I don't view his occasional expressions of care and concern WRT Aunt Joan as evidence that he is not repressed. I think his interactions with AJ are at least partially driven by a sense of "appropriateness." There are times when he clearly thinks she's a pest. They seem almost never to relate to each other as adults, but rather alternate in parent-child roles. That is in contrast to his relationship with Aunt Ruth. But caring about your aunt is not the same as not being repressed (in my view).
~~Great point and I accept your interpretation.
There were occasional moments in S4 when we glimpsed that he had, besides the rancor, softer feelings for Louisa. He was gentle with her about the Small for gestational age concern; also in the ultimate denoument with the midwife. His demeanor with her in the last couple of episodes is sometimes wistful and a little sad. In the first scenes of the first episode of S4, we see him brought up short by the sight of a swinging ponytail in the classroom. But I also think he was fighting not so much against Louisa as an internal battle as to whether he wanted to again open himself up to the messiness of being a father and involved in a relationship with Louisa, particularly if it involved giving up on London. There's no other reason why he wouldn't have tried to get clearer with Louisa about whether or not she was actively shutting him out.
~~Ding Ding. He was moving forward and then she returns and throws a wrench into his plan. Again, I accept your analysis that it was an internal struggle for him given all that this baby would mean in terms of his life/future. That leads me to my opinion that this marriage was really just fulfilling an "obligation" on his part.
He was feeling a little guilty in their scenes/schoolyard, imo.
Sad? Wistful? Yes, that, too.
In general, I think he was struggling AND frustrated AND scared. I agree and a reasonable assumption.
She was struggling to cope, frustrated by uncertainity, and a tad scared herself. Right?
It doesn't excuse his behavior. He was losing the internal battle, hence, he was cross, bullying, insulting and mean. I think I added one more to the pile since my last reply. I couldn't resist. Thanks, NP, I appreciate the care and reflection in your replies.
We also see throughout S3 DM at his best. Sure, the "estrogen based kiss under the tree" comment was the "bad breath taxi kiss" sequel, but after once again showing LG that he is 100% there for his patients, every single one of them, day and night, which really strikes her deeply as neither her mother or father was really ever "there" for her, and after stating he can't live without her, they are engaged.
From then on in the season, DM is really a very decent, considerate fiancee. He does not decide things without seeking her opinion. He catches himself when he makes an odd comment (the salt is bad for you comment, for eg), and clarifies it. He is a good lover, and she likes it and looks forward to them being intimate.
He is obviously trying very hard to be kind and caring to LG. Yet, in the non-wedding finale, LG spends the whole time allowing herself to be swayed by Elaine and others that DM is a ridiculously bad catch, while HE is running all over the the outskirts of the village trying to make everything right and perfect for her/their wedding.
So, yeah, points of view do differ watching the show! ;-)
mmDerekea
You make an interesting point - S3 and his behavior (make all right) and her's. Sigh - I did love him Where did he go?
mmDerekea
You make an interesting point - S3 and his behavior (make all right) and her's. Sigh - I did love him Where did he go?
There was the Castle and the presumed interim which in Mona's, mine and certainly other's opinion was a period of growth and cooperation. (Read Mona's THE THIRD TIME fanfic to get an idea...brilliant). Louisa was able to calm Martin with a touch at the wedding. She said, "Yes, good." when he proposed that they leave. They spent time growing together and caring for James. The honeymoon adventure, however did demonstrate flaws...Louisa's mocking him...her not listening to him when he complained her behavior was unfair. The crowning glory was her walking out on him when he was trying to show her his clock, along with his rude dismissal of her proposal of an "anniversary" that was not. Bad behavior on both party's part, but the walking out was horrible.
Then, due to circumstances that we may not totally perceive, Martin's mental illness comes to the fore. It's clear that he has been functional but weird, rude and monosyllabic, but due to what he has been through, he is mentally ill. Sleeplessness, weight loss, irritability, withdrawal are signs of illness that are not within the sufferer's ability to control. His behavior at the Field Day are not those of anyone who is rational and it appears to be that Louisa does not recognize it. As someone who has lived in close proximity with mental illness and has indeed studied it, it seems clear that this was what was being portrayed. For this reason I can't hold DM responsible. He was not fully in control of his faculties.
So, I will watch it again and I will be astounded with the stark reality of the car accident...great choreography....shocking. But the acknowledgement of the fact that Martin is mentally ill makes it chilling. Not that the writers are screwing with the viewer and making them hate him. It was indeed, very very sad.
I don't mean to be presumptuous in guessing anyone's opinion...certainly not yours, Mona. It's just that your fanfic was spot on with what I wanted to believe. Forgive me if I was out of line.
I don't mean to be presumptuous in guessing anyone's opinion...certainly not yours, Mona. It's just that your fanfic was spot on with what I wanted to believe. Forgive me if I was out of line.
My dear Mofromco! If you call my fanfic "brilliant" you can state whatever you want about my opinions. I'll be too widely smiling to notice it!
Ms_Sarah, if what you write is true, then CC need not return for S7. Do you believe that the rumors of couples counseling are only rumors then?
FWIW, I completely disagree that M married L "out of a sense of obligation." Certainly S5E8 and S6E1 insinuated no such thing. And M remarked to AR several times, in S5 & 6, that he loves L. Why tell his aunt such a thing if he didn't mean it? Not his style at all.
Ms_Sarah, if what you write is true, then CC need not return for S7. Do you believe that the rumors of couples counseling are only rumors then?
FWIW, I completely disagree that M married L "out of a sense of obligation." Certainly S5E8 and S6E1 insinuated no such thing. And M remarked to AR several times, in S5 & 6, that he loves L. Why tell his aunt such a thing if he didn't mean it? Not his style at all.
Zarwen - you're on the mark here. I think that if they had married at the beginning of S4, with Louisa newly returned to Portwenn and very pregnant, then yes, that could have been out of a sense of obligation. But after S5E8 and S6E1, it's clear to all, including Louisa, that he *does* love her, they share some tender moments, and in the best way he can, the Doc expresses his love for Louisa.
IMO, all through S6 his love for Louisa doesn't dissipate. He is, as Mofromco states, dealing with his own depression and mental illness. He is withdrawing as a coping mechanism, and therefore cannot express his love for his wife in the ways she needs to see it. But it's there.
I think it's also important to remember that neither Martin nor Louisa had the benefit of growing up in stable households with emotionally healthy marital role models. Both sets of their parents were terribly poor examples of what it means to be in a healthy, committed relationship built on strong communication and mutual compromise. It's an uphill battle to nurture a healthy relationship when your most prominent role models were rubbish. Is it any wonder that Louisa's tendency is to run away from confrontation? Isn't that what both of her parents did (and continue to do), in their own ways? And are we really surprised that Martin doesn't express emotions easily (other than anger and frustration), when his parents were verbally abusive and neglectful?
Would I have liked to have seen more tenderness and affection in S6? Absolutely.
Do I hope to see more of that in S7? Without a doubt.
In addition, I do hope they bring back some of the Doc's dry wit from S1. One of my favourite lines is when Louisa asks him how he's finding the village and he replies with disdain, "All except the primary schoolteacher, who's a pirate, it seems."
Is there any consensus on what triggered Martin's mental illness (which I think was extreme depression)? Knowing he was stuck in Portwenn? Knowing he could never return to surgery? The burden of living with a woman who supposedly loved him but didn't seem to like him? The responsibility of being a father late in life who would not be like his father? The death of Aunt Joan? The alleged death of is father? The return if his mother?
Is there any consensus on what triggered Martin's mental illness (which I think was extreme depression)? Knowing he was stuck in Portwenn? Knowing he could never return to surgery? The burden of living with a woman who supposedly loved him but didn't seem to like him? The responsibility of being a father late in life who would not be like his father? The death of Aunt Joan? The alleged death of is father? The return if his mother?
The alleged death of his father? What mysterious wrench did they throw into that storyline?
Back when I was still fond of the show, I saw a special on PBS of Martin and his farm and his love of dogs. I still like the actor, and am so sad what they did to the show.
Is there any consensus on what triggered Martin's mental illness (which I think was extreme depression)? Knowing he was stuck in Portwenn? Knowing he could never return to surgery? The burden of living with a woman who supposedly loved him but didn't seem to like him? The responsibility of being a father late in life who would not be like his father? The death of Aunt Joan? The alleged death of is father? The return if his mother?
Primos, The "alleged" death of his father was a potential storyline that was floated by fans -- but I think they will have quite enough to do in S7 without resurrecting his father. Amnesia is a good old soap opera trope, but we've already seen that with Maggie. Some fans are also betting on a return of the repressed, in that a buried memory of a trauma that occurred between the ages of 4-6, will emerge (see convo with AR). But I'm betting that's just a soap trope too far for this series.
Bloodphobia -- I would say that there is absolutely zero consensus on what happened to DM. A sizeable minority of fans say, "what the heck was that? where did that come from? " -- in other words, no adequate story predicate and hence, unbelievable.
In this condensed and highly significant conversation with Aunt Ruth, she makes the equivalence between his blood phobia making him give up surgery -- something that he loved --- and the return of his hemophobia and "shutting down" as a way of giving up Louisa -- someone he also loves. Because he feels he doesn't "deserve her" and I suppose by extension, that he doesn't deserve to be happy. I find that parallel rather feeble, but it's the best they could come up with, I guess.
My own guess as to what might have happened is that this is a man with an OCD like personality -- (NOT disorder) who keeps a lot of anxiety at bay by a prissy insistence on meticulous order and control. He's lost control over his environment, it's chaotic and untidy, and it's an enormous stressor. Also, the honeymoon is over, as we are told almost explictly when Louisa kisses him goodbye and goes back to work. Now we're down to the mundane realities of married life, and living intimately with someone else, for which he's not really equipped. But he's also not able to express or share any of this. So he somatizes. And all of his anxieties get bound up in worries about his physical condition, which leads him into the tailspin so frustrating for Louisa. This theory works for me, but isn't convincing to many others.
My own guess as to what might have happened is that this is a man with an OCD like personality -- (NOT disorder) who keeps a lot of anxiety at bay by a prissy insistence on meticulous order and control. He's lost control over his environment, it's chaotic and untidy, and it's an enormous stressor. Also, the honeymoon is over, as we are told almost explictly when Louisa kisses him goodbye and goes back to work. Now we're down to the mundane realities of married life, and living intimately with someone else, for which he's not really equipped. But he's also not able to express or share any of this. So he somatizes. And all of his anxieties get bound up in worries about his physical condition, which leads him into the tailspin so frustrating for Louisa. This theory works for me, but isn't convincing to many others.
.
I'm totally with you on that one, NewPark. It's the only explanation that's ever really made sense to me.
And the somaticization has resulted in a symptoms of a major depression...weightloss, sleep problems, dysthymia, withdrawal, irritability. That is what I define as his "mental illness". I never implied that he had OCD or psychosis or borderline personality. The scene they did in the kitchen was classic...Louisa, the radio, the blender, Mike the Manny, James......to be truthful I couldn't cope with that myself and wouldn't allow my household to be that way. I raised two boys but that would never have flown.
Again, it leads back to Louisa's inability to recognize his needs. It's a topic that will no doubt be pursued soon on the program.
Bloodphobia -- I would say that there is absolutely zero consensus on what happened to DM. A sizeable minority of fans say, "what the heck was that? where did that come from? " -- in other words, no adequate story predicate and hence, unbelievable.
In this condensed and highly significant conversation with Aunt Ruth, she makes the equivalence between his blood phobia making him give up surgery -- something that he loved --- and the return of his hemophobia and "shutting down" as a way of giving up Louisa -- someone he also loves. Because he feels he doesn't "deserve her" and I suppose by extension, that he doesn't deserve to be happy. I find that parallel rather feeble, but it's the best they could come up with, I guess.
My own guess as to what might have happened is that this is a man with an OCD like personality -- (NOT disorder) who keeps a lot of anxiety at bay by a prissy insistence on meticulous order and control. He's lost control over his environment, it's chaotic and untidy, and it's an enormous stressor. Also, the honeymoon is over, as we are told almost explictly when Louisa kisses him goodbye and goes back to work. Now we're down to the mundane realities of married life, and living intimately with someone else, for which he's not really equipped. But he's also not able to express or share any of this. So he somatizes. And all of his anxieties get bound up in worries about his physical condition, which leads him into the tailspin so frustrating for Louisa. This theory works for me, but isn't convincing to many others.
As NewPark knows, I'm one of those for whom this idea doesn't work, just because they had been living together since the finale of S5, with all the "chaos" etc, LG should have been working, and there they are at the wedding, happy and together.
I found the one scene where they tried to show DM a little overwhelmed was pretty much for me ridiculous in its presentation--LG is cooking dinner, Mark is cleaning up, and DM had to feed his baby. It's too much! Chaos! Out of Control! Over-whelmed!
Come on! This is a guy trained in surgery, was the head of vascular medicine, trained residents, has worked 24/7 in Portwenn with no vacations, through various secretaries, various problems with LG. And then DM had been living with LG and the baby and doing fine, doing great, getting a sense of humor, etc, and now suddenly he can't handle it.
The main problem I had with S6 is that it was so poorly written and organized, and so cliched from other seasons. DM suddenly gets his homophobia back out of the blue, for no reason at all, after, actually, a wonderful time together for him and LG on their wedding night. Then we see him being difficult and LG getting frustrated (S5) and LG walking out to go to her mother (S5) and LG in a cab in a dangerous situation and DM calling her, but he cannot get through to her, and then going after her (S4)--I was bored by the lack of creativity and the repetitiveness of the plots. And, then, look!, in the finale (which I was also not impressed with), DM looks like he is getting it together. Just like the finale of S4. Just like finale of S5. Been there and done that.
With MC and then PB sick, we had nearly patched together storylines, with a lot of empty space to fill, ergo we had Penhale having a central focus as a complete idiot, and that certainly got tiresome.
We had moments when DM apparently has no idea he is losing so much weight, but realizes it when his mother mentions that fact; DM goes on the scale and he keeps lowering the pointer to the extent his trousers would have been on the floor by that amount of weight loss if he hadn't dealt with taking them in. We have him apparently not sleeping at all, and yet, during the day he is alert, awake, and completely functional. If I lose sleep for two nights I'm a like a zombie--DM wasn't even shown being dependent on his beloved coffee!
S6 was just MC gratifying his own need to take DM down to the depths of despair. One hopes he's gotten that out of his system, and that S7 has an entire turn around in plotting and character presentation. I would pay good money to have DM knock his head on a beam again, or kiss LG for a good long time, or tell another joke, or read another medical article to JH. Oh, I miss the past, when DM was so darn entertaining!
As NewPark knows, I'm one of those for whom this idea doesn't work, just because they had been living together since the finale of S5, with all the "chaos" etc, LG should have been working, and there they are at the wedding, happy and together.
I found the one scene where they tried to show DM a little overwhelmed was pretty much for me ridiculous in its presentation--LG is cooking dinner, Mark is cleaning up, and DM had to feed his baby. It's too much! Chaos! Out of Control! Over-whelmed!
Come on! This is a guy trained in surgery, was the head of vascular medicine, trained residents, has worked 24/7 in Portwenn with no vacations, through various secretaries, various problems with LG. And then DM had been living with LG and the baby and doing fine, doing great, getting a sense of humor, etc, and now suddenly he can't handle it.
The main problem I had with S6 is that it was so poorly written and organized, and so cliched from other seasons. DM suddenly gets his homophobia back out of the blue, for no reason at all, after, actually, a wonderful time together for him and LG on their wedding night. Then we see him being difficult and LG getting frustrated (S5) and LGwalking out to go to her mother (S5) and LG in a cab in a dangerous situation and DM calling her, but he cannot get through to her, and then going after her (S4)--I was bored by the lack of creativity and the repetitiveness of the plots. And, then, look!, in the finale (which I was also not impressed with), DM looks like he is getting it together. Just like the finale of S4. Just like finale of S5. Been there and done that.
With MC and then PB sick, we had nearly patched together storylines, with a lot of empty space to fill, ergo we had Penhale having a central focus as a complete idiot, and that certainly got tiresome.
We had moments when DM apparently has no idea he is losing so much weight, but realizes it when his mother mentions that fact; DM goes on the scale and he keeps lowering the pointer to the extent his trousers would have been on the floor by that amount of weight loss if he hadn't dealt with taking them in. We have him apparently not sleeping at all, and yet, during the day he is alert, awake, and completely functional. If I lose sleep for two nights I'm a like a zombie--DM wasn't even shown being dependent on his beloved coffee!
S6 was just MC gratifying his own need to take DM down to the depths of despair. One hopes he's gotten that out of his system, and that S7 has an entire turn around in plotting and character presentation. I would pay good money to have DM knock his head on a beam again, or kiss LG for a good long time, or tell another joke, or read another medical article to JH. Oh, I miss the past, when DM was so darn entertaining!
My own reasoning as to why this happened is three-fold. First....The Port Wenn Effect...things occur with little attention to reality or continuity. Two, it's a television program and as such things happen....just because. Third, and this addresses Mona's comment. It just took time. Many human beings have the ability to cope with less than optimal circumstance.....for a time. My first marriage lasted 21 years for heaven's sake! I see it as his coping with it since series 5...struggling, but doing ok until.....and why the issues that we deal with come to a head at a given time is many times impossible to tell. He was acting abnormal before Mummy Dearest came to visit so it is not just that but when she came is when he started acting really irrational...big time crazy (this is a joke...do not be offended)
It's strange...when I was practicing medicine, training interns etc. there were times of chaos, certainly, but everyone had a task to perform so it didn't bother me. When I was in the Neonatal ICU or the regular nursery I didn't even hear the babies crying. I found it different and relate coping with that with Martin's ability to cope with medical chaos. He knew what to do there, so he was comfortable. It's just a different animal. Come and run a vacuum in the room where I'm reading and I'll likely bite your head off.
So..like we used to say in my childhood arguments with siblings. "Why did this happen?" "Because why."
And mmDerdekera and Mofromco for your posts. Now there's a word I never saw before - somatize!
I'm sorry to read that Martin was so ill - did Philippa have the same virus?
But if I may indulge those here with a British weight system for idiots across the pond question? I was under the impression that a 'stone' is 14 pounds, Martin lost over 30 pounds and says in the Daily Mail that he lost a 'stone'. TIA.:D
And mmDerdekera and Mofromco for your posts. Now there's a word I never saw before - somatize!
I'm sorry to read that Martin was so ill - did Philippa have the same virus?
But if I may indulge those here with a British weight system for idiots across the pond question? I was under the impression that a 'stone' is 14 pounds, Martin lost over 30 pounds and says in the Daily Mail that he lost a 'stone'. TIA.:D
He had lost 2 stone before restarting filming S6. During filming he picked up a virus that kept him from working a couple weeks and wreaked some havoc with the scripts and shooting schedule, hence too much Penhale. So he lost around 40 some odd pounds in total..the last being from his illness. I don't know about Philippa and the virus but she had been dealing with some gall bladder issues.
As NewPark knows, I'm one of those for whom this idea doesn't work, just because they had been living together since the finale of S5, with all the "chaos" etc, LG should have been working, and there they are at the wedding, happy and together.
I found the one scene where they tried to show DM a little overwhelmed was pretty much for me ridiculous in its presentation--LG is cooking dinner, Mark is cleaning up, and DM had to feed his baby. It's too much! Chaos! Out of Control! Over-whelmed!
Come on! This is a guy trained in surgery, was the head of vascular medicine, trained residents, has worked 24/7 in Portwenn with no vacations, through various secretaries, various problems with LG. And then DM had been living with LG and the baby and doing fine, doing great, getting a sense of humor, etc, and now suddenly he can't handle it.
The main problem I had with S6 is that it was so poorly written and organized, and so cliched from other seasons. DM suddenly gets his homophobia back out of the blue, for no reason at all, after, actually, a wonderful time together for him and LG on their wedding night. Then we see him being difficult and LG getting frustrated (S5) and LG walking out to go to her mother (S5) and LG in a cab in a dangerous situation and DM calling her, but he cannot get through to her, and then going after her (S4)--I was bored by the lack of creativity and the repetitiveness of the plots. And, then, look!, in the finale (which I was also not impressed with), DM looks like he is getting it together. Just like the finale of S4. Just like finale of S5. Been there and done that.
With MC and then PB sick, we had nearly patched together storylines, with a lot of empty space to fill, ergo we had Penhale having a central focus as a complete idiot, and that certainly got tiresome.
We had moments when DM apparently has no idea he is losing so much weight, but realizes it when his mother mentions that fact; DM goes on the scale and he keeps lowering the pointer to the extent his trousers would have been on the floor by that amount of weight loss if he hadn't dealt with taking them in. We have him apparently not sleeping at all, and yet, during the day he is alert, awake, and completely functional. If I lose sleep for two nights I'm a like a zombie--DM wasn't even shown being dependent on his beloved coffee!
S6 was just MC gratifying his own need to take DM down to the depths of despair. One hopes he's gotten that out of his system, and that S7 has an entire turn around in plotting and character presentation. I would pay good money to have DM knock his head on a beam again, or kiss LG for a good long time, or tell another joke, or read another medical article to JH. Oh, I miss the past, when DM was so darn entertaining!
Comments
~~Great point and I accept your interpretation.
There were occasional moments in S4 when we glimpsed that he had, besides the rancor, softer feelings for Louisa. He was gentle with her about the Small for gestational age concern; also in the ultimate denoument with the midwife. His demeanor with her in the last couple of episodes is sometimes wistful and a little sad. In the first scenes of the first episode of S4, we see him brought up short by the sight of a swinging ponytail in the classroom. But I also think he was fighting not so much against Louisa as an internal battle as to whether he wanted to again open himself up to the messiness of being a father and involved in a relationship with Louisa, particularly if it involved giving up on London. There's no other reason why he wouldn't have tried to get clearer with Louisa about whether or not she was actively shutting him out.
~~Ding Ding. He was moving forward and then she returns and throws a wrench into his plan. Again, I accept your analysis that it was an internal struggle for him given all that this baby would mean in terms of his life/future. That leads me to my opinion that this marriage was really just fulfilling an "obligation" on his part.
He was feeling a little guilty in their scenes/schoolyard, imo.
Sad? Wistful? Yes, that, too.
In general, I think he was struggling AND frustrated AND scared. I agree and a reasonable assumption.
She was struggling to cope, frustrated by uncertainity, and a tad scared herself. Right?
It doesn't excuse his behavior. He was losing the internal battle, hence, he was cross, bullying, insulting and mean. I think I added one more to the pile since my last reply. I couldn't resist.
Thanks, NP, I appreciate the care and reflection in your replies.
Awe and yes I was turned off so I'm not buying any - but I don't know if I could have
given them away
mmDerekea
You make an interesting point - S3 and his behavior (make all right) and her's. Sigh - I did love him
There was the Castle and the presumed interim which in Mona's, mine and certainly other's opinion was a period of growth and cooperation. (Read Mona's THE THIRD TIME fanfic to get an idea...brilliant). Louisa was able to calm Martin with a touch at the wedding. She said, "Yes, good." when he proposed that they leave. They spent time growing together and caring for James. The honeymoon adventure, however did demonstrate flaws...Louisa's mocking him...her not listening to him when he complained her behavior was unfair. The crowning glory was her walking out on him when he was trying to show her his clock, along with his rude dismissal of her proposal of an "anniversary" that was not. Bad behavior on both party's part, but the walking out was horrible.
Then, due to circumstances that we may not totally perceive, Martin's mental illness comes to the fore. It's clear that he has been functional but weird, rude and monosyllabic, but due to what he has been through, he is mentally ill. Sleeplessness, weight loss, irritability, withdrawal are signs of illness that are not within the sufferer's ability to control. His behavior at the Field Day are not those of anyone who is rational and it appears to be that Louisa does not recognize it. As someone who has lived in close proximity with mental illness and has indeed studied it, it seems clear that this was what was being portrayed. For this reason I can't hold DM responsible. He was not fully in control of his faculties.
So, I will watch it again and I will be astounded with the stark reality of the car accident...great choreography....shocking. But the acknowledgement of the fact that Martin is mentally ill makes it chilling. Not that the writers are screwing with the viewer and making them hate him. It was indeed, very very sad.
My dear Mofromco! If you call my fanfic "brilliant" you can state whatever you want about my opinions. I'll be too widely smiling to notice it!
FWIW, I completely disagree that M married L "out of a sense of obligation." Certainly S5E8 and S6E1 insinuated no such thing. And M remarked to AR several times, in S5 & 6, that he loves L. Why tell his aunt such a thing if he didn't mean it? Not his style at all.
Zarwen - you're on the mark here. I think that if they had married at the beginning of S4, with Louisa newly returned to Portwenn and very pregnant, then yes, that could have been out of a sense of obligation. But after S5E8 and S6E1, it's clear to all, including Louisa, that he *does* love her, they share some tender moments, and in the best way he can, the Doc expresses his love for Louisa.
IMO, all through S6 his love for Louisa doesn't dissipate. He is, as Mofromco states, dealing with his own depression and mental illness. He is withdrawing as a coping mechanism, and therefore cannot express his love for his wife in the ways she needs to see it. But it's there.
I think it's also important to remember that neither Martin nor Louisa had the benefit of growing up in stable households with emotionally healthy marital role models. Both sets of their parents were terribly poor examples of what it means to be in a healthy, committed relationship built on strong communication and mutual compromise. It's an uphill battle to nurture a healthy relationship when your most prominent role models were rubbish. Is it any wonder that Louisa's tendency is to run away from confrontation? Isn't that what both of her parents did (and continue to do), in their own ways? And are we really surprised that Martin doesn't express emotions easily (other than anger and frustration), when his parents were verbally abusive and neglectful?
Would I have liked to have seen more tenderness and affection in S6? Absolutely.
Do I hope to see more of that in S7? Without a doubt.
In addition, I do hope they bring back some of the Doc's dry wit from S1. One of my favourite lines is when Louisa asks him how he's finding the village and he replies with disdain, "All except the primary schoolteacher, who's a pirate, it seems."
The alleged death of his father? What mysterious wrench did they throw into that storyline?
Mental illness? Yikes. Any amnesia? Sounds soapy.
It was conjecture - what if the show went beyond S7 and how their story might play out.
He used the word "love" when speaking to AR ? I thought she asked him "...and you wanted to be with Louisa"
The story could support both (if the writers wanted to explore it). Obligation vs love.
Just another speculation...
Buddy. He's to blame for all of it.
Back when I was still fond of the show, I saw a special on PBS of Martin and his farm and his love of dogs. I still like the actor, and am so sad what they did to the show.
And that geography, oh boy, it's gorgeous.
Primos, The "alleged" death of his father was a potential storyline that was floated by fans -- but I think they will have quite enough to do in S7 without resurrecting his father. Amnesia is a good old soap opera trope, but we've already seen that with Maggie. Some fans are also betting on a return of the repressed, in that a buried memory of a trauma that occurred between the ages of 4-6, will emerge (see convo with AR). But I'm betting that's just a soap trope too far for this series.
Bloodphobia -- I would say that there is absolutely zero consensus on what happened to DM. A sizeable minority of fans say, "what the heck was that? where did that come from? " -- in other words, no adequate story predicate and hence, unbelievable.
In this condensed and highly significant conversation with Aunt Ruth, she makes the equivalence between his blood phobia making him give up surgery -- something that he loved --- and the return of his hemophobia and "shutting down" as a way of giving up Louisa -- someone he also loves. Because he feels he doesn't "deserve her" and I suppose by extension, that he doesn't deserve to be happy. I find that parallel rather feeble, but it's the best they could come up with, I guess.
My own guess as to what might have happened is that this is a man with an OCD like personality -- (NOT disorder) who keeps a lot of anxiety at bay by a prissy insistence on meticulous order and control. He's lost control over his environment, it's chaotic and untidy, and it's an enormous stressor. Also, the honeymoon is over, as we are told almost explictly when Louisa kisses him goodbye and goes back to work. Now we're down to the mundane realities of married life, and living intimately with someone else, for which he's not really equipped. But he's also not able to express or share any of this. So he somatizes. And all of his anxieties get bound up in worries about his physical condition, which leads him into the tailspin so frustrating for Louisa. This theory works for me, but isn't convincing to many others.
AR asked him if he loved Louisa and he said yes, as in, what kind of question is that, of course I do.
I'm totally with you on that one, NewPark. It's the only explanation that's ever really made sense to me.
Again, it leads back to Louisa's inability to recognize his needs. It's a topic that will no doubt be pursued soon on the program.
As NewPark knows, I'm one of those for whom this idea doesn't work, just because they had been living together since the finale of S5, with all the "chaos" etc, LG should have been working, and there they are at the wedding, happy and together.
I found the one scene where they tried to show DM a little overwhelmed was pretty much for me ridiculous in its presentation--LG is cooking dinner, Mark is cleaning up, and DM had to feed his baby. It's too much! Chaos! Out of Control! Over-whelmed!
Come on! This is a guy trained in surgery, was the head of vascular medicine, trained residents, has worked 24/7 in Portwenn with no vacations, through various secretaries, various problems with LG. And then DM had been living with LG and the baby and doing fine, doing great, getting a sense of humor, etc, and now suddenly he can't handle it.
The main problem I had with S6 is that it was so poorly written and organized, and so cliched from other seasons. DM suddenly gets his homophobia back out of the blue, for no reason at all, after, actually, a wonderful time together for him and LG on their wedding night. Then we see him being difficult and LG getting frustrated (S5) and LG walking out to go to her mother (S5) and LG in a cab in a dangerous situation and DM calling her, but he cannot get through to her, and then going after her (S4)--I was bored by the lack of creativity and the repetitiveness of the plots. And, then, look!, in the finale (which I was also not impressed with), DM looks like he is getting it together. Just like the finale of S4. Just like finale of S5. Been there and done that.
With MC and then PB sick, we had nearly patched together storylines, with a lot of empty space to fill, ergo we had Penhale having a central focus as a complete idiot, and that certainly got tiresome.
We had moments when DM apparently has no idea he is losing so much weight, but realizes it when his mother mentions that fact; DM goes on the scale and he keeps lowering the pointer to the extent his trousers would have been on the floor by that amount of weight loss if he hadn't dealt with taking them in. We have him apparently not sleeping at all, and yet, during the day he is alert, awake, and completely functional. If I lose sleep for two nights I'm a like a zombie--DM wasn't even shown being dependent on his beloved coffee!
S6 was just MC gratifying his own need to take DM down to the depths of despair. One hopes he's gotten that out of his system, and that S7 has an entire turn around in plotting and character presentation. I would pay good money to have DM knock his head on a beam again, or kiss LG for a good long time, or tell another joke, or read another medical article to JH. Oh, I miss the past, when DM was so darn entertaining!
My own reasoning as to why this happened is three-fold. First....The Port Wenn Effect...things occur with little attention to reality or continuity. Two, it's a television program and as such things happen....just because. Third, and this addresses Mona's comment. It just took time. Many human beings have the ability to cope with less than optimal circumstance.....for a time. My first marriage lasted 21 years for heaven's sake! I see it as his coping with it since series 5...struggling, but doing ok until.....and why the issues that we deal with come to a head at a given time is many times impossible to tell. He was acting abnormal before Mummy Dearest came to visit so it is not just that but when she came is when he started acting really irrational...big time crazy (this is a joke...do not be offended)
It's strange...when I was practicing medicine, training interns etc. there were times of chaos, certainly, but everyone had a task to perform so it didn't bother me. When I was in the Neonatal ICU or the regular nursery I didn't even hear the babies crying. I found it different and relate coping with that with Martin's ability to cope with medical chaos. He knew what to do there, so he was comfortable. It's just a different animal. Come and run a vacuum in the room where I'm reading and I'll likely bite your head off.
So..like we used to say in my childhood arguments with siblings. "Why did this happen?" "Because why."
And mmDerdekera and Mofromco for your posts. Now there's a word I never saw before - somatize!
I'm sorry to read that Martin was so ill - did Philippa have the same virus?
But if I may indulge those here with a British weight system for idiots across the pond question? I was under the impression that a 'stone' is 14 pounds, Martin lost over 30 pounds and says in the Daily Mail that he lost a 'stone'. TIA.:D
He had lost 2 stone before restarting filming S6. During filming he picked up a virus that kept him from working a couple weeks and wreaked some havoc with the scripts and shooting schedule, hence too much Penhale. So he lost around 40 some odd pounds in total..the last being from his illness. I don't know about Philippa and the virus but she had been dealing with some gall bladder issues.
Hear, hear!!! (Standing ovation!)