Originally Posted by mmDerdekea:
“I'm not sure for me this season is showing us more acting skills of MC than we've already seen throughout DM. We've already seen him struggling with his blood phobia, including the paleness and vomiting. We've seen him throughout most of S4 and S5 being serious and dramatic and frustrated.
This season is an extension of all, plus him trying to be a better husband, which we appreciate, I think. But unfortunately most of the drama of him people mention so far is him "falling apart" has mostly been illustrated by very short shots of him sitting in a busy kitchen and alone at his desk. I'm not quite understanding what others are seeing as a marked stepping up of his acting.
We have so many better examples of his acting in earlier, more enjoyable (for me) seasons.
For example, remember him acting his silent devastation at his mother's monologue of hate directed towards him? His humorous terror at meeting Melanie's dad, his shocking horror of AJ having sex?
Look at the season 2 finale: in there acting wise we see DM struggling to control his blood phobia around the prank playing Bert; his smarmy judgment of Adrian Pitts; his outrage at the village for them, over the radio, doubting his capacity to be their physician; his lack of patience with the town; his frantic need to save the life of Peter in the ambulance; and, then his overcoming his shyness to kiss LG in the taxi. Wow! What a cornucopia of acting we were blessed with in that one episode!
I feel MC's acting was more displayed in seasons when we saw so many more varied emotional struggles he dealt with on a regular basis, because MC brought those all to such real amazing life.
In this season, MC's acting is nothing I'm seeing as new or extra profound, because the emotional range is so narrow--he's falling apart, but very slowly. Tomorrow is episode 6 already.
Perhaps in the last three episodes we'll see something new and more exciting with his experience as DM on the screen, in his interpretation of his travails this season.”
“I'm not sure for me this season is showing us more acting skills of MC than we've already seen throughout DM. We've already seen him struggling with his blood phobia, including the paleness and vomiting. We've seen him throughout most of S4 and S5 being serious and dramatic and frustrated.
This season is an extension of all, plus him trying to be a better husband, which we appreciate, I think. But unfortunately most of the drama of him people mention so far is him "falling apart" has mostly been illustrated by very short shots of him sitting in a busy kitchen and alone at his desk. I'm not quite understanding what others are seeing as a marked stepping up of his acting.
We have so many better examples of his acting in earlier, more enjoyable (for me) seasons.
For example, remember him acting his silent devastation at his mother's monologue of hate directed towards him? His humorous terror at meeting Melanie's dad, his shocking horror of AJ having sex?
Look at the season 2 finale: in there acting wise we see DM struggling to control his blood phobia around the prank playing Bert; his smarmy judgment of Adrian Pitts; his outrage at the village for them, over the radio, doubting his capacity to be their physician; his lack of patience with the town; his frantic need to save the life of Peter in the ambulance; and, then his overcoming his shyness to kiss LG in the taxi. Wow! What a cornucopia of acting we were blessed with in that one episode!
I feel MC's acting was more displayed in seasons when we saw so many more varied emotional struggles he dealt with on a regular basis, because MC brought those all to such real amazing life.
In this season, MC's acting is nothing I'm seeing as new or extra profound, because the emotional range is so narrow--he's falling apart, but very slowly. Tomorrow is episode 6 already.
Perhaps in the last three episodes we'll see something new and more exciting with his experience as DM on the screen, in his interpretation of his travails this season.”
Great trip down memory lane, mmD!
In keeping with my feeling that MC likes a role that challenges him to go somewhere he hasn't in previous roles, I'm wondering if his falling apart is just that. I'm trying to think back through the body of his work and can't come up with that scenario for him right now. He's certainly had a number of dramatic roles but not quite in that vein that I'm aware of.
And I just realized from your recap that we are seeing a very different side of the Doc, looking deeper into his vulnerability in an overt way than we've seen in past series. He has always been able to handle whatever comes his way, been in control of himself and situations, even while we got to see his vulnerable little boy self and yet a man that struggles greatly to suppress him and be in the adult world. His sense of control and how to be an adult is being challenged. And it is hard on him. That's this series.
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