Monk - General Discussion

[Bastet]

38 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

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. 😅

The pearl clutchers at Hallmark censored the word "butt" in another syndicated show, so, no surprise to see them get the vapors over "ass".

[Bastet]

I finally finished the series.  I was really losing interest, but determined to see it through.

My mind is still thoroughly boggled - and annoyed - by how they play Sharona's feelings for Randy when she returns ("I remember how good I always felt after talking to you"?!  In what universe, because it sure wasn't the one on my TV for three and a half seasons), and her storyline really doesn't do her any favors in general, but I do love the scenes with her and Natalie.  I think Sharona is right that Natalie coddles him too much -- I think everyone coddles him too much; he's allowed to act like a toddler who everyone else has to adjust themselves to in order to avoid the meltdown and get back to work -- but I also take Natalie's point that she can be soft with him because Sharona did the hard work of being tough when he needed that to even get out of bed.

I cracked up at her telling Monk she's nursing again, and he asks, "Isn't Benjy 17?"

I'm apparently getting soft in my old age, because I could not stand the finale the first time around, but this time I was more open to it.  I still hate that they rushed to pair everyone except Monk with a romantic partner as the series drew to a close, it still bugs me that Trudy's pregnancy doesn't make much sense (where were her parents in all this?!), and I still don't care about Molly to have her as this big deal in Monk's life for the reunion movie, but this second time around I could somewhat set that aside and focus more on Monk's emotions, and that was well done.  It was nice to finally see a lightness in him when he's around Molly.  I mean, he needs to dial it back a good 90% or she's going to wind up taking out a restraining order, but presumably he did if she's still in his life now.

And I like that getting to know her is what finally brought him some measure of peace, that solving Trudy's murder wasn't the transformative experience he always thought it would be.  Most shows perpetuate the "closure" myth about solving a loved one's long-unsolved murder, and I think this and Major Crimes are the only ones I've seen that showed that's often not how it works.

So, in terms of a plot, the finale was pretty stupid.  But in terms of a character development for Monk, it had something going for it.

Two random observations about the series as a whole having watched it in a compressed time frame:

They really go overboard with all the Vinton St. locations.  It's like the Monk equivalent of L&O's Hudson University -- just stay away, as everyone who goes there gets murdered.

It drives me nuts each one of the handful of times Monk rides in the back of a cab.  He has to ride in the front, it's one of his things.  That's explicitly stated more than once, and there are even scenes where they have to argue/bargain with cab drivers over this.  So the scenes where he just casually hops in the back like anybody else bug me as continuity errors.

[shapeshifter]

28 minutes ago, Bastet said:

It was nice to finally see a lightness in him when he's around Molly.  I mean, he needs to dial it back a good 90% or she's going to wind up taking out a restraining order, but presumably he did if she's still in his life now.

And I like that getting to know her is what finally brought him some measure of peace, that solving Trudy's murder wasn't the transformative experience he always thought it would be.  Most shows perpetuate the "closure" myth about solving a loved one's long-unsolved murder, and I think this and Major Crimes are the only ones I've seen that showed that's often not how it works.

So, in terms of a plot, the finale was pretty stupid.  But in terms of a character development for Monk, it had something going for it.

Thanks for pointing out the reason for this plot.

[shapeshifter]

5.5 “Mr. Monk, Private Eye” is airing right now on COZI TV, including a scene in which:l

Quote

…Monk is terrified of boats, but Natalie pushes him to sneak aboard and search, promising to keep watch for Bennett. However, only a few minutes after Monk is aboard, Natalie notices Gibbard's dog barking, and goes to comfort him. Out of her eyesight, Bennett boards his boat. 
Just as Natalie spots Gibbard's corpse floating under the pier and realizes they've stumbled onto something much more sinister than a fender-bender, the boat starts up and pulls away from the dock

monk.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Monk,_Private_Eye

As Natalie — in vain — runs down the boat dock as the killer and his boat head out to sea with terrified-of-the-water Monk aboard, on her right is a boat with it’s name in large blue lettering:
   CLUB TED
which is both a play on words (as most boat names seem to be) for “Club Med,” and perhaps included in the shot because Stottlemeyer is played by Ted Levine?

 

[Bastet]

On 8/24/2023 at 1:05 PM, shapeshifter said:

As Natalie — in vain — runs down the boat dock as the killer and his boat head out to sea with terrified-of-the-water Monk aboard, on her right is a boat with it’s name in large blue lettering:
   CLUB TED
which is both a play on words (as most boat names seem to be) for “Club Med,” and perhaps included in the shot because Stottlemeyer is played by Ted Levine?

Unless the boat is part of the plot, it's unlikely production bothered to paint it that way; if it's just included in the shot but not part of the plot, it's more likely it was a happy coincidence there was a boat of that name docked at the marina where they were filming.

[shapeshifter]

20 minutes ago, Bastet said:

if it's just included in the shot but not part of the plot, it's more likely it was a happy coincidence there was a boat of that name docked at the marina where they were filming.

👆That was my take on it.🙂

[chessiegal]

Evidently Hallmark Movies and Mysteries has decided we need to see more murders in Cabot Cove. They've stopped airing Monk at 11 am ET on weekdays and replaced it with another hour of Murder, She Wrote. Blech.

[fishcakes]

On 8/30/2023 at 9:32 AM, chessiegal said:

Evidently Hallmark Movies and Mysteries has decided we need to see more murders in Cabot Cove. They've stopped airing Monk at 11 am ET on weekdays and replaced it with another hour of Murder, She Wrote. Blech.

NINE hours of Murder, She Wrote everyday. Good grief. That's as bad as FAVE when it had six hours of The Office everyday and would get through the entire series in three weeks.

Speaking of overkill, how much does Adrian love lamps? I'm not even sure I've spotted them all, but so far I've seen four in the living room (two on each end table, one next to the armchair, and one on the desk), three in the bedroom (one on each nightstand, one on the dresser), two in the dining room, and one in the hallway. That's ten lamps, plus the two extra lamps he bought when he broke the desk lamp in the billionaire mugger episode. I don't have ten lamps and I live in a four-bedroom house. Nonetheless, I love his apartment. The layout is so great, and Mission style furniture is perfect for it.

Edited August 31, 2023 by fishcakes

[kathyk24]

On 8/10/2023 at 8:46 PM, Bastet said:

I finally finished the series.  I was really losing interest, but determined to see it through.

My mind is still thoroughly boggled - and annoyed - by how they play Sharona's feelings for Randy when she returns ("I remember how good I always felt after talking to you"?!  In what universe, because it sure wasn't the one on my TV for three and a half seasons), and her storyline really doesn't do her any favors in general, but I do love the scenes with her and Natalie.  I think Sharona is right that Natalie coddles him too much -- I think everyone coddles him too much; he's allowed to act like a toddler who everyone else has to adjust themselves to in order to avoid the meltdown and get back to work -- but I also take Natalie's point that she can be soft with him because Sharona did the hard work of being tough when he needed that to even get out of bed.

I cracked up at her telling Monk she's nursing again, and he asks, "Isn't Benjy 17?"

I'm apparently getting soft in my old age, because I could not stand the finale the first time around, but this time I was more open to it.  I still hate that they rushed to pair everyone except Monk with a romantic partner as the series drew to a close, it still bugs me that Trudy's pregnancy doesn't make much sense (where were her parents in all this?!), and I still don't care about Molly to have her as this big deal in Monk's life for the reunion movie, but this second time around I could somewhat set that aside and focus more on Monk's emotions, and that was well done.  It was nice to finally see a lightness in him when he's around Molly.  I mean, he needs to dial it back a good 90% or she's going to wind up taking out a restraining order, but presumably he did if she's still in his life now.

And I like that getting to know her is what finally brought him some measure of peace, that solving Trudy's murder wasn't the transformative experience he always thought it would be.  Most shows perpetuate the "closure" myth about solving a loved one's long-unsolved murder, and I think this and Major Crimes are the only ones I've seen that showed that's often not how it works.

So, in terms of a plot, the finale was pretty stupid.  But in terms of a character development for Monk, it had something going for it.

Two random observations about the series as a whole having watched it in a compressed time frame:

They really go overboard with all the Vinton St. locations.  It's like the Monk equivalent of L&O's Hudson University -- just stay away, as everyone who goes there gets murdered.

It drives me nuts each one of the handful of times Monk rides in the back of a cab.  He has to ride in the front, it's one of his things.  That's explicitly stated more than once, and there are even scenes where they have to argue/bargain with cab drivers over this.  So the scenes where he just casually hops in the back like anybody else bug me as continuity errors.

Trudy's murder didn't make sense. Her parents seemed like nice people they could have helped her arrange an adoption. Solving her murder wouldn't cure Monk's OCD but it would help with his depression.

[kathyk24]

On 8/30/2023 at 12:32 PM, chessiegal said:

Evidently Hallmark Movies and Mysteries has decided we need to see more murders in Cabot Cove. They've stopped airing Monk at 11 am ET on weekdays and replaced it with another hour of Murder, She Wrote. Blech.

I don't think Hallmark owns the rights to many dramas. The Hallmark Drama Channel airs Little House on the Prairie the Waltons and Touched by an Angel all week long.

[Clawdette]

Quote

 

   On 8/30/2023 at 12:32 PM,  chessiegal said: 

Evidently Hallmark Movies and Mysteries has decided we need to see more murders in Cabot Cove. They've stopped airing Monk at 11 am ET on weekdays and replaced it with another hour of Murder, She Wrote. Blech.

This means I’ll hang tight on Lifetime after watching The Closer to catch the 11:00 Major Crimes.

[fishcakes]

Two more lamps in the dining room and a wall sconce in the hallway! This brings the total to 12 lamps and one sconce.

I'm wondering if work on the reunion movie has shut down because of the writers strike. The director/EP Randy Zisk and at least two other executive producers (Breckman and Shalhoub) are in WGA and/or SAG-AFTRA, so they would have had to stop working. We know they started filming because there were photos from the set, but if they had to stop before they finished, I wonder if it will ever get done. Starting back up again has to be ridiculously expensive. IMDb still shows the movie as in preproduction, which would mean it's not filmed, but no idea how accurate that is. Of course, now that I've said that, I'll probably see promos and a release date tomorrow🤞

Edited September 19, 2023 by fishcakes

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, fishcakes said:

I'm wondering if work on the reunion movie has shut down because of the writers strike. The director/EP Randy Zisk and at least two other executive producers (Breckman and Shalhoub) are in WGA and/or SAG-AFTRA, so they would have had to stop working. We know they started filming because there were photos from the set, but if they had to stop before they finished, I wonder if it will ever get done.

The WGA had already gone on strike when production started (the strike started in early May and this started filming near the end of that month), but that didn't matter because the script was already completed (it just wouldn't be able to undergo any re-writes on set).  SAG-AFTRA went on strike in mid-July, so - knowing it was likely coming - if they already had a short shooting schedule, they might have been able to rush and get it in the can, but that would be pretty tight.  That IMDb doesn't have it listed as being in post-production would seem to indicate they didn't.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Bastet

[shapeshifter]

While watching “Mr. Monk Is the Best Man,” I wondered about the post-Monk music career of Jason Gray-Stanford (Randy Disher) and stumbled upon this article about his having a heart transplant in 2020: yahoo.com/news/monk-star-thought-maybe-had-161943515.html 
Wow. And it would have been during the height of the pandemic.

[Gramto6]

Wow! He certainly had an angel on his shoulder. To find a heart so fast was amazing! And to go through all that and not get Covid! So glad to hear he is doing well. 

[andromeda331]

5 hours ago, Gramto6 said:

Wow! He certainly had an angel on his shoulder. To find a heart so fast was amazing! And to go through all that and not get Covid! So glad to hear he is doing well. 

So am I.

[LexieLily]

I still think the movie would have had more of an emotional impact on the audience if it was centered around Julie and not Molly, but at least it sounds like we'll get a Sharona cameo.

[AnimeMania]

Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie Gets Peacock Release Date — Plus, See First Photos of Revival

A new 90 minute Monk movie "Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie" will air on  Peacock on December 8, 2023.

Monk (Tony Shalhoub) returns to solve one final, very personal case involving his beloved stepdaughter Molly, a journalist preparing for her wedding.

Tony Shalhoub will reunite with original series stars Ted Levine, Traylor Howard, Jason Gray-Stanford, Melora Hardin and Héctor Elizondo. New cast members include Caitlin McGee as Molly Evans and James Purefoy as Rick Eden.

[Annber03]

7 hours ago, LexieLily said:

I still think the movie would have had more of an emotional impact on the audience if it was centered around Julie and not Molly, but at least it sounds like we'll get a Sharona cameo.

That's good to know :)! The more people they can get back for this, the better.

Cool photos, too, thanks for sharing, @AnimeMania! Looking forward to seeing this. 

[aghst]

Wow they've aged.

Haven't we all though ...

[Bastet]

I can't decide if this a good idea or a bad one:

Quote

But fans won't find the Monk they left behind in 2009. The two-part finale, "Mr. Monk and the End," finally gave Monk and the audience answers about his wife Trudy's (Melora Hardin) murder, leading to a hope that Adrian might be on the road to recovery from the more severe symptoms of his OCD.

But recent events upended all of that. "The pandemic threw Monk — and me and you and everyone reading this — for a huge loop, and he was suddenly back at square one," says Breckman. "So the movie finds Monk in a pretty dark place, and he's back in a hole that he has to try to dig out of emotionally."

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by Bastet

[andromeda331]

47 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I can't decide if this a good idea or a bad one:

I don't know either. Further in the article it meants who the victim is. I already hate that idea. I'm not sure if I should post it or not or post it in the spoiler box.

[LexieLily]

51 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I can't decide if this a good idea or a bad one:

I'm undecided also. The show made it clear that Monk was always off-center and Trudy stabilized him, so to speak, and it was her horrific murder that made him spiral. (Also the unfounded guilt for years that her murder was somehow because of him/his career.) His baby steps towards closure in the finale felt earned because he had finally solved Trudy's murder and could properly contextualise and deal with that pain he never dealt with properly. The pandemic was hard for everyone and of course someone like Monk who doesn't deal well with regular change let alone a global pandemic, but I don't think it would send him sliding back to the state he was in when Sharona first found him. Unless you take into account that Randy was in Summit and within a few years Leland might have retired, and we saw from Mr. Monk and the Badge how well Monk dealt with working under other cops. 

There were a few sentences in that article calling Molly "Monk's neverending source of support" and I don't know that I like the idea of Monk revolving his life around Molly for the last decade-plus. 

[chessiegal]

I've got no problem with Molly being a large part of Monk's life. It was clear in the finale that he and Molly would be in a special relationship.

[Irlandesa]

2 hours ago, LexieLily said:

The pandemic was hard for everyone and of course someone like Monk who doesn't deal well with regular change let alone a global pandemic, but I don't think it would send him sliding back to the state he was in when Sharona first found him.

I can.  He suffers from OCD and the pandemic was a once-in-a-lifetime type event to attack all of his worst fears.  I think even if his wife had been alive, he would have had an extreme reaction to the pandemic.

 

[DoctorAtomic]

From the pictures, it looks like Leland isn't a police chief anymore. So on top of the pandemic, you take the regular routine of Monk working with him, and I can buy it. 

 

[Bastet]

21 hours ago, LexieLily said:

There were a few sentences in that article calling Molly "Monk's neverending source of support" and I don't know that I like the idea of Monk revolving his life around Molly for the last decade-plus. 

Yeah, it was uncomfortable in the finale how focused on her he was, but I figured that's because it was new, and he'd settle down.  So, yeah, I hope she's just supportive, not that his life revolves around her. 

[HyeChaps]

And I wonder how her parents feel about all that attention.

[shapeshifter]

21 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

And I wonder how her parents feel about all that attention.

And what about Trudy's parents? 
I imagine both Molly's parents and Trudy's parents will just get a single explanatory line from one character in response to another
— or maybe even something like Natalie mentioning that Julie was now working in Hawaii as a marine biologist and was surprised to hear that Trudy's parents had retired to Hawaii — thereby dispensing with 3 now off-screen characters with one line. 

[LexieLily]

If this movie is about Molly's wedding, we'll have to hear about Molly's parents if not see them. Same with Trudy's. 

[Bastet]

2 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

If this movie is about Molly's wedding, we'll have to hear about Molly's parents if not see them. Same with Trudy's. 

Well, there is no actual wedding, so it won't be odd not to see them.  But I hope there's a line establishing Molly has a relationship with Trudy's parents, too, because if she's a fixture in the life of the guy who was married to her biological mom, yet has no relationship with her biological grandparents, that would be odd.

[LexieLily]

44 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

And I wonder how her parents feel about all that attention.

I also want to know how Molly's parents feel about the essential illegal adoption that happened - they did nothing wrong and neither did the agency, but Molly's biological father stole her from Molly's biological mom. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by LexieLily

[chessiegal]

I saw one of my favorite episodes today, "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail". I always thought that Danny Trejo, who plays Spider, was perfect for the role. Turns out he is the role. He was committing crimes and doing drugs until he turned himself around and started acting.

[andromeda331]

3 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I saw one of my favorite episodes today, "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail". I always thought that Danny Trejo, who plays Spider, was perfect for the role. Turns out he is the role. He was committing crimes and doing drugs until he turned himself around and started acting.

Wow, I didn't know that. Good for him.

[Gramto6]

5 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I saw one of my favorite episodes today, "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail". I always thought that Danny Trejo, who plays Spider, was perfect for the role. Turns out he is the role. He was committing crimes and doing drugs until he turned himself around and started acting.

I knew that about him, a long time ago, I read or heard about it, no clue where. But it is really wonderful he was able to turn his life around so profoundly.

[shapeshifter]

"Mr. Monk's 100th Case" aired today on COZI TV. 
A funny bit of dialog at the very end fade-out that I'd never caught before:
Monk tells Natalie he should quit because 100 cases is a nice even number. Natalie points out that it's really 101 cases now. 
So they start looking through the newspaper for possible murder cases to solve:

• Oh, "runaway truck kills two."
• "Socialite killed by giant pendulum."
• That's juicy.
• "Billionaire's mistress disappears."
• "Woman run over by golf cart."
• That's weird. Yeah.
• "TV writer found dead after contract dispute." [🤣]
• Creepy. That's good.🤣

I also f'love the way frequent bit player Ernie Grunwald portrays the Restaurant Vampire Manager, going back and forth between hamming up the Vampire act to wilting into a squeamish Greenwich Village type everytime he learns that one of his former employees has been murdered.

[chessiegal]

That's one of the things I like about the writers of Monk, they often poke fun at themselves. I always laugh at the TV writer found dead line. In "Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star" when they are visiting the studio where the show is filmed, as they are riding in the golf cart, someone asks if people they just passed are important, and the host says no, they're just writers.

[andromeda331]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

"Mr. Monk's 100th Case" aired today on COZI TV. 
A funny bit of dialog at the very end fade-out that I'd never caught before:
Monk tells Natalie he should quit because 100 cases is a nice even number. Natalie points out that it's really 101 cases now. 
So they start looking through the newspaper for possible murder cases to solve:

• Oh, "runaway truck kills two."
• "Socialite killed by giant pendulum."
• That's juicy.
• "Billionaire's mistress disappears."
• "Woman run over by golf cart."
• That's weird. Yeah.
• "TV writer found dead after contract dispute." [🤣]
• Creepy. That's good.🤣

I also f'love the way frequent bit player Ernie Grunwald portrays the Restaurant Vampire Manager, going back and forth between hamming up the Vampire act to wilting into a squeamish Greenwich Village type everytime he learns that one of his former employees has been murdered.

I do want to know more about the socialite killed by giant pendulum. 

[LexieLily]

4 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I do want to know more about the socialite killed by giant pendulum. 

Maybe she's actually the billionaire's mistress that disappeared. The billionaire manipulated the swinging pendulum.

Edited November 8, 2023 by LexieLily

[AnimeMania]

[LexieLily]

I don't remember Monk being afraid of birds enough for it to be ranked #2 above needles and heights (and snakes and milk!)

[chessiegal]

The writers on this show aren't known for their continuity. When Natalie and Julie are trying to get Monk to get over one of 3 fears, one thing they show is a stepstool. He refuses to get on it. Yet in the opening credits we see Monk on a stepstool vacuuming the ceiling. 🤷‍♂️

That aside, I think this is one of the best made. 

I'm going to have to sign up for Peacock. I want to see the movie.

[Bastet]

23 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

I don't remember Monk being afraid of birds enough for it to be ranked #2 above needles and heights (and snakes and milk!)

They weren't consistent about it, but, no I don't remember birds being high on the list.  Alas, maybe something happened in the years since we last saw him that shot birds way up the list.  If so, it's nice that Natalie knows that.

I'll have to check, but my guess is this won't be available on the free (with ads) version of Peacock I have.  I'm certainly not clamoring to see it, but I do want to check it out at some point, so hopefully when it's no longer a new release it will be added.

[LexieLily]

We used to have Peacock that came free with our cable (or maybe it came free during Covid, I don't remember), but we don't have it anymore. Do they do weekly free trials?

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

I'll have to check, but my guess is this won't be available on the free (with ads) version of Peacock I have. 

I have Peacock with ads but not free, and I do have Monk.
Peacock should go on sale around Black Friday (are they still calling it that?) for $2-$3/month for a year.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, LexieLily said:

Do they do weekly free trials?

According to their website, no.  (An article I found said they used to, but stopped in 2021.)

2 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I have Peacock with ads but not free, and I do have Monk.

I have an old plan that is no longer available to new subscribers -- it's free, but the catch is not only that there are ads, but that only certain programs are available, not everything that's available on the paid plans.  (It works for me because there's very little I'm interested in watching on Peacock, just occasionally a movie I haven't seen in eons.)  So I doubt very much this reunion movie will be available on that plan when it's first released, but maybe later.

[Annber03]

2 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I'm going to have to sign up for Peacock. I want to see the movie.

Same. I liked that trailer. It's nice to see everyone together again :). 

[LexieLily]

Maybe we can collectively figure out how to do a group viewing? That might be fun!

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Maybe we can collectively figure out how to do a group viewing? That might be fun!

While I applaud your upbeat enthusiasm, maybe we can just agree to use spoiler tags before a certain date? Like maybe a week or 2 after it drops?

[andromeda331]

Naked people should be at one or two on the list. Like Randy said once "It goes naked people, then death.

Natalie looks great.