Monk - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Your Monk Topic!

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss Here!

[Meredith Quill]

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from the show's run. Please remember this isn't a complete catch-all topic -- check out the forum for character topics and other places for show-related talk.

[Meredith Quill]

Quotey!

[Miss Chevious]

Which one do I like best? Hard to say, both were good for Monk each in their own way. Sharona had more moxie and pushed Monk to do things he didn't always want to do. Natalie was more deferential, calling him Mr. Monk, but still managed to assist him with his sleuthing.

[Miss Chevious]

Lady (to Monk): I love your eyes.

Monk: They came with the face.

[Miss Chevious]

Monk may have OCD but he sure he is good at what he does. He notices every little detail and puts it all together to solve the case. I love when he says Here's what happened or He's the guy.

[Bastet]

I prefer Sharona, but I was surprised by how well I took to Natalie, and how quickly.  That switch was pretty difficult to pull off, but I think they did it.  If I'm going around the dial and come across this show, I will almost always watch it if it's a Sharona or early Natalie episode, and may or may not watch if it's a later Natalie episode, but that's just because of the show as a whole by that point, not the character.

 

I do wish they'd paid Bitty Schram to stay on, though.

[cincivic]

My husband and I disagreed on Sharona vs. Natalie. I was a fan of Sharon's while he liked Natalie who he thought was cuter. I liked how bossy Sharona was and she called Monk, Adrian.

[Sparkling Beth]

The line that always makes me laugh out loud in from Mr. Monk and Sharona.  Sharona tells Monk that she's gone back to nursing and Monk, baffled, says, "Isn't Benji, like, seventeen?"

[amensisterfriend]

How do you guys feel this show holds up over time and with repeated rewatch? Which episodes/seasons/characters are your very favorites?!

[Miss Chevious]

It's fun to watch them again because you pick up things you missed the first time. Sometimes little things become relevant when Monk launches into "here's what happened" mode. So it definitely holds up over time.

Hard to pick a favorite episode because they're all so good. But I loved the one where Monk falls for the lady with the neat garage.

[amensisterfriend]

Agreed, Miss Chevious! 

 

Randy is even more awesome a character than I had recalled. I adore Natalie for reasons I can't even identify. I'm also loving Ambrose, especially as he wasn't used too frequently. He was not only amusing but added depth to Monk's character for me. The dialogue is really sharp and clever, and the blend of mystery, comedy and pathos is usually done surprisingly effectively. (Tons of other shows can't get even one of those elements right, let alone all three!) Some of the mysteries are genuinely well plotted, IMO, which always comes as a happy surprise to this lifelong whodunit fan :) 

 

After looking over episode lists I've decided that the fifth season is my special favorite, but you can't go too wrong with any of them! 

[Miss Chevious]

Actually Monk's brother Ambrose was pretty much OCD too. Guess it ran in the family! Although Ambrose had issues that were totally opposite from Adrian's. Those stacks and stacks of papers & mail for example. Mr. Neatnik Adrian wouldn't have ever had a pile like that.

[Miss Chevious]

ITA amensisterfriend. In addition to solving the mystery of the week, the show depicted the character development as the seasons went on. For example, You actually feel bad for Stottlemeyer when his marriage breaks up and the challenges Natalie faces as her child becomes a teen. The scenes between Monk and his therapist are so good! Loved their relationship!

[amensisterfriend]

Same here! I just rewatched the scene where the therapist congratulates Monk on moving on from square one of his recovery. Monk, of course, feels conpelled to know exactly how many squares there are and which one his rival Harold is on at the moment. It's a very quintessentially Monk-ish scene: funny, smart, sweet, sad, joyful, understated yet poignant all at once!

[Bastet]

My hands-down favorite is the first one with Ambrose (Mr. Monk and the Three Pies).  No matter how many times I watch it, I start crying when Ambrose breaks down that it's his fault Trudy died (even though the whole "she was going to get me cough medicine" thing doesn't fit with the primary narrative of that day, I don't care) and Adrian realizes that's why Ambrose had stayed away - out of guilt.

 

I also love the one where Monk goes to L.A. to help his father-in-law figure out how the contestant is cheating on his game show.  Even the annoying Kevin can't detract from that one.

 

Stanley Tucci is fabulous, period.  Stanley Tucci as the method actor who becomes Adrian is perfection, so that's another favorite.

 

I'll watch just about any episode from the first five seasons.  After that, it just depends on the episode and my mood.  The Sharona seasons are my favorite (although I really like Natalie as well). 

[amensisterfriend]

Stanley Tucci is fabulous, period.  Stanley Tucci as the method actor who becomes Adrian is perfection, so that's another favorite.

 

Plus, Greg Grunberg as a murderer! I almost can't take so much awesomeness in one episode. That episode is easily in my top 10. 

 

Now that more time has elapsed since it aired, I realize how relatively unique Monk was. For starters, there's the aforementioned blending of mystery, comedy, drama, etc....very few shows execute any of those especially well, let alone all three. Monk was also more of a traditional mystery show than the police/FBI procedurals we get so many of today.  It was more like a slightly darker and much deeper Murder She Wrote than CSI :) Then there's the fact that Adrian Monk had a legitimate psychiatric illness---and not one that just cropped occasionally for the purposes of a certain plot or to amp things up around sweeps, but a condition that clearly affected his daily life in myriad ways. Most crime shows/dramas in general give us one or two characters dealing with addiction, but mental illness is still sadly underrepresented among TV characters---let alone the lead character of a show. 

 

Has anyone read the novelizations by Hy Conrad and/or Lee Goldberg?

[Miss Chevious]

Yes after the series ended, I got three of the books by Lee Goldberg to keep the Monk going and they were all great! Interesting plots, terrific dialogue, it was just as if the TV show was translated into book form. I want to get more of them.

[amensisterfriend]

I'm not normally very 'shipper-y, but I kind of love that Sharona and Randy ended up together :) On paper, I couldn't see it, but somehow it makes a bizarre kind of sense to me. 

 

One pet peeve: Natalie still referring to Adrian as "Mr. Monk." I get that some people call their bosses "Mr./Ms." even after working with them for a long time, but theirs was such a non-traditional, comparatively intimate boss/employee relationship that it always felt jarring to me to hear Natalie address him as "Mr. Monk."

 

I just rewatched some of S2 and loved it so much...it might have to steal the top spot on my rankings from S5 :) 

[Bastet]

Sharona winding up with Randy was one of the umpteen things I found fault with as the show wound down.  He was comic relief who became a cartoon as the show went on (the whole Flanderization thing, where one quality becomes the character's sole characteristic), and she deserved better than that.  Maybe if Randy had been written as a more three-dimensional person it could have worked, although the whole "You did nothing but annoy me for years and now within moments I'm smitten" thing never works for me regardless.

[random chance]

I wish this would come back to Netflix.  My favorite episode was the one with the leper -  I laugh just thinking about it.  "There is no heart so black as the black black heart of the leper." 

 

Considering how long it ran, I thought it was quite a feat that it stayed as fresh as it did. 

[amensisterfriend]

Sharona winding up with Randy was one of the umpteen things I found fault with as the show wound down.  He was comic relief who became a cartoon as the show went on (the whole Flanderization thing, where one quality becomes the character's sole characteristic), and she deserved better than that.  Maybe if Randy had been written as a more three-dimensional person it could have worked, although the whole "You did nothing but annoy me for years and now within moments I'm smitten" thing never works for me regardless.

 

Normally I would agree with you wholeheartedly! I've written a zillion posts on other threads about how much I dislike when constant bickering counts as 'chemistry' and an inability to connect and get along is supposed to be code for 'soulmates in love!" But with Randy and Sharona it was so good-natured, and somehow I could just see them working out as a couple...or at least amusing me in the process of trying :) 

 

My favorite episode was the one with the leper -  I laugh just thinking about it.  "There is no heart so black as the black black heart of the leper."

 

Like the one that features Stanley Tucci and Greg Grunberg, the leper one is in my beloved S5! 

 

I wish this would come back to Netflix.

 

This is why I "needed"---yes, needed---to buy the DVDs on Amazon :)  So far I have S1, S2 and S5. 

[amensisterfriend]

(Sorry, guys---I somehow managed to double post!) 

Edited March 22, 2015 by amensisterfriend

[Miss Chevious]

I actually liked the idea of Randy getting together with Sharona at the end. We the viewers, don't know for sure how much or how often, but it leads you to believe they kept up some kind of contact after she moved back to New Jersey. They really didn't specify but we just saw them together in the last couple of episodes. I think it provided an additional dimension to the wrap up of the show It was so sweet that Randy moved across the country to be with her and Benjie.

[cincivic]

"You can't clean nature with nature!".

[kathyk24]

I loved Monk. I have the unpopular opinion of liking Natalie more than Sharona. My favorite episode is Mr. Monk and Mrs Monk I cried watching that one. I hated the episode where Monk finally regained his badge only to struggle and become a consultant again. I thought it was a waste of all Monk's effort throughout the series.

[shapeshifter]

I feel like I am reliving "Mr. Monk Buys a House."

[Mislav]

My list:

Monica Waters (Mr. Monk and the Other Woman)

Scott Gregorio (Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame)

Kendra Frank (Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert)

Gilson (Mr. Monk and the Critic) (in case he has survived)

You can comment on my list too and explain the reasons behind your own choices if you want.

[Miss Chevious]

I agree - Monica Walters should have come back for more episodes.

I also loved Monk's #1 fan Sarah Silverman. She may have been a bit nutty but she was hilarious.

[Miss Chevious]

"Here's what happened."

"You'll thank me later."

"It's a blessing and a curse."

My favorite Monk sayings.

[kathyk24]

Monk will be on the Hallmark Movie channel starting on Saturday the 11th.

[jjj]

They ran a mini-marathon of most of Season One over the weekend, and it looks like there will be two episodes per day on the Hallmark Mystery Channel each weekday, starting at the beginning of the series.  In my Pacific time zone, it airs at 1:00 and 2:00 PM. 

[ButterQueen]

I love this show.  We have the entire series on DVD and love doing marathons.

[andromeda331]

I love this show too. I watched the marathon on the 11th and been trying to watch it every weekday. Its such a good show and very funny.

[Happytobehere]

I preferred Sharona hands down.  I will lays watch a Sharona episode, even one I am not particularly fond of above a Natalie episode.  Please don't let it be a Natalie centered episode, which IMO, there were far too many of.  The show should have paid for BS to remain on the show as the she and her character played off on Monk's quirkiness far better.  I did appreciate them bringing her character back as the show wound down and her winding up with Randy as I always thought they would make a nice couple.

[CoderLady]

On 4/16/2017 at 3:35 PM, Happytobehere said:

I preferred Sharona hands down.  I will lays watch a Sharona episode, even one I am not particularly fond of above a Natalie episode.  Please don't let it be a Natalie centered episode, which IMO, there were far too many of.  The show should have paid for BS to remain on the show as the she and her character played off on Monk's quirkiness far better.  I did appreciate them bringing her character back as the show wound down and her winding up with Randy as I always thought they would make a nice couple.

Agree. I'd only watched the show sporadically after Natalie came on board because by then they'd started systematically ramping up Monk's quirks to the point of House-level obnoxiousness, but I'd liked Sharona's approach to handling Monk much better than Natalie's bland enabling. I liked her "Ok, I'll roll with this for now, but you are going to have to do better eventually" attitude towards his behavior.

Come to think of it, they had to ditch Sharona. Her character would have had to become a hell of a lot more tolerant to match the changes in Monk. It was easier to just get a "nicer" not as pro-active companion. YMMV, of course.

[Mabinogia]

There was a Monk marathon on a few days ago, I watched all the Sharona eps I could. I loved the Monk/Sharona friendship. I think she was better for him than Natalie in that she knew when to push him and when to just let him have his way. I thought their banter was better and she fit in better with Stottlemeyer and Randy as well. I never could warm to Natalie. I thought she treated Monk more like a special snowflake, enabling his quirks rather than trying to expand his very closed in world. I also really liked Monk's relationship with Benji. I think they did Natalie a disservice by making her a little rich girl trying to make her own way. Sharona's struggling single mom with no other options was more relatable than Natalie's struggling single mom because she just doesn't like her rich parents.

It would be interesting to see if Monk would have devolved as much as he did if Sharona had stayed or if the changes in the character of Monk were partly to make him a better fit for Natalie, or just the natural devolving of a character over time. I can't see Sharona putting up with the mess he became towards the end.  

[Happytobehere]

3 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

There was a Monk marathon on a few days ago, I watched all the Sharona eps I could. I loved the Monk/Sharona friendship. I think she was better for him than Natalie in that she knew when to push him and when to just let him have his way. I thought their banter was better and she fit in better with Stottlemeyer and Randy as well. I never could warm to Natalie. I thought she treated Monk more like a special snowflake, enabling his quirks rather than trying to expand his very closed in world. I also really liked Monk's relationship with Benji. I think they did Natalie a disservice by making her a little rich girl trying to make her own way. Sharona's struggling single mom with no other options was more relatable than Natalie's struggling single mom because she just doesn't like her rich parents.

It would be interesting to see if Monk would have devolved as much as he did if Sharona had stayed or if the changes in the character of Monk were partly to make him a better fit for Natalie, or just the natural devolving of a character over time. I can't see Sharona putting up with the mess he became towards the end.  

I agree, Monk became progressively worse and Natalie did enable him rather than trying and help him cope and get better.  I too think her rich girl against the world (which I called way before the reveal because her attitude and air of entitlement just reeked of "poor little rich girl") character saw Monk as an interesting experiment, which did him no favors.  But rather than focus on the mess that was Natalie, I choose to focus on the awsome that is Sharona.

[thebigwatcher]

This was a great idea during the pilot - an eccentric, brilliant man loses his wife and is pushed over the edge and now he must recover and move on.  I didn't expect him to start dating by the end of the first season or anything like that, but for her to become a more and more distant memory.  Only he never moves on - he sets up a shrine to Trudy in his house that never goes away and his obsession with her pictures, possessions, presents, etc., never improves. 

I also figured part of his mental illness is that he put her on a pedestal and that she must not have been that great in reality.  (psychologically people often do this with deceased spouses).  But then in so many episodes it's shown that she was actually nearly perfect in reality - the best reporter the paper ever had, the most popular person in college, loved by everyone, his personal higher power, etc. 

At some point it became annoying and almost uncomfortable.  Did anyone else feel his way?

[Miss Chevious]

Attention all you Monk-o-philes out there. They're going to be showing a Monk marathon all day this Saturday on the Hallmark Movie & Mystery Channel. Enjoy watching, you can thank me later. :)

[clb1016]

I just came to this board today because I've been watching a Monk marathon, which means I've been seeing way too much Trudy-obsession over a relatively short period of time.  At least when the show was originally on the air it was limited to once a week.  I also didn't necessarily want to see him romantically involved with anyone--burying himself in his work seemed the right response--I just wanted to stop hearing about Trudy.  I stopped watching the show around Season 4 or 5.  It didn't help that I never took to Natalie the way I did to Sharona.

Just my own theory, but I think the Trudy thing might have been an effort to show Tony Shalhoub's versatility--his ability to do great comedy and pathos at the same time.  He's done a lot of theater in NY the last several years and I've seen him in a variety of shows--comedy, drama, even a musical.  He really has tremendous range.

[Miss Chevious]

And I can't forget this one. "He's the guy!"

[peacheslatour]

On 3/13/2017 at 7:30 AM, jjj said:

They ran a mini-marathon of most of Season One over the weekend, and it looks like there will be two episodes per day on the Hallmark Mystery Channel each weekday, starting at the beginning of the series.  In my Pacific time zone, it airs at 1:00 and 2:00 PM. 

Now it's from noon to 3:00. 3 Monks every week day!

Edited May 15, 2017 by peacheslatour

[biakbiak]

3 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Now it's from noon to 3:00. 3 Monks every week day!

My DVR has it from 1 to 4 so four eps.

[peacheslatour]

"You win dirt! Congratulations dirt!  Well played."

[Miss Chevious]

4 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Now it's from noon to 3:00. 3 Monks every week day!

Yay!

[Maizie131]

One of my favorites was on this afternoon - "Mr. Monk and the Foreign Man" about the lady from Nigeria who was in San Francisco for a 2-week training seminar & became the victim of a hit & run.  Her husband came over to grieve her death by sitting on the corner she stepped off before entering the street where she was killed.  He burned incense and also played a type of flute, which "incensed" Monk when the smell wafted to his apartment.  When Monk goes down to tell the guy to go someplace else, he explains to Monk what happened to his wife, and they obviously have a huge thing in common - the loss of their wives.  Very touching - and at times funny - episode.  Loved that black actor - he was phenomenal. 

I have Comcast and I'm now getting FOUR episodes each afternoon Mon. - Fri.  Unfortunately, this Thursday they'll air "The End" - parts 1 and 2.  Then they start off with Season 1, ep. 1.  I absolutely LOVE Monk! 

As for Natalie or Sharona - I prefer Natalie.

I never grew tired of hearing about Trudy, but must admit 12 years is far too long to grieve so terribly...but I rationalized that here's Monk - a celebrated detective who always gets the bad guy - and he couldn't even solve his own wife's murder.    There was at least one episode where he seriously fell in "like" with a woman - the dancer from Russia who allegedly killed a cab driver.  That was a great one, too! 

Edited May 16, 2017 by Maizie131

[peacheslatour]

I loved it when Monk was showing his new friend how to do laundry. He had him separating his whites, off whites, off off whites, primaries (which he included green- wrong!) and separating his "left" socks from his "right" socks. The guy asks how much this is going to cost him; "oh about two hundred dollars".

And with video "make picture go fast, no picture go regular, no picture go back!"

Me *dead*

[Maizie131]

Did anyone watch "Monk-The End, Parts 1 & 2" yesterday?  I did and cried like a baby.  What a great series!  Here's an article about it:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-monk-idUSTRE5B60YM20091207

Only one thing bothered me about the show and that was Randy Newman singing the theme song from Season 2 to the end.  I just can't stand his voice, but the song itself (music) is great.  However, I actually loved his "We're gonna miss you" song he wrote for the ending, coinciding with the montage of clips from the show throughout its 8-yr. run.  Very well-done.