Monk - General Discussion

[Bastet]

Danny Trejo!  I don't think I'd ever seen the season two finale (where Monk has to go undercover as a prison inmate to figure out who poisoned a guy scheduled to be executed that same night), because I really like Trejo, but had no memory of him being in an episode.  Now, yes, it's basically the same role he plays in everything, so they do run together, but I didn't remember anything else about the episode, either, so I think it was new to me.

The season three premiere, in NYC, was not, and all this time later I so clearly remembered hating that jackhammer scene with every fiber of my being.  There is no excuse for a professional writer, director, and editor to ever let something like that make air.  Even for the pace of 2004 television, that went on about ten times longer than it should have.  But I do love the scene at the end between Monk and the hitman.  "You were the husband?"/"I am the husband" is great, as is Monk channeling Trudy and turning his morphine pump back on.

Looking at the season three episode guide, I remember quite a few episodes in some degree of detail.  I can't wait to see "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month" as that's my second-favorite episode; I love Enrico Colantoni in everything I've ever seen him in, and I love the way he and Shalhoub work together in that episode.  Monk offering him a handshake after he's cleared is seared in my brain.  (And the actor playing the killer in that one has been in quite a few things I've seen, but she'll always be Maria from Sister Act 2 to me.)

There's a good stretch of episodes in the middle there; after that is the one where Trudy's dad asks Monk to come help him figure out how the idiot on his new game show is cheating, and I should not like it because it doesn't have any of the other cast members, instead Kevin, that obnoxious idiot of a neighbor I absolutely cannot stand, but I so enjoy seeing Monk with his in-laws I like it.  There's something about Melora Hardin that bugs me, so I shouldn't enjoy the Trudy flashbacks, either, and they're not my favorite, but I always like learning what he was like when he had a "normal" version of his anxiety disorders, to see what's always been there and what's the result of the severe version he deals with following the trauma of Trudy's death.

But after that is Sharona's last episode, boo.

[kathyk24]

4 hours ago, Bastet said:

Danny Trejo!  I don't think I'd ever seen the season two finale (where Monk has to go undercover as a prison inmate to figure out who poisoned a guy scheduled to be executed that same night), because I really like Trejo, but had no memory of him being in an episode.  Now, yes, it's basically the same role he plays in everything, so they do run together, but I didn't remember anything else about the episode, either, so I think it was new to me.

The season three premiere, in NYC, was not, and all this time later I so clearly remembered hating that jackhammer scene with every fiber of my being.  There is no excuse for a professional writer, director, and editor to ever let something like that make air.  Even for the pace of 2004 television, that went on about ten times longer than it should have.  But I do love the scene at the end between Monk and the hitman.  "You were the husband?"/"I am the husband" is great, as is Monk channeling Trudy and turning his morphine pump back on.

Looking at the season three episode guide, I remember quite a few episodes in some degree of detail.  I can't wait to see "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month" as that's my second-favorite episode; I love Enrico Colantoni in everything I've ever seen him in, and I love the way he and Shalhoub work together in that episode.  Monk offering him a handshake after he's cleared is seared in my brain.  (And the actor playing the killer in that one has been in quite a few things I've seen, but she'll always be Maria from Sister Act 2 to me.)

There's a good stretch of episodes in the middle there; after that is the one where Trudy's dad asks Monk to come help him figure out how the idiot on his new game show is cheating, and I should not like it because it doesn't have any of the other cast members, instead Kevin, that obnoxious idiot of a neighbor I absolutely cannot stand, but I so enjoy seeing Monk with his in-laws I like it.  There's something about Melora Hardin that bugs me, so I shouldn't enjoy the Trudy flashbacks, either, and they're not my favorite, but I always like learning what he was like when he had a "normal" version of his anxiety disorders, to see what's always been there and what's the result of the severe version he deals with following the trauma of Trudy's death.

But after that is Sharona's last episode, boo.

I love Mr. Monk and the Game Show. I like any episode where people are nice to Monk it was sweet to see Trudy's father being kind to him. I don't mind Kevin and it's good to see their friendship begin.

[Annber03]

24 minutes ago, kathyk24 said:

I don't mind Kevin and it's good to see their friendship begin.

I really like Kevin's interaction with Monk in "Mr. Monk is on the Air". He takes the time to help him find some jokes to use to fight back against that jerk radio DJ, and there's a nice moment in there where he helps to comfort Monk as well, when Monk's feeling especially down and sad. 

[andromeda331]

2 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I love Mr. Monk and the Game Show. I like any episode where people are nice to Monk it was sweet to see Trudy's father being kind to him. I don't mind Kevin and it's good to see their friendship begin.

That's one of my favorites. I don't even care that the cheating was so obvious they didn't need Monk's help. I love how nice Trudy's parents are to him. They clearly love him. He comes closes to hugging his father-in-law with the hands on the shoulders. I love the talk between Trudy's mother and Monk about Trudy and how she dealt with what happened. They are both also very nice and patient with Kevin. I like Kevin because he's funny and it's fun watching Monk dealing with someone who he finds some what annoying but not a nemesis like Harold. I love him telling Sharona to stop laughing when he's telling her something Kevin's doing that's annoying him. 

[chessiegal]

I didn't recognize Brooke Adams as the Sheriff in the Monk goes to the farm episode. Shows what a good actor she is. I'm watching the 100th case episode, and just realized Brooke was the flight attendant when Sharona hijacked Monk into flying to New Jersey. I see Brooke was in 5 episodes. I know his brother Michael was in at least 2.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I didn't recognize Brooke Adams as the Sheriff in the Monk goes to the farm episode. Shows what a good actor she is. I'm watching the 100th case episode, and just realized Brooke was the flight attendant when Sharona hijacked Monk into flying to New Jersey. I see Brooke was in 5 episodes.

Whenever I see Brooke Adams, I always imagine her in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, LOL.

I didn't realize Brooke was also in BrainDead with Tony. I loved that one-season show.

And I didn't remember she was in 5 different Monk episodes either.

Her flight attendant portrayal in "Mr. Monk and the Airplane" is hysterical, while also making us feel sorry for her.

[Bastet]

Wow, Bitty Schram does a great job in the one where Sharona is being gaslit by her writing instructor.  The scene in Dr. Kroger's office, where she tells him about her father, is terrific, and her reaction when the teacher pretends not to see the guy outside the window is even better.  It's the first time someone else was with her when she saw him, and the utter devastation of the realization everyone is right, she's seeing things that aren't real, is all over her face.

Absolutely fantastic; unless something incredible happens in the next few episodes, that's her best work of the entire series.

[Annber03]

I love that episode. But yeah, I feel so bad for her throughout that one - it's genuinely creepy in spots. 

[Bastet]

And now for Tony Shalhoub's best acting of the series to date, the season three finale where Monk is (completely nonsensically) appointed as an emergency foster for a kid, and then decides he wants to keep him.  The idea of him raising a child alone is ridiculous, but it makes all the sense in the world that he'd - despite having called 911 when the kid shit his diaper - temporarily have that impulse, given his recent hallucination while buried alive (which made him wish he'd said yes when Trudy asked him about having a child).  And he comes to his senses in short order, so I rolled with it a lot better this time than I did originally.  The scene where he tells the kid a fairy tale and says he (the kid) would never live happily ever after as he deserves if Monk was his parent was beautiful.

Backing up, I am glad that today no one would make an episode with such a disgustingly inappropriate presentation of anti-depressant/anti-anxiety meds and those who prescribe them as these folks did in what wound up being Sharona's last episode.

And I am irrationally annoyed by all the plot holes in the one where Natalie runs for a seat on the school board.  I think it's one too many for me, maybe, as I could have rolled with any one or two in a different episode.  But somehow the combination of them in that one left me disgruntled.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Bastet

[Bastet]

In the one where Monk is sick, Julie is nowhere near young enough to think that obnoxious card of hers - that plays "Polly Wolly Doodle" on a continuous loop for ten years - would be appealing to anyone, let alone him, and Natalie certainly knows better than to take it seriously and keep forcing it on him rather than saying "Look, I know it's dreadful, but she's really proud of it, so here's how we're 'accidentally' going to get rid of it".  They are sometimes so lazy (see my above hatred of the election episode) in setting up their plot points.

But I remain impressed with how smooth the transition from Sharona to Natalie was.  I also remain incensed at them choosing to send Sharona back to Trevor as the reason, but they do a good job with Natalie from the beginning, not going too far with her similarities to or differences from Sharona.

And, as I've said before, I think it's easier for the audience to adjust to a new assistant - and later a new therapist - because Monk struggles so mightily with change.  We're along for the ride with him (rather than it being a situation where a show makes a big change that the characters barely react to), and if he of all people can adapt, so can we.

[kathyk24]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

In the one where Monk is sick, Julie is nowhere near young enough to think that obnoxious card of hers - that plays "Polly Wolly Doodle" on a continuous loop for ten years - would be appealing to anyone, let alone him, and Natalie certainly knows better than to take it seriously and keep forcing it on him rather than saying "Look, I know it's dreadful, but she's really proud of it, so here's how we're 'accidentally' going to get rid of it".  They are sometimes so lazy (see my above hatred of the election episode) in setting up their plot points.

But I remain impressed with how smooth the transition from Sharona to Natalie was.  I also remain incensed at them choosing to send Sharona back to Trevor as the reason, but they do a good job with Natalie from the beginning, not going too far with her similarities to or differences from Sharona.

And, as I've said before, I think it's easier for the audience to adjust to a new assistant - and later a new therapist - because Monk struggles so mightily with change.  We're along for the ride with him (rather than it being a situation where a show makes a big change that the characters barely react to), and if he of all people can adapt, so can we.

I think Monk's writers relied too much on the Status Quo is God trope. Monk was not allowed to change. There was no reason Monk couldn't try different medications until he found one that worked for him. Monk makes a friend they will either be evil or never seen again. I hated the episode where Monk finally got his badge back only to decide he wanted to be an investigator all that character growth for nothing. I think the fans knew that Sharona and Dr. Kroger weren't coming back so Monk had to adapt.

[chessiegal]

I don't see "Mr. Monk and the Badge" as character regression at all. As Dr. Bell said, the department had changed, Monk had changed. He discovered he wanted to be his own boss and he didn't want to be back on the force. That's growth.

I'd like to know the origin of the Joey Heatherton mentions. I figure it had to be an inside joke of the writers or maybe even Tony himself. I've counted 3 episodes where she is mentioned. Yes, I'm old enough to know who Joey Heatherton is.

[Bastet]

On 6/16/2023 at 9:03 AM, chessiegal said:

I don't see "Mr. Monk and the Badge" as character regression at all. As Dr. Bell said, the department had changed, Monk had changed. He discovered he wanted to be his own boss and he didn't want to be back on the force. That's growth.

Unless there's a dramatic change I've forgotten and will discover in this re-watch, it's ridiculous anyone let him back on the force to begin with.  He does one thing exceptionally well, better than anyone else around, and that's what he should be brought in to do when needed.  Have him come to crime scenes on big or puzzling cases, so he can notice the things/make the connections most cops miss.

But a day-to-day detective?  With a partner, and a boss, and a squad?  The man is barely functional outside of that one skill (and even that he can't employ unless all his various distractions are eliminated -- even if that means altering a crime scene!).  He can't make decisions, and he can't overcome his compulsions/phobias - of which there are literally hundreds; it's not like only a handful of things can put him in this state - even in extreme situations.  As I said before, he has come within mere seconds of letting someone be killed because of them.  Sometimes he spirals so much he actually blacks out and has no memory of what just happened.  And that's just the worst of it.  There's also letting suspects get away because he won't touch something, blowing operations because his fussing over some fixation causes a distraction, etc.

I think they went overboard in how they wrote him -- especially how they wrote him as described/seen before Trudy's death -- and a real-life Monk wouldn't be so debilitated, but that's the corner they wrote themselves into and it's on them to write themselves out of it; as presented, he's not psychologically qualified.

But I do not recall him being so ruled, sometimes to the point of incapacitation, by his compulsions and phobias improving substantially enough over the course of the series to have it make sense his psychiatrist would recommend him for reinstatement, and certainly not that the department would take on the liability when they were already getting out of him everything they needed.  I'm only on season four this second time around, though, so maybe there's growth to come that didn't stick around in my memory all these years.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Bastet

[fishcakes]

On 6/15/2023 at 7:57 PM, Bastet said:

But I remain impressed with how smooth the transition from Sharona to Natalie was. ... And, as I've said before, I think it's easier for the audience to adjust to a new assistant - and later a new therapist - because Monk struggles so mightily with change.

I thought it was a pretty rough transition. I didn't watch the show back when it first aired and didn't pay much attention to what people were saying about it, but there were enough media stories about how the audience was rejecting Natalie that even I knew about it.

When I did start watching just a couple of years ago, the first episodes I saw were Sharona episodes. That was on Decades, I think. I quickly got hooked and saw that there were also episodes on H&I, so I started watching those at the same time, and they were Natalie episodes. I expected to hate her based on everything I heard, but I didn't. I liked Sharona more, but I didn't see why Natalie was so disliked. Before I got too far into it, I bought the series and began watching it from the beginning.

Once I got to the introduction of Natalie, it made sense. In her first episode (where she hires Monk to find out why her house was broken into), she's perfectly fine. But in her second episode, Mr Monk vs. the Cobra, she's apparently been working for him for a couple of weeks and has just gotten her first paycheck but he says he doesn't reimburse for her expenses.  And he's wrong, of course, but her reaction is so horrendous that you end up having to side with Monk. When she finds out he's still paying rent on Trudy's office, she demands that he close it down so he'll have the money to pay her. And hello, she just started working for him; as far as the audience is concerned it's her first day as his assistant and she's trying to dictate how he deals with Trudy's memory. Later in the episode, she throws another fit because he won't close Trudy's office, leaves him alone at the funeral parlor, and he ends up getting buried alive. So, bad start for Nat.

Then in her second episode, Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever, where he witnesses a murder, she gets on her first "karma" jag, telling Adrian that his inability to mind his own business is "bad karma," and actually accuses him of causing all the murders that happen when he's around. Not a great thing to say to a guy who spent years being guilt-ridden over the murder of his wife. She comes around by the end of the episode, but I still kind of hated her.

Another early one was when they went to Las Vegas and she wasn't too bad there, except that she called herself cute a couple of times, which is never not off-putting.

Because I had seen her later episodes first, I already liked her, but once I saw those very early ones, I hated her for a while and had to be won over again, which I eventually was. She obviously loves and cares about Monk, and I like anyone who cares about Monk, but I completely understand why she was initially rejected by the audience and why, to this day, people still don't like her.

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, fishcakes said:

In her first episode (where she hires Monk to find out why her house was broken into), she's perfectly fine. But in her second episode, Mr Monk vs. the Cobra, she's apparently been working for him for a couple of weeks and has just gotten her first paycheck but he says he doesn't reimburse for her expenses.  And he's wrong, of course, but her reaction is so horrendous that you end up having to side with Monk. When she finds out he's still paying rent on Trudy's office, she demands that he close it down so he'll have the money to pay her. And hello, she just started working for him; as far as the audience is concerned it's her first day as his assistant and she's trying to dictate how he deals with Trudy's memory.

That makes perfect sense to me -- she doesn't know him like the others do, all his obsessions, compulsions, phobias, and how his trauma over Trudy's death manifests itself in holding on to every single scrap of hers that remains.  So, as someone who merely knows he's a great detective, who did a nice thing for her daughter, and now learns as a new assistant that he's also an utter cheapskate, when she finds out the money he claims he doesn't have to pay her expenses could easily be covered by moving the stuff from an unused office elsewhere rather than continuing to pay rent on it, it's only logical to suggest it, and then quit when he won't do it because Monk does not speak logic if it conflicts with one of his gazillion and one issues.  She thinks like a typical person (good and bad).  He doesn't (good and bad).  She later learns to speak Monk, but it wouldn't be realistic if she already did.  We met Sharona when she was well into taking care of him.  Natalie is new, and responds accordingly. 

Monk is notoriously lacking in empathy (something I'm very glad they had the characters point out numerous times), so I find it an interesting touch that here she thinks she is in someone else's shoes, but she's not.  She's lost a spouse, too, but she wouldn't be spending money to hold onto Mitch's office when that meant she couldn't afford something she needed -- that doesn't mean everyone else who's been widowed would react the same, though, and obviously Monk doesn't.  It's the flip side of the same coin, whenever Monk meets someone who's been able to move forward after the death of a spouse, and he's utterly puzzled because he can't relate.

[fishcakes]

I only recall a couple of times that Monk reacted to someone else moving on after a spouse's death, the first time being when the former police commissioner murdered his wife and it was his nonchalance about it that made Monk correctly suspect he had killed her. And the other time was with a college classmate who had remarried, and that mostly seemed to make Monk sad because he couldn't relate. But neither time did Monk tell them they shouldn't be grieving in the way they chose to, which is what Natalie was doing. Rather than justifying it, the fact that she didn't really know him makes it especially insensitive. Who would tell someone they barely know that they need to stop doing something that comforts them after someone they love has died? Monk was wrong on the issue of her expenses, but she was the one lacking empathy there.

In any case, the point I was trying to make was that I thought Natalie's introduction could have been better, but because it went the way it did, I understand why some people still don't like her.

[kathyk24]

13 minutes ago, fishcakes said:

I only recall a couple of times that Monk reacted to someone else moving on after a spouse's death, the first time being when the former police commissioner murdered his wife and it was his nonchalance about it that made Monk correctly suspect he had killed her. And the other time was with a college classmate who had remarried, and that mostly seemed to make Monk sad because he couldn't relate. But neither time did Monk tell them they shouldn't be grieving in the way they chose to, which is what Natalie was doing. Rather than justifying it, the fact that she didn't really know him makes it especially insensitive. Who would tell someone they barely know that they need to stop doing something that comforts them after someone they love has died? Monk was wrong on the issue of her expenses, but she was the one lacking empathy there.

In any case, the point I was trying to make was that I thought Natalie's introduction could have been better, but because it went the way it did, I understand why some people still don't like her.

Natalie had Julie so she had no choice but to cope with her grief. Monk had no support other than Sharona. His mother was dead his father abandoned his family and Ambrose had issues of his own. 

[shapeshifter]

On 6/19/2023 at 3:53 PM, fishcakes said:

Who would tell someone they barely know that they need to stop doing something that comforts them after someone they love has died? Monk was wrong on the issue of her expenses, but she was the one lacking empathy there.

On 6/19/2023 at 4:13 PM, kathyk24 said:

Natalie had Julie so she had no choice but to cope with her grief.

I've had the experience of barely coping with a loss and then totally losing my patience with a relative who was not coping at all with an even greater loss. It happens. There's no excuse. It just happens. Stuff piles up and explodes. At least in my family that happens. 

My problem with Natalie's complaints about Monk's miserliness didn't start until after the writers retconned Natalie into a toothpaste company heiress. I don't recall her complaining about Monk being cheap with her after that, but it kind of ruined the reruns for me.

 

[Bastet]

Well, now we get to where I am angry with Natalie about an office:  She rightly freaked her shit about Monk refusing to pay her expenses*, specifically that he was crying poor while he was paying (a totally unrealistic pittance) to continue to lease Trudy's office space (Trudy worked for a publication, not freelance, so why did she even have that to begin with, but I'll let that go for plot purposes), and now here she is spending $3200/month of his money - without his consent (and we'll just ignore how she managed that) - on an office to start him up as a PI for hire?!  WTactualF?

*Of the ways in which he remains focused exclusively on himself even when others' needs are pointed out to him, his cheapskate ass when it came to both Sharona and Natalie was revolting.

I remember that Sharon Lawrence's character, introduced in this episode, turns out to be a baddie.  Of course she does.  Other than on NYPD Blue (which I did not like, but reluctantly viewed for a few years because others in my home did), I don't think I've ever seen her as anything else.  It's basically a spoiler to cast her -- whatever it is, she did it.

Backing up, "Mr. Monk and the Actor" is my third-favorite episode (behind "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies" and "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month").  I don't know that it would have worked with someone other than Stanley Tucci, and maybe not even with Tucci if he and Tony Shalhoub weren't such close long-time friends, but with the two of them it is utterly fantastic.

Up next is the class reunion episode, and I like Cynthia Stevenson as the classmate whose husband tries to kill her, but it drives me nuts that they retcon Monk and Trudy as having met in college. 

[chessiegal]

I love Monk and Tony, but damn, I could write a book on the plot holes. Knowing Tony was an executive producer, why didn't he point out the discrepancies? We have Monk being a detective when he met Trudy, then we have them meeting in college. Considering the end game that Trudy had a baby when she was in graduate school, the whole meeting in undergraduate school makes no sense. Then we have the nitpicks where Trudy was 34 when she dies. Later she was 35. Then later she was 34 again. I've also noticed (but didn't write down what episodes) that the bomb was under the passenger seat and another time it was under the driver's seat. 

And I swear you could stock a food bank with the amount of food he wastes because something wasn't perfectly correct. For someone who is often saying he is short on funds, no wonder with what he throws away.

Edited June 22, 2023 by chessiegal

[Browncoat]

45 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Backing up, "Mr. Monk and the Actor" is my third-favorite episode (behind "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies" and "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month").  I don't know that it would have worked with someone other than Stanley Tucci, and maybe not even with Tucci if he and Tony Shalhoub weren't such close long-time friends, but with the two of them it is utterly fantastic.

Agreed.  That episode is brilliant just because Stanley and Tony work so well together.

[Bastet]

17 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

And I swear you could stock a food bank with the amount of food he wastes because something wasn't perfectly correct. For someone who is often saying he is short on funds, no wonder with what he throws away.

The food waste, all the plastic he uses to get rid of his trash, and all those damn wipes pain me in pretty much every episode.

[chessiegal]

46 minutes ago, Bastet said:

and all those damn wipes pain me in pretty much every episode.

In the before times, the wipes were excessive. Since the pandemic, when I'm out and about I'm almost as bad as Monk with wipes and sanitary gel. 🤣

[Bastet]

The gel is fine.  The wipes are wasteful for someone who uses and discards one every goddamn time he touches anything other than himself or something in his sanitized home.

[chessiegal]

I use wipes to wipe down the handles of my shopping cart.

[kathyk24]

5 hours ago, Bastet said:

Well, now we get to where I am angry with Natalie about an office:  She rightly freaked her shit about Monk refusing to pay her expenses*, specifically that he was crying poor while he was paying (a totally unrealistic pittance) to continue to lease Trudy's office space (Trudy worked for a publication, not freelance, so why did she even have that to begin with, but I'll let that go for plot purposes), and now here she is spending $3200/month of his money - without his consent (and we'll just ignore how she managed that) - on an office to start him up as a PI for hire?!  WTactualF?

*Of the ways in which he remains focused exclusively on himself even when others' needs are pointed out to him, his cheapskate ass when it came to both Sharona and Natalie was revolting.

I remember that Sharon Lawrence's character, introduced in this episode, turns out to be a baddie.  Of course she does.  Other than on NYPD Blue (which I did not like, but reluctantly viewed for a few years because others in my home did), I don't think I've ever seen her as anything else.  It's basically a spoiler to cast her -- whatever it is, she did it.

Backing up, "Mr. Monk and the Actor" is my third-favorite episode (behind "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies" and "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month").  I don't know that it would have worked with someone other than Stanley Tucci, and maybe not even with Tucci if he and Tony Shalhoub weren't such close long-time friends, but with the two of them it is utterly fantastic.

Up next is the class reunion episode, and I like Cynthia Stevenson as the classmate whose husband tries to kill her, but it drives me nuts that they retcon Monk and Trudy as having met in college. 

I loved the Captain and Linda together they had real chemistry. The college reunion episode is one of my favorites I like any episode where someone is nice to Monk.

[kathyk24]

5 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I love Monk and Tony, but damn, I could write a book on the plot holes. Knowing Tony was an executive producer, why didn't he point out the discrepancies? We have Monk being a detective when he met Trudy, then we have them meeting in college. Considering the end game that Trudy had a baby when she was in graduate school, the whole meeting in undergraduate school makes no sense. Then we have the nitpicks where Trudy was 34 when she dies. Later she was 35. Then later she was 34 again. I've also noticed (but didn't write down what episodes) that the bomb was under the passenger seat and another time it was under the driver's seat. 

And I swear you could stock a food bank with the amount of food he wastes because something wasn't perfectly correct. For someone who is often saying he is short on funds, no wonder with what he throws away.

That's the obsessive part of OCD. The need to have everything perfect even if it drains his money. It would have been interesting to have Dr Kroger have a therapy session at Monk's home in order to prove this to him.

[andromeda331]

9 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I use wipes to wipe down the handles of my shopping cart.

The store I worked at we had always had a bottle of wipes next to the carts. They were used a lot and it was way before the pandemic.

5 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I loved the Captain and Linda together they had real chemistry. The college reunion episode is one of my favorites I like any episode where someone is nice to Monk.

I really loved them together. I hate what they did to Linda. T.K. was okay but I prefer Linda. One thing is funny is that Virginia Madsen also turned up on Elementary as Captain Gregson's girlfriend and wife Paige. Gregson started out on the show married to someone else, they separated in season two and divorced by season three. It's almost the same as Stottlemeyer except Paige got MS and died sometime before the final episode of which jumped a few years later.

I love any episode that people are nice to Monk. The Employee of the Month with his ex-partner, the game show episode with Trudy's parents, the college reunion, and the one with his childhood crush Sherry. Sherry was nice to him, Jimmy was nice to him, the jantior who got him out of his locker and the cafeteria lady.

[fishcakes]

Sometimes when I'm wiping down the handle of my grocery cart and I look around and see that the only people in the store still wearing masks are me and three elderly people, I think about this tweet:

 

[Bastet]

I just finished season five.  (Well, minus one episode; I was determined to watch every episode all the way through, but I had to turn off the one with a Howard Stern type character, because it also had Kevin, and there was no way I was sitting through both those guys in one episode.)  I was often underwhelmed with the second half of the season, so that I still have three to go has me a little wary. 

I hate the one with Monk's dad; WTF with everyone being so pushy about Adrian needing to indulge the father that abandoned him?!  (Also, I know TV is notorious for this kind of thing, but I cannot with casting Dan Hedaya in the role, since he's only 13 years older than Tony Shalhoub -- and, no matter how rode hard and put away wet they tried to make him look, he in no way looks old enough to be Monk's father.)  I also hate the one with Andy Richter.  And the one with the FBI agents (they are bad caricatures).  The finale, when he goes to the hospital with a nose bleed, is okay, but there are so many medical errors I am distracted by them, and I'm not even in that profession!

Mr. Monk undercover as a butler had some very funny moments, though.  And Monk going through every stage of grief in less than five minutes then starting over again when Dr. Kroger says he's going to retire was well done.

Edited July 1, 2023 by Bastet

[chessiegal]

@BastetAre you rewatching on DVD or broadcast? I'd be curious how much syndication edits were made for cuts from the originally aired episodes.

The hospital episode causes me too much anxiety to watch again.

[Bastet]

37 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Are you rewatching on DVD or broadcast?

Neither; I'm streaming on Prime, so there shouldn't be any cuts.

[andromeda331]

On 6/30/2023 at 2:04 PM, Bastet said:

I just finished season five.  (Well, minus one episode; I was determined to watch every episode all the way through, but I had to turn off the one with a Howard Stern type character, because it also had Kevin, and there was no way I was sitting through both those guys in one episode.)  I was often underwhelmed with the second half of the season, so that I still have three to go has me a little wary. 

I hate the one with Monk's dad; WTF with everyone being so pushy about Adrian needing to indulge the father that abandoned him?!  (Also, I know TV is notorious for this kind of thing, but I cannot with casting Dan Hedaya in the role, since he's only 13 years older than Tony Shalhoub -- and, no matter how rode hard and put away wet they tried to make him look, he in no way looks old enough to be Monk's father.)  I also hate the one with Andy Richter.  And the one with the FBI agents (they are bad caricatures).  The finale, when he goes to the hospital with a nose bleed, is okay, but there are so many medical errors I am distracted by them, and I'm not even in that profession!

Mr. Monk undercover as a butler had some very funny moments, though.  And Monk going through every stage of grief in less than five minutes then starting over again when Dr. Kroger says he's going to retire was well done.

I agree with you about his dad. I hate when friends and family encourage or harass to spend time with the parent who abandoned them. Adrian didn't want to see his dad and he had every right not too. That should have been that. I love Monk going through all the stages of grief and repeating. It wsa so fun and perfect as to how he would react to such news.

[fishcakes]

The series is getting a Blu-ray release, with the first season available for pre-order now. An Amazon reviewer said that they're releasing one season a month for the next 8 months, but I can't find anything official to confirm that.

This is probably not worth it if you already have it on DVD. The season 1 extras are all identical to what's on the DVD version, so I assume the whole series will be like that. I do like the DVDs for the extras (and not being at the mercy of whichever streamer currently has it), but unless you're really particular about getting the absolute best picture quality, it's a big price difference: $40/season for blu-ray vs. $40 for the entire series on DVD.

[aghst]

Eventually the Blu Ray box sets could get discounted.

 

Surprising because in general, TV shows aren't released on box sets automatically like they used to be.

[Bastet]

I finished season six, which I found rather ho-hum overall, but I enjoyed the two-part finale.

The only episode from that season I had remembered in any detail was the one where we find out Sharon Lawrence is a killer -- for some reason I had a clear memory of that whole thing she did with setting up a replica of her bedroom.  And that I couldn't stand Stottlemeyer for most of the episode.

[chessiegal]

I loved the gradual dawning on Stottlemeyer's face when Linda tells him Monk was touching her and threatening to frame her for the murder if she didn't sleep with him. Hah!

[Katy M]

13 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I loved the gradual dawning on Stottlemeyer's face when Linda tells him Monk was touching her and threatening to frame her for the murder if she didn't sleep with him. Hah!

I don't think I ever saw that one, but gosh, what a moron.  Nobody would believe that in a million trillion years.

[chessiegal]

52 minutes ago, Katy M said:

I don't think I ever saw that one, but gosh, what a moron.  Nobody would believe that in a million trillion years.

He didn't believe it, thus his realization his girlfriend was lying to him.

[Katy M]

7 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

He didn't believe it, thus his realization his girlfriend was lying to him.

I know.  I was referring to her as the moron for even trying that.

[shapeshifter]

17 minutes ago, Katy M said:

I know.  I was referring to her as the moron for even trying that.

Or just a self-absorbed psychopath.🙃

(typical of Monk's nemeses)

[fishcakes]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Or just a self-absorbed psychopath.🙃

(typical of Monk's nemeses)

Speaking of, I saw Mr Monk and the Astronaut the other day, and the astronaut and his smug, punchable face has to be the show villain I hate the most. Especially at the end as he's being arrested, and he gives Monk a nod of respect, as if that's worth anything.

Favorite villain is maybe the neighboring farmer who killed Randy's uncle, if only for his befuddled reaction to Monk reeling off a long list of slang terms for marijuana that have no meaning to anyone but him. Bambalachi, the Devil's Parsley.

[Browncoat]

3 hours ago, fishcakes said:

Monk reeling off a long list of slang terms for marijuana that have no meaning to anyone but him. Bambalachi, the Devil's Parsley.

One of my favorite scenes of the entire series!

[Bastet]

8 hours ago, Katy M said:

I don't think I ever saw that one, but gosh, what a moron.  Nobody would believe that in a million trillion years.

I had to decide whether it was illogical that she'd never learned nudity is one of his phobias and he's really uncomfortable about sex in general (except with Trudy, I guess).  I doubt they spent much time together, so it would be more a coming up in conversation with Stottlemeyer thing, like if she'd ever asked him if Monk dates.  And if it had, Leland probably would have just cited being traumatized by Trudy's death as the reason he generally doesn't.  So I concluded it worked for her to be clueless that this is one man you can't accuse of that with any shred of credibility.

[Bastet]

I finished season seven.  Nothing stood out to me, but I liked the 100th case episode.

I don't know if I'd never seen the one where they killed of Kevin or I'd just forgotten it.  Probably the former, as you'd think I'd remember blessedly dispatching with someone who annoys me so.

Speaking of annoying, it's a close call who's more obnoxious, Monk in the one where he gets shot, or Natalie in the one where she becomes the lottery lady.

One more season to go.  I'm getting rather bored with it, but I'm determined to see it through.

[shapeshifter]

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

Speaking of annoying, it's a close call who's more obnoxious, Monk in the one where he gets shot, or Natalie in the one where she becomes the lottery lady

I enjoyed obnoxious Natalie — probably because it was obvious her “celebrity” status couldn’t last.

—which now makes me think of how Traylor Howard basically retired after the show.

Edited July 27, 2023 by shapeshifter
because “it” is too vague

[chessiegal]

I like the 100th case episode because it's the 100th episode of Monk. It was fun to see all the folks who Monk put away.

Plus, at the end, the writers take a poke at themselves (not the first time) with Natalie reading a newspaper story about a tv writer in a dispute.

[andromeda331]

8 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I like the 100th case episode because it's the 100th episode of Monk. It was fun to see all the folks who Monk put away.

Plus, at the end, the writers take a poke at themselves (not the first time) with Natalie reading a newspaper story about a tv writer in a dispute.

I love that episode. Monk solving a case without ever leaving the house and realizing Novak was the killer and not realizing that was his 101 case and Monk couldn't stop because of the number. I like Randy's girlfriend in the episode and wish they ended up together. I like all the characters they interview, Marcie still hasn't changed her obsessive ways and complaining about the judge who clearly has never been in love.

[chessiegal]

Hallmark Movies and Mysteries is doing a Monk marathon Saturday from 4 am to 7 pm.

[chessiegal]

I've noticed that on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries the word "ass" is bleeped whereas it is not when it airs on Cozi. Evidently the delicate snowflakes who want fairy tale happy endings can't bear hearing such a horrible word. 😅