn, and it's not going to be an easy thing to let that go, for him or the villagers. I know we can't exactly cover all that, but more than a cursory 30 second conversation at the end of the final episode was probably necessary.

In the end, my takeaway is pretty much - loved the idea, hated the execution. The idea of this autistic abuse victim whose only passion in life was medicine and being a doctor/surgeon, getting to a place where he's found family and a place he fits and is confident enough to be able to give that up, on his own terms, when he realises he can't go on - just love it. But it just doesn't make sense (especially when he's had that blood phobia for years) and it makes even less sense to have that damp squib of an ending, if that really is the ending of the show. (If not I'd be interested to see where they take it next).

Anyway, I know basically nobody on tumblr cares about this show but I've been watching it almost since the beginning, and even though it's kind of silly (and Martin kind of ticks every stereotypical "high-functioning" asshole genius white male autistic stereotype going), I kind of love it and I'm sad to see it go.