SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Best Medicine Season 1, Episode 4.

It doesn’t take a doctor to figure out where Best Medicine is going to go, which makes it all the more important that the show find interesting ways to get there. The journey doesn’t have to be a surprise if it’s worth taking. But Season 1, Episode 4 suggests that there’s a formula the FOX series needs to break out of.

“All the World’s Ablaze” is yet another example of Dr. Martin Best interfering in a major town event and causing the citizens of Port Wenn to be furious with him. And when there have only been four episodes, that pattern is a bit concerning. It’s even more concerning when this script particularly makes Martin out to be the bad guy. The intended moral of the story is spelled out by Louisa Gavin, when she tells Martin that doing the right thing doesn’t always mean following the rules. Yet realistically, it’s also hard to fault Martin when he’s genuinely trying to look out for people’s health—and when one of the resulting complaints is that someone might have to make sundaes for her kids herself.

This is a developing issue with Best Medicine‘s supporting cast, as the characters can become somewhat broad in the service of humor. They get irate or worried about things that don’t connect with the viewer. An even bigger example in “All the World’s Ablaze” comes from an early sequence in which all the women in town are seen dolling themselves up to impress the local survival expert, Blaze. The joke gets played out too long and makes them all seem shallow. This is intended as somewhat of a setup, because the big reveal later on is that they actually paid attention to the survival course and are able to help Martin. But that reveal falls flat because the script goes right back to jokes about the women swooning over Blaze once he’s found—thus reinforcing the broad character stroke that the story just tried to contradict.

Even the moment that’s supposed to be a turning point in Martin and Louisa’s relationship, when he’s holding her after she’s fallen in the woods, doesn’t quite get there. They haven’t yet earned the romantic tension that the scene is meant to evoke. Their rapport is still growing toward that point. Sure, there’s a bit of a laugh when Martin’s phobia kills the vibe, but that moment could have played much better if it had happened later in the season—when audiences will be much more invested in those two as a pairing.

There’s also some predictability in story structure. The humor seems to lead for the first three-quarters of each episode, before there’s a more serious note at the end. The thing is that Best Medicine is absolutely great when it hits those serious notes, so it shouldn’t be afraid to put them earlier in the episode. It doesn’t have to always lead with big and funny. In “All the World’s Ablaze,” the audience finally hears Elaine open up about losing her father—in Cree’s best scene to date—and Martin is able to help her by telling her about the death of his sister. Josh Charles is once again spot-on here, but it’s also great to see the relationship between Martin and Elaine in a different light than just his exasperation about her being a terrible assistant.

Episode 4 is the most disappointing installment of the season; it’s not as funny as it wants to be and it doesn’t make an impact with the viewers until the fourth act. But it’s also still early in said season. Best Medicine has time to break its own formula and venture out into new avenues of storytelling. It certainly has the cast to do whatever it likes; the writers simply have to take a few more chances.

Best Medicine airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. Photo Credit: Courtesy of FOX.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.