Take an old script from a twenty year old American TV series  called “Northern Exposure” about a doctor who is sent to a weird place which he hates and you have the premise for “Doctor, Doctor” which is “coincidentally ” about a doctor who is banished from the city and has to work as a GP in an Aussie country town.

Not any country town, mind.  It so happens that the town is the place from which he escaped…on account of everybody in the town being weird.

Lucky that…

Since that means that every character in the town can overact. And boy does that go on! The doctor’s mother is crazy hyper.  The doctor’s father is catatonic. Alas poor Steve Bisley, I knew him well when he had speaking roles. The doctor’s former girlfriend looks like she’s in drag and she too is hyperactive.

The doctor’s boss, Penny,  is forever presenting him with a bottle he must fill with urine. His and nobody else’s  (haha)  which becomes “the running joke”.

For crying out loud, the entire cast could do with a dose of ritalin

I could go on  (and I definitely will) for the following reasons.

As a former TV critic for The  Courier Mail newspaper in Queensland I have seen and judged and promoted many TV shows.  Some were good while some were bad.   The current crop of TV shows,  however, is so abysmal  that I cannot stay quiet and accept the drivel that Australia is now producing.  “Rosehaven?”,  “The Wrong Girl?”

Good grief!  They are puerile, badly written and hyperbolically acted.  And please can some generous person hand the wrong girl a packet of tissues?

I’d much rather watch “Hard Quiz” which is entertaining and informative thanks  to the remarkable talent of Tom Gleeson.