Does AR's character reflect Buddha? I thought she was a bit negative for Buddhism? And she doesn't seem to be searching for the light she seems to have shut down a bit on forward/jntrospective thinking.

Can you please explain what you meant, poorrichard?

Or throw the phone at the wall while making some crack about the phone being made in America.

In the press pack CC says that LG is upset about leaving JH to anyone.

Maybe the "JH likes him" set off a warning signal in LG's mind.

Maybe if the manny is personable and better organised than LG she would feel threatened by him. Thinking that JH might prefer him to her and also that he's show up her less than perfect household skills?

Catchy tune, that Cheer Up, Fox. Know what you mean, Biff.

But Sailing which I love, has taken on a new meaning yet again as MC explained on one of his recent appearances. I remembered that he had the choir sing it, but his revelation that it was as they were sweeping out (of St. Bride's) apparently after the blessing service, (thus Sailing into their home, their future, etc.) puts it in a whole new context from what I'd been thinking. Love catching this stuff.

By the way, the song Roger Fenn played at the end of the episode with the kids gathered round singing, gets stuck in my head every time I hear it still.

That's interesting I am an acts of service type.


I agree. I was truly shocked when LG accepted that glass from her mother followed by the "Don't tell Martin". I still don't know the purpose of having her do that. It was very wrong of her.

Thanks for searching for it marchrand.
It sounds like the new writers have some interesting credits.
Also I didn't know that the new director, Nigel Cole, directed "Saving Grace" an early prequel to Doc Martin. I loved that movie even before I knew about Doc Martin.

MC's reaction on Loose Women was priceless!!! Nothing like watching your own joke and it still making you really laugh.

Ahhh, Renee, the beauty of what we've seen so far is Doc is working full time, taking care of a baby, house, etc., so he's got things to do.

As they came home from the school concert, they've clearly been discussing the menu for the dinner and he's telling her she doesn't have to go shopping when she says she doesn't have time.

But she probably does have some work to do at home in the evenings for school or home. So Martin working on a clock allows her free time to do what she has to as well, just like he would read a medical journal or tinker with a clock for a quiet bit of time.

Unrelated but fun for me was LGE asking Mike what they owed him. DM immediately reaches into his pocket for his wallet, LGE tells Mike to keep the change. And she doesn't blink an eye at Doc paying. She doesn't try to play the independent woman who would pay herself. Another bit of forward movement in the characters' development.

I have wondered if Martin's money was also a key in her nicer clothes this season, so far, too.

I don't know if I would call LG saying "Keep the change" forward movement though. It slightly smacks of LG perhaps taking advantage of Martin's money, or, at least being loose with it. I mean, if she is still considering herself independent and a worthwhile wage earner of the household.

Yes it was a bit strange. Sort of funny LG taking MC's money and then saying "keep the change". Mike wanted 15 GBP and she presumably gave him 20 GBP so 5 GBP extra is a fair bit.
But something a bit grating about the transaction.

I guess her thinking was that she just wanted to get Mike out of the house. She didn't want him looking after JH. She didn't want to muck around with change and just wanted the transaction over.

Small correction about the money: Reviewed the bit and Mike says it will be "14 pounds 30 pence" and LGE says "let's just call it 15". I thought the ease of the money transaction with M & L was perhaps significant of at least one issue they may have resolved regarding the handling of their money. Which we all know can be a bugaboo at times.

And yes, I think your last paragraph is right on target.

Oops memory loss! Not such a lot then!

Doc Martin returned to top the ratings outside of soaps on Monday evening (September 2), according to overnight data.

The Martin Clunes drama interested 7.60 million (32.6%) at 9pm on ITV, with a further 362,000 (2.1%) tuning in on +1. However, this is nearly 3 million down from its last episode back in 2011.

But still well above anything else on TV.
http://m.digitalspy.com.au/british-t...rs-on-itv.html

Shakespeare's King Lear: "He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath." Could this be the beginning of DM's downward mental state?

Actually, I think the scene from the last episode with Martin back to his clocks was the beginning of his downward mental state. But from the trailers the focus in Ep 3 seems to be on Aunt Ruth. Martin is having a conversation with her in what appears to be a restaurant in what appears to be outside Portwenn. It could be he is talking with her about his mental state or about her stalker. The final scene shows newspaper articles about Aunt Ruth. Seems her stalker has the same modus operandi as Mrs. Tishell in the last ep of season 5.

I did see someone say that with all the different ways to watch after the fact now that it is not easy to compare it to ratings from two years ago. That makes sense because I'm sure a lot of people are like myself - I often skip watching a program in real time and then catch it online the next day or so. I know that there are shows I just stopped watching if their networks didn't have these options available to me.

I wonder if internally they do any revision to numbers a week of so later and add in viewers who watched online - either live or catch-up during the following seven days?

There was an interesting scene during Caroline Catz's interview this morning. I wish Louisa could just chill out. She has convinced herself that she needs to continue working and then she misses her baby. I wonder if is because it was an unplanned pregnancy and she wasn't able to think through her priorities beforehand how she was going to handle her career. But they never address that directly. That is pure speculation and I have to fill in the gaps in order for it to make sense to me. But the characters are so difficult to understand that I really can't trust the reasoning I put behind my explanation.

Once again they are putting her on the extreme end of the pendulum and putting him more in the middle. The powers that be always make it that so they can't get along except when there is a crisis. In some ways the show is beginning to defy credibilty. The powers seem to clinge to this paradigm.

I am not sure that I would buy into it if this season was my first introduction to the series. I don't think their relationship would make a bit of sense to me. If I hadn't become so invested in this show two years ago I might not be so interested in watching it. I am at that point in my addiction where I want to stop, but continue watching it with the hope that this time it will feel like it did when I first started watching it. I like the show better after I have watched an episode a second or third time. But I think in a way I am settling for what it is now because it's a habit, and maybe I am seeking something that isn't there, but I can't let go of it. Sometimes I regret that I ever got invested. I want to get to a place where I can accept it for what it is now, and let go of it ever going back to the show that fascinated me 2 years ago. I want to like it the way it is now, but I am beginning to get confused about why I really like this show.

I did see somewhere that it's AR's birthday and Martin takes her to lunch, but that might be the start to him opening up to her.

Actually, now that I think about it, it's surprising that Martin would think to take his aunt out to lunch for her birthday. Maybe Louisa prompted that?

Well, given Martin's reaction, which was surprise and a little irritation, and given Mike's response, which was to try to hand the change to Martin, anyway, and LG interfering to prevent it, it did not seem to me that this type of interaction is resolved.

I feel the exact same way. If this season is another S5 type season, with just misery and bickering, I'll probably give the whole show up at the end, too.

I'm interested to see if the audience ratings will go down this season, episode by episode, too.

At this point, instead of totally looking forward to E3, I'm kind of dreading it; if we can't get some fun, smiles, romance back between DM and LG, I'm going to be depressed.

I grew up in a functional household, and have arranged my life to also only contain functional people. I have my limits for a show only showing dysfunctional people having problems which make them more and more dysfunctional instead of bringing them closer together.

You know, several posters have said that "people don't immediately change". Well, it was four months after the Castle, and you know, in relationships, people do change. People can indeed act better, differently, and such when they are with another person they care for. The lack of change and the worsening of them (they were closer and more fun to watch in S3, than 2 or so years later in S6), turns it into the negative based "soap opera" MC so strongly stated he did not want the show to become.

Audiences are not meant to be starved. They have to throw me at least a few crumbs in each episode.

And the most confusing thing of all is why start with E1, giving us a full meal of hope and promise, and then completely switch the tone and energy of the show from E2 on, putting us back on crackers and water. What illogical thoughts made them do that?

I have never enjoyed a TV show like I have DM. I discovered it 2 years ago and like everyone else I anxiously awaited Series 6. Not that I can watch that much of it. I have Expat Shield installed on my computer to watch it on Mondays. However, it has been hit or miss...mostly miss. The first week I watched it "live"...the next week couldn't get it. I keep trying ITV Catch-up as well and I run into a blank wall. If anyone has any thoughts on this please enlighten me. I was up this morning at 3:30 a.m. and tried to get on to no avail. However, I digress....I saw the first episode and then about 20 minutes of Episode 2 and I have to say I am finding the show abit tiresome. The bit I watched yesterday I found myself getting annoyed with it as DM was so sour and gruff...he hauled JH around like a sack of potatoes. The wedding scene in episode 1 was so disappointing. So far for me Series 6 has been very disappointing.

They keep falling back on the fact that they haven't ever lived together. They need to show us what that means and why that is the reason they don't get along. I think that is Caroline Catz's filling in the gaps for her character rather than a decision made by the writers. CC as an actress has to find the character's intentions, and her reasoning is logical. For example, why can't they have Louisa stay home for a bit and then realize that she wants to go back to work? While she is at home there would be plenty of opportunity for them to disagree and get on each other's nerves. She is a woman torn between work and staying home. Okay, I will buy into stereotype. But they are stuck in a paradigm of her being angry instead any nuance in the character's dilemma.

I asked Nigel Cole to please make Louisa strong this series. He just looked at me and had no response. We were having a chat, so it wasn't me just saying it as he walked past. He has done so much to freshen the show. But I think he was powerless to put his mark on their relationship. Maybe that's why he just looked at me stone faced.

I actually saw the money scene in a positive way and agree with Susie that it showed forward movement. The casual way in which Louisa rounded up while at the same time Martin was reaching for his wallet was another "real couple" moment in my mind. They're married now and in this moment that's exactly how they're behaving. Their money is their money, not Louisa's money or Martin's money or this part is his and this part is hers. In my experience that's one of the surprising things about marriage; that the financial joining happens instantly, both legally and in day to day life. So I liked that scene.

I think another point we're to take from that moment is that Mike is a stickler for precision, unlike Louisa. He offers change and seems to prefer the exact amount even if it means less money for him. They want us to notice the differences between Louisa and Mike, probably to set us up for some conflict coming along in the next episode or two.

I agree with Biff. I took nothing adverse from the scene of paying Mike. I think that DM was just reaching for his wallet and Louisa figured it was easier to pay with paper money instead of rummaging around in wallets for single pounds or various pence. The person most bothered was Mike because blowing off his exact calculation was a transgression of his OCD. Their money was their money and whoever had it at hand paid. I don't think it important to know if they have separate checking accounts or charge cards etc.....certainly not important in this instance. Re. Clothing..I haven't noticed any big difference in anyone's clothing.

What is bothersome, though,, is their seeming lack of graciousness to each other. Louisa is a brat. DM is trying at some points, but I dare say after getting the reaction he gets when he tries to be nice, he won't try for long. He did have a few nasty zingers in E2. It leaves me feeling, that on DM's side the love he has for Louisa is some type of trumped up infatuation fueled by sexual fantasy and nothing more. I hate thinking that. Is she just a sex object for when he feels like and otherwise nothing?

And Louisa's job....I gave up practicing medicine for 10 years to raise my boys. I absolutely find it unfathomable that Louisa would head back to work so fast after she had JH when she doesn't have to. It absolutely blows my mind. So many women would give anything to be a stay at home Mom to their kids. I am 100% behind Martin in this respect. But, no conflict, no show. This is just one part of the premise that is shaky to me.
We tried having a nanny when my kids were really little for a while and I absolutely hated it and stayed at home eventually. Louisa will find out.