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4.16 "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty" is airing on H&I in which--

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Monk makes an effort to persuade the other jurors in the court that the defendant is innocent, as well as discover the person that is truly guilty; Stottlemeyer and Disher must look after a notorious drug trafficker until his court date.

The clue that the knife wound stain in the pants in in the wrong place makes sense, but WRT the blood stain pattern on the towel, if I was on that jury I would point out that the "victim" probably had a folded towel on the floor of his car. This time of year I keep folded towels on the seat of the car and in the trunk.

I do like Natalie knowing something was terribly wrong because the Venetian blinds were crooked. 
And in the final fade out scene, the camera is pointed down the length of jury table, with the light pattern on the opposite wall of the straightened Venetian blinds.

Edited by shapeshifter
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On 9/3/2020 at 4:02 PM, peacheslatour said:

Shit, they still have NYPD Blue in the middle of the friggin' night. 😞

Starting next Saturday 11 a.m. CDT the Decades channel is running and NYPD marathon through early Monday morning.

Edited by shapeshifter
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3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

6.1-2, "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" (with Sarah Silverman guest starring)

I wish I could like that one, and I could if it were almost anyone else except Sarah Silverman.  She annoys me to no end.

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8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

and  "Mr. Monk and the Rapper" (with Snoop Dogg).

I liked that one for the scene where Stottlemeyer pretty much threatened to pound Snoop if Monk went into that meeting with Murderess (or whatever his character name was) and came out worse than when he went in.

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"Mr. Monk and the Naked Man" (6.3) just aired. Maybe I'm just blissed out from having swum in Lake Michigan for 30 minutes, but this may be my favorite episode
--at least for the current crises of different factions not getting along. Too bad Bezos doesn't just buy us all our own islands like the rich guy did for the nudists after the the Naked Man gave him their beach to save him (the angry rich guy) from having a fatal heart attack.
Great casting and acting with Diedrich Bader as the Naked Man. 

I just noticed that when Monk walks into the ocean in the last scene, Tony Shaloub took a total slap on the head and face from that easily-7-foot wave.
I suppose it could have been a stunt double, "but I don't think so." 😉

 

 

Edited by shapeshifter
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2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

"Mr. Monk and the Naked Man" (6.3) just aired. Maybe I'm just blissed out from having swum in Lake Michigan for 30 minutes, but this may be my favorite episode
--at least for the current crises of different factions not getting along. Too bad Bezos doesn't just buy us all our own islands like the rich guy did for the nudists after the the Naked Man gave him their beach to save him (the angry rich guy) from having a fatal heart attack.
Great casting and acting with Diedrich Bader as the Naked Man. 

I just noticed that when Monk walks into the ocean in the last scene, Tony Shaloub took a total slap on the head and face from that easily-7-foot wave.
I suppose it could have been a stunt double, "but I don't think so." 😉

 

 

I also love that little stumble he does during the opening shots.

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I have a legal question about 7.1 "Mr. Monk Buys a House" (which aired on H&I today) in which:

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Following the death of his beloved psychiatrist, Dr. Charles Kroger, from a sudden heart attack, Monk decides to buy a house to get away from the neighbor girl, who constantly plays a Chopin prelude on the piano that reminds him too much of Dr. Kroger. The house he purchases is that of...an elderly man who died recently in what the police presumed was an accident in which he fell down a flight of stairs...

--but who was murdered. It is revealed to the viewers that the man was part of a heist and that large amounts of money were hidden in the house, but due to dementia, it is not possible for the villain of the episode (fake handyman "'Honest' Jake" played by Brad Garrett) to learn exactly where in the house the money is stashed.  Not-so "Honest" Jake manages to convince Monk to hire him to move a ceiling lamp over a few inches (to center it) which escalates to every wall in the pristine house being sledgehammered. 

Does homeowners insurance in any way cover the damage to the house? If, for instance, Monk purchased the house for $300K, after it was wrecked by the killer, it would probably be worth about $90K. 

ETA: Or maybe this is just a good example of the thing that is inexplicable and/or just doesn’t make sense in the episode  —which a lot of them have.

 

Edited by shapeshifter
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6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

The CW is now airing Monk Sundays from noon to 5pm CDT. 

Good to know!

One little thing that's always bugged me: I watched Mr. Monk Goes To A Rock Show recently and Jared Stottlemeyer's attitude towards his dad (Leland even says that Jared is/was mad at him for the divorce and then dating again) made me wonder what it was that Karen was telling their kids/teaching their kids. Leland wasn't perfect as a parent but that episode just told me that Karen blamed Leland for the divorce and taught the boys to think that too. 

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On 9/27/2020 at 9:49 AM, LexieLily said:

Good to know!

One little thing that's always bugged me: I watched Mr. Monk Goes To A Rock Show recently and Jared Stottlemeyer's attitude towards his dad (Leland even says that Jared is/was mad at him for the divorce and then dating again) made me wonder what it was that Karen was telling their kids/teaching their kids. Leland wasn't perfect as a parent but that episode just told me that Karen blamed Leland for the divorce and taught the boys to think that too. 

I didn't get that from the episode. I'll try to keep that in mind next time I see it and see if it rings true for me.

 

___________________________

 

Today I saw parts of the first 5 episodes on The CW.  
Wow did Sharona have a hideous beehive hairdo in the 2-part pilot! They got another hair stylist after that, and she looks so much better!
But Leland still has the bad toupee throughout the first season --I think until they get another stylist in the second season. 

The 2-part pilot also has generic background music, which detracts from the quality.

 

 

Edited by shapeshifter
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13 hours ago, LexieLily said:

One little thing that's always bugged me: I watched Mr. Monk Goes To A Rock Show recently and Jared Stottlemeyer's attitude towards his dad (Leland even says that Jared is/was mad at him for the divorce and then dating again) made me wonder what it was that Karen was telling their kids/teaching their kids. Leland wasn't perfect as a parent but that episode just told me that Karen blamed Leland for the divorce and taught the boys to think that too. 

 

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I didn't get that from the episode. I'll try to keep that in mind next time I see it and see if it rings true for me.

I just came across that one recently, and it doesn't play that way to me, either.  The kid's reaction seems proportionate to Stottlemeyer's actions throughout his life, currently exacerbated by the adolescent's emotions about the divorce.

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1 minute ago, Bastet said:

I just came across that one recently, and it doesn't play that way to me, either.  The kid's reaction seems proportionate to Stottlemeyer's actions throughout his life, currently exacerbated by the adolescent's emotions about the divorce.

It could just be my predisposition to dislike Karen 😉

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Regarding...

On 9/27/2020 at 11:49 PM, Bastet said:
On 9/27/2020 at 9:49 AM, LexieLily said:

One little thing that's always bugged me: I watched Mr. Monk Goes To A Rock Show recently and Jared Stottlemeyer's attitude towards his dad (Leland even says that Jared is/was mad at him for the divorce and then dating again) made me wonder what it was that Karen was telling their kids/teaching their kids. Leland wasn't perfect as a parent but that episode just told me that Karen blamed Leland for the divorce and taught the boys to think that too. 

On 9/27/2020 at 10:13 PM, shapeshifter said:

I didn't get that from the episode. I'll try to keep that in mind next time I see it and see if it rings true for me.

I just came across that one recently, and it doesn't play that way to me, either.  The kid's reaction seems proportionate to Stottlemeyer's actions throughout his life, currently exacerbated by the adolescent's emotions about the divorce.

On 9/27/2020 at 11:52 PM, LexieLily said:

It could just be my predisposition to dislike Karen 😉

Two and a half years after "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Show," 7.11 "Mr. Monk on Wheels" aired, in which "Natalie unknowingly acts as an accomplice in a robbery when a man steals the bicycle of a biotech CEO, roping Monk into solving an apparently petty crime, but he soon discovers that the thief's intentions are more sinister than they appeared," and which is jam packed with a progression of one dark humor incident after another. 
At one point, we get this dialogue:

Quote

[Leland] I know that this is tough, but this is tough on Natalie too. You see this guy here? That's the guy that shot you. The guy in the body bag. And you're madder at her than you are at him.

[Monk] She hasn't said anything.

[Leland] Of course she hasn't said anything. She blames herself for what happened. She... Look, I know you caught a bad break. I'm sorry you're in pain. Sorry you're miserable. But you can't keep taking everything out on her. Listen, detective Monk... Be very careful, because you're that close from losing that girl. Ask me how I know.

[Monk] How do you know?

[Leland] Because you're acting like me.

 

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1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Regarding...

Two and a half years after "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Show," 7.11 "Mr. Monk on Wheels" aired, in which "Natalie unknowingly acts as an accomplice in a robbery when a man steals the bicycle of a biotech CEO, roping Monk into solving an apparently petty crime, but he soon discovers that the thief's intentions are more sinister than they appeared," and which is jam packed with a progression of one dark humor incident after another. 
At one point, we get this dialogue:

That is perhaps one of my favorite Leland/Monk scenes of the series 🙂

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On 9/24/2020 at 6:20 PM, shapeshifter said:

Does homeowners insurance in any way cover the damage to the house? If, for instance, Monk purchased the house for $300K, after it was wrecked by the killer, it would probably be worth about $90K. 

So I googled because I was curious. The answer is maybe. Allstate says your Coverage A "Dwelling" coverage may cover it. BUT that's under the 'burglary' kind of situation, which I guess this would be. Otherwise if a contractor damages your home it may but if it was just shoddy workmanship it wouldn't. And since he just hired a random dude off the street, they still might not since he wasn't a licensed, bonded contractor. 

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Random post-series question for all of you: how long did you see Randy and Sharona staying together? (Natalie and Albright broke up five minutes after the finale ended, I'm sure of it. And Stottlemeyer and T.K. actually got married, so I'll leave them alone for the purpose of this question.) 

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10 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Random post-series question for all of you: how long did you see Randy and Sharona staying together? (Natalie and Albright broke up five minutes after the finale ended, I'm sure of it. And Stottlemeyer and T.K. actually got married, so I'll leave them alone for the purpose of this question.) 

I think they have a good chance of making it. They're both quirky and I think he was in love with her for a long time before they finally got together. Also Sharona had a rotter of a first husband, Randy is such a good guy Sharona will be happy with him.

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15 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Random post-series question for all of you: how long did you see Randy and Sharona staying together? (Natalie and Albright broke up five minutes after the finale ended, I'm sure of it. And Stottlemeyer and T.K. actually got married, so I'll leave them alone for the purpose of this question.) 

I hope they make it. I think Randy would be really good to Sharona and she knows Randy. Plus he's had her back before like destroying those pictures for her from that Sapphire creep. So she knows she can trust him. Their both quirky in ways that would work. 

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4 hours ago, peacheslatour said:
15 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Random post-series question for all of you: how long did you see Randy and Sharona staying together? (Natalie and Albright broke up five minutes after the finale ended, I'm sure of it. And Stottlemeyer and T.K. actually got married, so I'll leave them alone for the purpose of this question.) 

I think they have a good chance of making it. They're both quirky and I think he was in love with her for a long time before they finally got together. Also Sharona had a rotter of a first husband, Randy is such a good guy Sharona will be happy with him.

Also, Sharona had no problem looking the other way if a guy was trying to make himself look like he was better than he was, so she should have no problem massaging Randy's ego, even when he's saying or doing something stupid.
More importantly, IMO, Randy has a good income.

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43 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Also, Sharona had no problem looking the other way if a guy was trying to make himself look like he was better than he was, so she should have no problem massaging Randy's ego, even when he's saying or doing something stupid.
More importantly, IMO, Randy has a good income.

More importantly, like @peacheslatour said, Randy might be a little bit of a dope, but he isn't a loser, murderer, or her ex-husband, so he's a hell of a step up from any man Sharona was with according to canon. And from what I'm remembering, he was good (enough) with kids and he liked/accepted Benjy,

Edited by LexieLily
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15 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Random post-series question for all of you: how long did you see Randy and Sharona staying together?

I hope she came to her senses about five minutes later.  But Sharona has terrible taste in men, so she'd probably stay with him a while because he's not as bad as the others.

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On 10/14/2020 at 2:34 PM, andromeda331 said:

I hope they make it. I think Randy would be really good to Sharona and she knows Randy. Plus he's had her back before like destroying those pictures for her from that Sapphire creep. So she knows she can trust him. Their both quirky in ways that would work. 

 

On 10/14/2020 at 2:59 PM, Bastet said:

I hope she came to her senses about five minutes later.  But Sharona has terrible taste in men, so she'd probably stay with him a while because he's not as bad as the others.

I can go either way with Randy/Sharona. I can see them making it but I can equally see them fizzling out after a few months. Neither of them had anything of a romantic history that could be considered good, with Sharona's history being more impactful because her first ex abandoned her with a small child. Come to think of it that is probably why she was attracted to and dated the losers she did in canon, because that was all she knew because of Trevor and she didn't think she deserved better. That is very sad when you think about it. I also go back and forth on whether the move to New Jersey would be good for him/them. NJ is where her family is, I think, but Benjy was close to starting college and thus leaving Sharona if not the state entirely, and Randy/Sharona are now halfway across the country from their friends (and Randy's mother.)

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On 9/27/2020 at 3:33 AM, shapeshifter said:

The CW is now airing Monk Sundays from noon to 5pm CDT. 

On 9/27/2020 at 10:13 PM, shapeshifter said:

The 2-part pilot also has generic background music, which detracts from the quality.

It turns out that all the episodes shown on The CW have generic music. Licensing issues, I guess. 😞

 

ETA: Woodwind (clarinet?) melodies crop up here and there, but I don’t know if they’re from the original. Maybe the licensing agreement allows a certain percentage of the original music?

Edited by shapeshifter
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2.9 "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man" in which "...Sharona begins to receive attention when her boyfriend becomes a mayoral candidate" did not air in an election year, but made me LOL because it is so typical.
Everyone is kissing up to Sharona because she's dating a guy who is running for Mayor of SF, including Stottlemeyer, who suggests they double date and claims he's always liked Kenny, but then Sharona calls him out on it:

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[STOTTLEMEYER] He's good people.
[SHARONA] You called him a weasel.
[STOTTLEMEYER] No, I didn't.
[SHARONA] Yeah, you did, three weeks ago.
[STOTTLEMEYER] No, I never said "weasel." I said he was a... a w... Oh, yeah, I said "weasel." I called him a weasel. But then, you see, l...That's not a bad thing. I had a weasel. A weasel is a noble animal, It's... It's a term of endearment.

LOL

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Weird topic, but I’ve been wondering where the Monk writers got their favorite mystery gimmick:

Spoiler

The murder is apparently motiveless, but Monk finds the motive is for killer to get his hands on object that incriminates him in past crime or will be worth lots of money.

That gimmick pops up in so many Monk episodes, it’s kinda funny.

I’ve long suspected it came from the Sherlock Holmes story “The Six Napoleons,” and it probably does, but I think a closer relative is the Murder, She Wrote ep “If It’s Thursday, It Must Be Beverly” (S4:E7).

Spoiler

The crime in that is not apparently motiveless, but Jessica Fletcher finds the motive is not what everyone expects: the killer murdered his victim to get his hands on her winning lottery ticket, which she didn’t know had won because he [the killer] was the mailman, and he hadn’t yet delivered the news.

That's remarkably close to the Monk gimmick. Do other shows do this, though?

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1 hour ago, Salzmank said:

Weird topic, but I’ve been wondering where the Monk writers got their favorite mystery gimmick:

  Hide contents

The murder is apparently motiveless, but Monk finds the motive is for killer to get his hands on object that incriminates him in past crime or will be worth lots of money.

That gimmick pops up in so many Monk episodes, it’s kinda funny.

I’ve long suspected it came from the Sherlock Holmes story “The Six Napoleons,” and it probably does, but I think a closer relative is the Murder, She Wrote ep “If It’s Thursday, It Must Be Beverly” (S4:E7).

  Hide contents

The crime in that is not apparently motiveless, but Jessica Fletcher finds the motive is not what everyone expects: the killer murdered his victim to get his hands on her winning lottery ticket, which she didn’t know had won because he [the killer] was the mailman, and he hadn’t yet delivered the news.

That's remarkably close to the Monk gimmick. Do other shows do this, though?

Hitchcock called this a MacGuffin:

In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself. The term was originated by Angus MacPhail for film, adopted by Alfred Hitchcock, and later extended to a similar device in other fiction.

Edited by peacheslatour
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18 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Hitchcock called this a MacGuffin:

In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself. The term was originated by Angus MacPhail for film, adopted by Alfred Hitchcock, and later extended to a similar device in other fiction.

Oh, I don’t think it’s a McGuffin—that’s something that’s irrelevant in itself, such as the tune in The Lady Vanishes. (We don’t really care what it means, we just care that it exists because it drives the plot.)

That’s not the Monk gimmick, a murder-mystery trick that usually solves the question of why someone would kill an inoffensive person.

Unless, of course, we’re thinking of mystery plotting in general as a McGuffin in Monk, a view I can understand but with which I can’t agree. (I like Monk’s mystery elements more than its soap opera.)

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25 minutes ago, Salzmank said:

Oh, I don’t think it’s a McGuffin—that’s something that’s irrelevant in itself, such as the tune in The Lady Vanishes. (We don’t really care what it means, we just care that it exists because it drives the plot.)

That’s not the Monk gimmick, a murder-mystery trick that usually solves the question of why someone would kill an inoffensive person.

Unless, of course, we’re thinking of mystery plotting in general as a McGuffin in Monk, a view I can understand but with which I can’t agree. (I like Monk’s mystery elements more than its soap opera.)

Oh, definitely. I wonder if the trope they use is like a mechanism that they use for shorthand because of time restraints.

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The apparently motiveless murder is a Hitchcock thing, even though I agree that it's not a MacGuffin.  See the exhibit named "Strangers on a Train".  The reason for things in that movie is only one of many ways to do an apparently motiveless murder, but I think it reinforces the idea that in Mystery fiction at least (unlike either reality or books that are Thrillers) there's always a motive somewhere.  You just have to find it. 

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2 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I wish Hallmark had a separate Christmas movie channel. Leave Movies and Mysteries the fuck alone.

Hallmark could at least show the Monk (and The  Closer and Cagney and Lacey) Christmas episodes. 
IIRC, the station that used to air Friends rerun marathons could switch to all-Christmas episodes pretty easily. It helped that there were 10 seasons, each one having Christmas episodes.

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54 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Hallmark could at least show the Monk (and The  Closer and Cagney and Lacey) Christmas episodes. 
IIRC, the station that used to air Friends rerun marathons could switch to all-Christmas episodes pretty easily. It helped that there were 10 seasons, each one having Christmas episodes.

Yep, COZI is now cutting Frasier down to like three days a week instead of five to show Christmas schlock.. Bleh.

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16 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Do you mean you wish there were new episodes, or can you no longer get either the H&I or CW channels?

I don't get any channel that is showing Monk reruns... :{

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