Josh Charles Finally Gets His Due

I’ve been following the career of Josh Charles since his Dead Poets Society and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead days, and he’s long been one of those actors for whom I’ve felt a strange, one-sided kinship. I’ve read countless interviews with him over the years, and by all accounts, he comes across as charming, personable, and endearingly insecure, with an almost annoying passion for the Baltimore Ravens. He was perfect on Sports Night, playing second fiddle to Peter Krause, and phenomenal on The Good Wife opposite Julianna Margulies (I still wonder if he knows the real story about Margulies and Archie Panjabi).

Which is why it’s mildly delightful to see him playing the polar opposite of his public persona on Fox’s new dramedy, Best Medicine, as a dry, prickly doctor with the emotional warmth of a Maine winter. The series is a remake of the beloved, long-running British show Doc Martin, and it’s shaping up to be a genuine mid-to-late-career hit for Charles. That feels long overdue.

Three episodes in, Best Medicine is excellent comfort television, full of cozy small-town Maine vibes, even if it occasionally leans a little too hard into the regional stereotypes. Still, it’s an easy, relaxing escape at a time when many of us could really use one.

The audience seems to agree. According to Deadline, the series is Fox’s most-streamed debut in nearly three years. The premiere has generated 10.8 million total multiplatform viewers to date and, reportedly, more than one billion minutes viewed across its first two episodes. Those are Fox’s own numbers, so a grain of salt is warranted, but the momentum is undeniable.

Mostly, I’m just happy to see it succeed, especially because it’s a rare hour-long broadcast network series that doesn’t begin every episode with a murder. Doc Martin-style stories are about small, human problems in close-knit communities, and that feels quietly refreshing right now. In an era when national crises dominate our attention, Best Medicine reminds us that there’s still value in stories about the people and places right in front of us.

Still love the man’s Friday Night Lights parody, too.