The Greatest ‘Monk’ Episodes, Ranked

It’s a jungle on the market. Randy Newman’s jaunty theme track warns us as a lot at the start of (almost) each episode of Monk. Throughout eight seasons, the USA procedural confirmed us simply how soiled and harmful the world is — or at the least that’s the way it seems via the eyes of its germophobic foremost character, Adrian Monk. Tony Shalhoub performs the titular detective with extreme obsessive-compulsive dysfunction, who was discharged from the San Francisco police division following a psychological breakdown when his spouse, Trudy (Melora Hardin), was murdered. With the assistance of Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), Lieutenant Randy Disher (Jason Grey-Stanford), and a spunky assistant — initially Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) and later Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard) — and the help of his beloved psychiatrists Dr. Kroger (Stanley Kamel) and Dr. Bell (Hector Elizondo), Mr. Monk known as in as a advisor to unravel the instances that stump the SFPD. He does this work within the hopes of getting reinstated to the police power and, in some methods, to atone for the truth that Trudy’s homicide nonetheless stays a thriller. If it’s not clear from that description, it’s additionally a very humorous present!

Monk is the progenitor of the blue-sky exhibits, a time period given to the breezy procedurals that populated the USA Community through the mid-aughts to tell apart them from the grittier dramas discovered elsewhere on primary cable. Monk’s writing employees was (principally) in a position to steadiness its darkish premise with gentle humor, setting the template for exhibits like Psych, Burn Discover, and Fits. The present’s creator, Andy Breckman, wrote for Late Evening With David Letterman and Saturday Evening Stay earlier than creating Monk and introduced on writers with the same background in comedy along with extra conventional thriller writers. The group wrung each ounce of comedy and drama out of their lead’s fears and compulsions, tempering his unhappiness and vulnerability with a wry but goofy humorousness. The present is at its greatest when an enormous bully underestimates Monk, dismissing him as a tragic, unusual little man, solely to be outsmarted with a smirk and a, “Right here’s what occurred.”

Finally, although, Monk is a present about love. Monk’s love for Trudy compels him to maintain working, however the individuals who love Monk assist maintain him residing. A brand new film on Peacock, Mr. Monk’s Final Case: A Monk Film, doubles down on that theme, discovering Monk essentially the most depressed we’ve ever seen him after COVID lockdown. When Trudy’s daughter, Molly (Caitlin McGee), wants Monk’s assist fixing her fiancé’s mysterious loss of life, Monk is reminded how a lot he issues to the individuals in his life. The present’s signature mix of darkish humor continues to be potent almost 15 years after its sequence finale aired, if no more so. As a number of of his buddies level out in Mr. Monk’s Final Case, post-COVID the entire world resides like Mr. Monk. To get excited for the film, now streaming on Peacock, I ranked each episode of the sequence, with that core thesis in thoughts. You’ll thank me later.

It’s inevitable {that a} present often has to interrupt up its core solid, normally resulting from funds restraints or scheduling conflicts. Monk has just a few episodes the place Mr. Monk is separated from the captain et al., and so they’re normally a few of the weakest. “Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum” is the weakest of the bunch. Add in a half-assed dangerous physician villain and an unusually passive Mr. Monk, and also you get this, the weakest of the weak of the sequence. Monk is institutionalized after unintentionally breaking into Trudy’s previous home in a fugue state, the place he figures out that the hospital’s director, Dr. Lancaster (Dennis Boutsikaris), killed his associate a number of years in the past and framed a affected person for it. Fixing the thriller is simply sort of irritating relatively than rewarding, as Dr. Lancaster manipulates Monk into pondering he’s going loopy, however the resolution isn’t particularly intelligent or outrageous. With out the grounding presence of Stottlemeyer and Disher, Monk’s heightened character has nothing to bounce towards. Fairly the opposite, in actual fact, he’s surrounded by different heightened characters in his fellow sufferers, which pull focus from Monk with out a lot payoff. It’s a disgrace, as a result of Kevin Nealon is doing nice work visitor starring as a fellow affected person who’s a pathological liar.

Mr. Monk makes loads of false begins on fixing Trudy’s homicide over the course of the present’s eight seasons, and it’s all the time a bummer, however this episode is a bummer with none satisfying payoff. Natalie sees a girl who seems similar to Trudy in a diner and overhears that she faked her personal loss of life when she was being threatened over a narrative she was engaged on about corruption within the native dockworkers union, and now she must get again some paperwork from her co-writer. When the person she was speaking to turns up murdered, a number of clues on the crime scene level to Trudy. The homicide is ancillary to the precise thriller of whether or not or not Trudy is alive, and it’s by no means all that convincing. At no level did we truly assume that Trudy was alive, so once we be taught that she was a doppelgänger employed by the union leaders, the reveal doesn’t really feel fascinating or intelligent. Many Monk episodes are unhappy — this one is unhappy and boring.

There may be simply means an excessive amount of occurring on this episode and it by no means fairly gels collectively. Natalie is attempting to throw Monk a shock fiftieth party, which he retains thwarting. A upkeep man is killed in an obvious accident, however Monk isn’t satisfied. John Carroll Lynch visitor stars as an inventor of a self-cleaning vacuum whose patent legal professional is murdered, and Monk figures out that the legal professional stole the concept for the vacuum from the upkeep man after which the inventor killed the legal professional to maintain all the cash himself. And I haven’t even talked about the introduction of T.Ok. Jensen (Virginia Madsen) but, who will change into Captain Stottlemeyer’s love curiosity for the rest of the sequence. Plus, whereas it’s a standard joke which you could inform who a procedural’s assassin of the week is by recognizing the well-known visitor star, it’s particularly apparent when the well-known visitor star is John Carroll Lynch. The truth that the answer is a standard brain-teaser — Lynch’s character poisoned the ice cubes in his legal professional’s drink, which might kill him as soon as they melted — is simply insulting.

In a session, Dr. Kroger admits to Monk that his son Troy (Cody McMains) has been moving into bother at college. Later, Troy and his buddies present up at Monk’s door asking for assist fixing a treasure map that he says is for varsity, however he truly discovered it in a automotive subsequent to a useless man who seems to have robbed a financial institution after which had a coronary heart assault. Monk, after all, figures it out shortly, however it seems the robber had a associate who follows them and buries Monk and Troy alive. Troy talks Monk via his excessive claustrophobia till the captain and Randy arrive to rescue them. The expertise is so formative for Troy that he tells his dad he has determined he desires to be a therapist.

Setting apart Dr. Kroger’s egregious moral breaches right here, it’s simply not that fascinating. We’ve no cause to care sufficient about Troy to be moved by his progress on this episode — it’s solely our second time assembly him — and different episodes have accomplished a greater job taking part in off Monk’s claustrophobia. This isn’t even the primary time he’s been buried alive! (See: “Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra.”)

When a billionaire and his spouse are murdered, Monk figures out that she was the prime goal. He tracks down a professional baseball participant she was having an affair with, Scott Gregorio (Christopher Wiehl), who had been about to beat the single-season home-run document however is so distraught by her loss of life that he’s hit a droop. Monk shortly determines that Gregorio is an efficient man who didn’t kill his girlfriend. He even comes to assist Sharona’s son Benjy (Kane Ritchotte) along with his Little League video games. As an alternative, it was a memorabilia collector (a pre–The Workplace Rainn Wilson) who wished to promote the earlier record-breaking ball, which might change into nugatory if Gregorio beat it.

There are some humorous moments right here, particularly the parallels between the Little League and the Majors, however it’s all the time sort of a letdown when the assassin seems to be somebody fully random. It’s extra enjoyable once we at the least have the opportunity of determining the thriller ourselves earlier than Monk does. Plus, Stottlemeyer is an actual dick on the Little League recreation, and whereas we love our Captain somewhat gruff, yelling at 11-year-olds is a bridge too far.

Most of this episode, through which Natalie has to persuade Monk and the group {that a} theater critic, John Hannigan (Dylan Baker), who gave her daughter Julie (Emmy Clarke) a nasty overview, is the assassin they’re in search of, is completely positive. There are even some enjoyable moments, like when Monk is dazzled by the theater’s fastidious toilet attendant (Bernie Kopell), however the opening shot is so jarring that it units a bitter tone for the remaining 40ish minutes. It’s filmed as a steady shot from Hannigan’s POV, displaying him assembly Callie, performed by Erin Cahill, in her resort room and proposing to her on the balcony earlier than pushing her over the railing. I admire a tough swing of a directing alternative, however Cahill is tasked with loads of heavy lifting right here, acting-wise, because the digicam is skilled on her face the entire time, and she or he doesn’t nail it. Slightly than artistic, it simply seems cringe.

The FBI are known as in when a serial killer is on the free in San Francisco and so they’re given 36 hours earlier than he’ll strike once more. The Feds are boastful and imply, taunting Monk for his luddite tendencies and berating him for specializing in one other case — a pharmaceutical rep killed inside a fuel station — as a substitute of the so-called Six-Means Killer. It’s an excellent factor he did, although, as a result of he figures out that the 36-hour deadline was a ploy to maintain the cops from investigating the girl’s loss of life and trying out the contents of her abdomen, which might determine a particular dessert that she ate the night time she was murdered.

Mr. Monk and his mind versus the Feds’ fancy know-how is a enjoyable face-off, however there’s a cause Monk doesn’t usually do serial killers. Monitoring down a chilly, random killer Legal Minds–fashion is a a lot totally different vibe from the extra Columbo-y deducing of motive, means, and alternative. Although it finally ends up to not truly be a serial killer, that’s the tone we’re steeped in for many of the episode, and it simply doesn’t really feel like Monk.

Police procedurals inevitably take a cop’s-eye view of the world, with all the luggage that entails. Monk was by no means going to have a nuanced notion of policing, however it’s nonetheless fairly onerous to abdomen this story line about attempting to exonerate a cop with a historical past of violence. To the writers’ credit score, Monk himself is disgusted with the accused Lieutenant Kirk (Stephen McHattie), however that doesn’t really feel like sufficient when the present implies that this is only one man with an anger downside and leaves it at that.

It looks as if, for the ultimate season of Monk, the writers simply ran with each wild thought they’d pitched in earlier years that was dismissed for being too foolish. A few of them are foolish in a enjoyable means (see: “Mr. Monk Is Somebody Else”), however this one is foolish in an eye-roll-y means. Voodoo dolls appear to be predicting unintended deaths, and Natalie is satisfied they’re actually magic. In fact they’re not — it seems a paramedic was planting them so she may kill her wealthy uncle and blame it on the dolls — however the actual meat of the story is in the way in which Monk dismisses Natalie’s fears. The present has performed with that hypocrisy earlier than however with out the imprecise racism that brings down this episode.

Christmas episodes usually give tv writers the chance to get sentimental and fanciful because the time of 12 months makes every little thing appear somewhat extra magical. It’s a missed alternative right here, although, because the premise that Monk shot (a person throwing toys off of a roof dressed as) Santa in a match of rage by no means actually held water. Positive, he’s a curmudgeon, however he’s not a monster. The episode doesn’t present us what truly occurred on that roof, so we’ve got to take Monk’s phrase for it — however why wouldn’t we? He’s Monk! There’s no stress there, so once we discover out that Santa is in cahoots with some jewel thieves, it’s not particularly satisfying.

Monk is usually very unhappy, however this season-eight episode takes issues a bit too far when it goes out of its strategy to make us fall in love with the sufferer, watch her die in a hit-and-run, and meet her grieving husband, Samuel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) all within the span of about two minutes. Monk, naturally, sees loads of himself on this man whose spouse was senselessly murdered, however their relationship is undermined by a bizarre prolonged bit the place Monk makes Samuel, who’s visiting from Nigeria, assume that his eccentricities are simply how issues are accomplished in America. The present is often nice at balancing its tone, however this one was a swing and a miss.

The intuition to discover what Mr. Monk would appear to be with out his phobias and compulsions is an efficient one, however this episode is a bit too heavy-handed in its strategy. Monk lastly agrees to take remedy for his OCD after he unintentionally lets a suspect who shot Stottlemeyer run previous him. Tony Shalhoub could be very humorous as a newly relaxed (and obnoxious) Monk, and sells the frustration when he realizes nobody likes the brand new him — together with his recollections of Trudy. However it’s not definitely worth the implication that psychiatric drugs change your persona for the more serious, and the writers do a significantly better job of altering Monk’s persona to comedic impact in a while. (See: “Mr. Monk Will get Hypnotized.”)

Monk has loads of enjoyable with placing its hero up towards people who find themselves similar to him — and displaying us how a lot he fucking hates it. The present’s writers regularly discover that dynamic in Monk’s relationship along with his nemesis, Harold Krenshaw (Tim Bagley), so this episode through which Monk has to hitch a remedy group since his insurance coverage firm is placing a lifetime cap on his classes doesn’t actually tread new floor. It principally serves to wrap up his rivalry with Harold, who selflessly agrees to discover a new therapist in order that Monk can have the group remedy classes to himself. (The remainder of the group members had been all murdered by a fellow affected person. It’s an entire factor.)

One other Christmas episode that tries for vacation magic however simply sort of fizzles, “Mr. Monk and the Miracle” does have the excellence of being the one episode the place we see Captain Stottlemeyer with out his mustache. The captain is affected by an injured again and his remedy isn’t working, however he begins to really feel higher when he drinks from a fountain at an area monastery. Right here we be taught that Leland initially wished to be a priest, and he quits the police power to change into a monk and pursue religious therapeutic. Positive, the monk/Monk wordplay is enjoyable, however that’s a lot of character growth to cram into one episode. It comes as a aid once we be taught that Stottlemeyer’s pharmacist was giving him placebos earlier than he drank from the fountain, with a purpose to forestall it from being dug up and revealing the physique of a associate he killed years earlier. We’re not, in actual fact, shedding Stottlemeyer to the Lord, and Monk’s notion of the world stays unchallenged.

We hear some miserable anecdotes about Monk’s childhood all through the sequence, however this episode is the primary one the place we truly get to see it. When a childhood crush, Sherry (Donna Bullock), involves him for assist fixing her housekeeper’s homicide, Monk is transported proper again to junior excessive, with all its attendant angst. In flashbacks, we see little Monk show that Sherry didn’t steal the college’s bake-sale cash, intercut between grown-up Monk determining that Sherry’s ex-husband employed some guys to deface a portray in her home, which the housekeeper interrupted. It was all a ploy to get her to go to an artwork restorer (Brett Cullen), her personal middle-school crush all grown up, in order that they’d get collectively and he wouldn’t must pay alimony anymore. It’s sort of a neat thriller, however the flashbacks drag on somewhat lengthy and minimize the primary story’s momentum. Center college was onerous sufficient for all of us, we don’t have to relive it!

If the flashbacks in “Mr. Monk and Little Monk” overstayed their welcome, the season-eight opener’s gimmick strikes a greater steadiness. We get a scene of Mr. Monk (in a dream sequence) inserting himself into his favourite present, The Cooper Clan, casting himself because the cool older brother who can do no flawed. Too dangerous that the lengthy street to get there’s a slog. Monk is employed because the physique guard for Cooper Clan actress Christine Rapp (Elizabeth Perkins) after she begins receiving loss of life threats whereas selling a brand new tell-all guide. Monk is quickly disillusioned with Rapp when he reads her guide, and ultimately figures out that she’s additionally a assassin — she’s been sending the loss of life threats to herself in order that she will kill a fan named Victor who had beforehand helped her rig an awards-show vote that revitalized her profession.

Monk’s writers normally excel at this type of self-referential Hollywood meta-humor, so it’s perplexing that this episode is in any other case a little bit of a whiff. It’s boring up till the Cooper Clan dream sequence, with a wholesome sprinkling of slut-shaming thrown in for good measure. Elizabeth Perkins is fabulous because the boozy, washed-up baby actress, although.

Monk often performs with the concept Monk’s wild theorizing can be untenable in the actual world, however it’s sort of a cop-out right here, as a result of he’s not truly flawed. Monk feels responsible when a person named Max Barton (Tim DeZarn), who was convicted of homicide on proof Monk offered, is exonerated by DNA. There are just a few humorous scenes as Monk tries to assist Barton rebuild his life, together with when he interrupts his ex-wife’s wedding ceremony to a brand new man and begs him to take Barton again, solely to interrupt their wedding ceremony when he figures out that Barton truly did commit the homicide. He simply had an confederate, and that’s whose DNA was discovered.

By season seven we’re in a little bit of a holding sample with Trudy till Monk lastly solves his spouse’s homicide within the sequence finale. So this episode simply sort of seems like Monk spinning its wheels. It’s an gratifying journey, although, as Monk tries to maintain the parking storage the place Trudy died from being demolished in case there’s nonetheless proof to be uncovered. When Eileen Hill (Tamlyn Tomita), town councilwoman who was going to vote to protect the storage, is discovered useless, Monk scrambles to each clear up her homicide and get the remaining metropolis council members on his facet. Sadly for Monk, that features the councilman Harold Krenshaw. By the top of the episode Monk is not any nearer to fixing Trudy’s homicide, however he does work out that Eileen was killed by her boyfriend when she (falsely) advised him she was pregnant, and whereas the storage is demolished, the park that replaces it’s dubbed “The Trudy Monk Memorial Playground.” Candy!

Right here’s one other episode the place Monk is basically separated from Stottlemeyer and Disher when he’s known as to Mexico to research a seemingly unattainable loss of life — a child from San Francisco died in a skydiving accident … by drowning — however their absence is much less egregious right here as they’re changed by some very humorous counterparts. Beloved Mexican actor Tony Plana is a delight as Captain Alameda, who additionally has a particular mustache and will get exasperated along with his lieutenant Plato (David Noroña). (In case the joke isn’t clear, plato is Spanish for plate … or dish.) The thriller can be fairly intelligent. The health worker who decided that the boy drowned midair was a fugitive. Monk’s testimony helped convict him of insurance coverage fraud within the U.S., so he concocted the unattainable case to lure Monk to Mexico, the place he deliberate to kill him in revenge. Sadly, although, this episode is ranked so low resulting from some fairly racist Mexican stereotypes which might be tremendous pointless and make this one a bummer on re-watch.

As one of many remaining few episodes within the sequence, “Mr. Monk Goes Tenting” has loads of heavy lifting to do, plot-wise. It must be a enjoyable murder-of-the-week thriller, whereas additionally establishing Monk’s reinstatement within the subsequent episode. (See: “Mr. Monk and the Badge.”) It’s profitable on the latter entrance, with a younger Alex Wolff starring because the son of Frank Willis, an officer on Monk’s overview board who nonetheless had reservations about reinstating him to the power. Monk joins Randy on a tenting journey with a gaggle of boys together with the younger Willis, whom he desires to win over. It’s admittedly fairly humorous to look at Monk attempt to make an excellent impression whereas surrounded by every little thing he hates. However the concurrent story line a few pair of financial institution robbers attempting to get better some shotgun shells they left across the campsite falls flat. It’s basically a retread of Man of the Home starring Chevy Chase and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, which isn’t a praise.

When a string of weird homicides with seemingly random victims sweeps San Francisco, Monk notes that they’re somewhat too random: He means that they had been all on a jury collectively. It’s a fairly by-the-book episode, with Monk ultimately deducing that the defendant within the case was killing off jurors as a result of one in all them was blackmailing him however he didn’t know which one. There’s a enjoyable subplot with Sharona courting the deputy mayor, who’s sort of a jerk, however she retains courting him as a result of she’s getting consideration. However there’s a personality right here — a handyman who has a chunk of pipe caught in his head and retains yelling non sequiturs and pondering he hears the cellphone ring — that simply feels too silly. I say this with affection as a lover of silly issues, however it doesn’t fairly really feel like Monk’s humorousness.

It’s a recurring joke on this episode that Captain Stottlemeyer’s spouse, Karen (Glenne Headly), made a boring documentary a few actually previous man that the captain has a tough time sitting via. Sadly the episode isn’t rather more fascinating. It’s principally notable as the primary actual glimpse we get of Leland’s marriage, and it’s a fairly grim one. Glenne Headly is all the time a treasure, although.

Natalie and Monk initially bond over their shared widowhood — Natalie’s husband, Mitch, was a navy pilot killed in motion — however we don’t get an excessive amount of of his backstory till the center of season seven. Mitch’s pal Lieutenant Steven Albright (Casper Van Dien) seems Natalie up and so they share a palpable romantic stress, however he admits that he’s truly there to ask for Monk’s assist proving {that a} fellow officer’s suicide was truly homicide. He invitations Monk to return aboard his boat to test it out however doesn’t inform him that it’s a submarine. Monk’s claustrophobia retains him on edge whereas onboard; he hallucinates Dr. Bell to manage, and other people must maintain asking him to repeat what he imagined Dr. Bell saying. However the thriller is sort of lame and the submarine journey is bookended with some actually terrible CGI backgrounds when the gang lastly disembarks. They couldn’t have discovered a dock to shoot at for a day as a substitute of this know-how that was (actually) not prepared for prime time?

The different Monk flashback episode is superior to “Mr. Monk and Little Monk,” each as a result of it makes use of the flashbacks extra sparingly and since the present-day battle is extra fascinating. This time it’s Monk’s middle-school bully, Roderick (Noah Emmerich), who’s now a profitable businessman and desires his assist investigating his new spouse, Marilyn (Julie Bowen), who he suspects of getting an affair. Monk doesn’t normally tackle this type of home case, however he revels within the alternative to harm Roderick. The decision is a basic whodunnit twist: Marilyn has an similar twin named Patrice. The sisters had been adopted as infants, and when Patrice realized that she had a twin married to a millionaire, she determined to kill them each and take the cash. It’s so ridiculous I’ve to applaud the moxie, even when the decision doesn’t fairly really feel earned.

Right here’s the foolish season-eight episode that I’ve essentially the most affection for, even when it’s an excessive amount of of a multitude to be ranked any increased. It’s one other doppelgänger episode, however this time it’s Monk with the double — who occurs to be a high-end hitman named Frank DePalma. The opening of the episode is genuinely very humorous, as we see (what seems to be) Mr. Monk get hit by a bus as he walks throughout the road. (I don’t know why it’s all the time humorous to see somebody hit by a bus!) The jokes maintain coming as Monk is requested to go undercover as DePalma, who was truly run over, and we get to see Tony Shalhoub’s mobster persona, as translated via a really nervous Mr. Monk. However the episode loses factors as compared, because it’s the second mob-related episode within the present’s run. Whereas this one has The Sopranos’ Vincent Curatola and Louis Lombardi as visitor stars for a enjoyable, meta nod to the gangster style, “Mr. Monk and the Godfather” has Philip Baker Corridor. There’s simply no beating that.

For a present written by tv writers (as many tv exhibits are), Monk has some unlucky portrayals of unions as corrupt and violent. “Mr. Monk and the Rubbish Strike” is one such episode — although not essentially the most egregious instance (see: “Mr. Monk and the Captain’s Spouse”). It’s a disgrace, as a result of the remainder of the episode is loads of enjoyable, with Mr. Monk spiraling when a strike by San Francisco’s sanitation staff leaves the streets filled with rubbish. The union suspends negotiations with town when their chief is discovered useless, and Monk is so discombobulated about being surrounded by trash that he begins throwing out random theories, together with that Alice Cooper murdered the boss for his wingback chair. (Cooper cameos within the reenactment, which is simply pleasant.)

With apologies to Emmy Clarke, I simply don’t care sufficient about Julie to be invested in her high-school romance. The thriller hinges on a boy manipulating Julie to interrupt up together with her boyfriend in order that she’ll cease sporting a T-shirt with a photograph of their faces on it, as a result of within the background you’ll be able to see the episode’s dangerous man assembly with the person he employed to interrupt into his home so he may get away with killing his spouse. There may be one humorous scene the place Monk has “the discuss” with Julie, however in any other case it’s not as shifting because the writers wished it to be.

This has the identical Julie downside as “Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees” however edges it out for 2 causes. One is that the stakes are a lot increased, as there seems to be a assassin on the free killing girls named Julie Teeger. Natalie, naturally, panics. Which leads us to the second cause for this episode’s barely increased rating: an prolonged bit the place Natalie hears a few useless Julie Teeger and hijacks the captain’s brand-new automotive to hurry to the crime scene. She smashes up the automotive in her haste, and Stottlemeyer grudgingly reassures her that any guardian would do the identical. After which it occurs once more. Ted Levine sells the combination of understanding and exasperation so properly, it’s onerous to imagine this is identical man who as soon as mentioned, “It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.”

The 2-part Monk pilot is sort of like watching a TV film that was later become a sequence. It doesn’t look fairly proper, the pacing is somewhat slower, and the tone somewhat drier, and the characters aren’t totally shaped but. Captain Stottlemeyer doesn’t even like Monk! However it does a fantastic job of establishing the kind of detective present it’s going to be, introducing Monk’s OCD as “a present … and a curse.” He notices issues nobody else does but in addition lets a perpetrator get away as a result of he’s afraid of heights. Then he’s in a position to overcome his fears, briefly, when Sharona is in peril. We additionally be taught the stakes of Trudy’s unsolved homicide and the potential for Monk to be reinstated. It was adequate to get picked up for a sequence order, and that’s all that actually issues!

Captain Stottlemeyer’s love life has all the time been a catastrophe — his marriage to Karen ends in season 4 — so it was solely a matter of time earlier than issues went south along with his new girlfriend, Linda Fusco (Sharon Lawrence). As a result of that is Monk, naturally she seems to be a assassin. The episode is notable extra for the way it assessments the connection between Stottlemeyer and Monk, although, because the captain refuses to imagine that Linda killed her actual property associate and is livid at Monk for suggesting as a lot. Whether or not Leland can forgive Monk for accusing his girlfriend of homicide is the episode’s foremost supply of stress, because it’s fairly clear she did it from the second the title pops up within the opening credit. A really dangerous girlfriend certainly.

Okay, now we’re simply fooling around. Mr. Monk thinks he sees a flying saucer when Natalie’s automotive breaks down within the Nevada desert. Naturally, UFO fanatics flock to the location and start to assume Monk is an extraterrestrial himself. It’s a completely unhinged episode, and whereas it stretches credulity that Natalie would truly assume Monk is an alien, I’m not mad at it. It’s enjoyable!

Monk’s writers usually make in-jokes about Hollywood, and sometimes parody real-life figures. This episode does each, to combined outcomes. Howard Stern–esque shock jock Max Hudson’s spouse dies from a fuel leak whereas he’s on the air. Her sister is satisfied Hudson killed her, although, and enlists Monk’s assist to unravel it. Steven Weber turns in a fantastic efficiency as Hudson, who needles and bullies Monk so badly that it’s immensely satisfying when the tables are turned and Monk nails him for his spouse’s homicide. The principle knock towards this episode is that the jokes in regards to the radio trade don’t really feel as particular and grounded because the jokes in regards to the tv trade in episodes like “Mr. Monk and the TV Star,” which is smart, provided that the present is written by individuals within the tv trade.

Each time John Michael Higgins exhibits up you realize you’re in for an excellent time. Right here he visitor stars as an unscrupulous game-show host who’s serving to a contestant cheat and who murdered a manufacturing assistant who discovered their rip-off. However this episode’s foremost function is to present us extra of Trudy’s backstory. Her dad, Dwight (Bob Gunton), is the present’s producer, and he’s the one who asks Monk to determine how they’re dishonest. We get flashbacks to Adrian assembly Trudy’s dad and mom for the primary time, and it’s very candy to see the bond between these two males united in grief.

For all of his self-hatred, Monk does have a chip on his shoulder about being perceived as the very best at what he does. “Mr. Monk and the Different Detective” is a greater exploration of Monk’s ego, however this season-six episode takes one other stab at it. Monk begins to assume he’s a creative genius when he begins portray as a artistic outlet, and an eccentric collector (a superbly solid Peter Stormare) retains shopping for up his work. It’s enjoyable to look at everybody round Monk begin to flatter him, solely to be relieved after they discover out the collector is a Russian mobster and the canvases are product of counterfeit cash. A fairly good Monk episode that’s additionally a commentary on the subjectivity of artwork? Now that’s artwork.

A strong contender for second-funniest chilly open (after the bus crash in “Mr. Monk Is Somebody Else”), this episode begins in a Guinness World Information museum the place a safety guard is pushed over a railing and impaled on a swordfish. However the actual meat of the episode is a brand new relationship Monk strikes up along with his neighbor, Marge. Performed by particular visitor star Gena Rowlands, Marge has the sort of candy, maternal vibe that Monk by no means received from his personal mom, however he self-sabotages when he begins to assume she should have an ulterior motive for hanging out with him and accuses her of being the assassin’s mother attempting to steer him away from fixing the case. The goofy set items (a aggressive egg-eater elements into the thriller) juxtaposed with deep unhappiness is quintessentially Monk, even when the steadiness is somewhat off right here.

This can be a powerful one. It’s our first introduction to Monk’s Moriarty; the present is at its greatest when Mr. Monk faces off towards a robust foe who will get underneath his pores and skin, and there’s no extra {powerful} foe than Dale “the Whale” Biederbeck. (It’s Adam Arkin right here, however he’s recast each time we see him.) However there’s our downside. The villain is a grotesque caricature of a fats particular person, and it’s extraordinarily onerous to look at all our heroes be as disgusted by his physique as they’re by his horrific actions. With out the fatphobia, this may be a top-ten episode. Because it stands, it’s onerous to get via.

Tony Shalhoub’s efficiency stands out as the coronary heart of Monk, however the present’s eccentric recurring characters are its lifeblood. One in all my favorites is Kevin Dorfman (Jarrad Paul), Monk’s upstairs neighbor who by no means stops speaking. His first look in “Mr. Monk and the Paperboy” is the quintessential Kevin episode, however that is his swan track. Tragically, Kevin is murdered in “Mr. Monk and the Magician” by (who else?) a magician (performed by real-life magician Steve Valentine). Watching Monk avenge his pal is a beautiful full-circle second for his or her friendship; Kevin drove Monk loopy more often than not, however this episode proves he actually did love him.

This season-five finale might be essentially the most high-stakes instance of Monk’s “reward” turning into a “curse” and vice versa. He makes Natalie take him to the emergency room for a bloody nostril however finally ends up discovering that a health care provider killed his colleague and framed a affected person for it. Monk, naturally, begins trying into it, so to get Monk out of the way in which, the physician admits him to the hospital and makes an attempt to poison him with a medicine he’s allergic to. This episode loses factors for being a rehash of the killer physician story in “Mr. Monk and the Asylum,” and it’s not essentially the most thrilling season finale within the present’s historical past, however it’s nonetheless enjoyable to see Monk validate his personal paranoia.

This episode is sweet for 2 causes: Diedrich Bader and Alfred Molina. The previous visitor stars as a nudist named Likelihood Singer who’s a thorn within the facet of the latter, a billionaire named Peter Magneri who needs the view from his seaside home featured fewer bare individuals. When a girl turns up murdered exterior of Singer’s trailer, Monk is satisfied the nudist killed her, with little proof apart from the truth that he hates nudity. Singer factors the finger at Magneri, as the girl was attempting frantically to get into his seaside home on the night time she was murdered. It seems neither of them did it — it was the girl’s roommate, an X-ray technician who knew Magneri was severely unwell and began short-selling his firm; she killed her roommate when she discovered and deliberate to inform him — however their petty sniping is enjoyable to look at within the meantime.

If Monk is weakest when its titular character is separated from the individuals who maintain him grounded, this episode through which Monk is pressured to spend some one-on-one time with the captain is the tonic. It’s not an particularly nice thriller — a professional soccer participant’s chauffeur steals his playbook to promote to the opposite group, then kills him when he finds out — however the mutual reluctance between Adrian and Leland to hang around with no buffer is a good little exploration of their relationship. Additionally, Bob Costas performs himself as an excellent pal of Monk’s, which is only a nice cameo.

Monk has just a few homage-y episodes, which work greatest after they spotlight an fascinating parallel or new aspect of Monk’s persona, however we’re scraping the underside of the barrel by the point we get to season seven’s ode to Rocky. What’s the connection to Monk, apart from the truth that the writers actually like Rocky? (As does everybody with a coronary heart.) Nonetheless, the montages of the episode’s imperiled boxer (James Lesure) serving to Monk prepare for a bodily are so humorous and candy, they nearly make up for the truth that the Rocky of all of it doesn’t make a lot sense.

Early episodes of Monk lean into his curmudgeonly tendencies, together with this one — the primary episode to air after the pilot — the place Monk is pissed off {that a} psychic named Dolly (Linda Kash) appears to assist the cops find a physique. Unable to just accept that such a factor is feasible, Monk units out to show that she’s mendacity. She’s not mendacity … however she’s additionally not psychic. A person who killed his spouse by inflicting her automotive to go flying off the street needed to get better the physique after a mudslide and drove a sleeping Dolly to the scene. This episode does loads of good work in establishing Monk’s frustration with dangerous cops — the assassin is the previous SFPD commissioner — and his willingness to confront {powerful} males within the pursuit of justice. However the supernaturalness of all of it sort of muddles the thriller.

Okay, clearly it’s cute to see Monk interacting with a canine. He’s a really lonely man, and so when Natalie insists that he soak up a murdered lady’s canine, it’s after all pleasant to look at him slowly open his coronary heart to Shelby (the canine) and defend her when she provides start to puppies (that turn into strong proof within the lady’s homicide). And but! This episode comes after “Mr. Monk and the Child,” one of many present’s greatest, and simply looks as if a watered-down model of that story line. Plus, Natalie’s prolonged household is meant to be extraordinarily rich, and a household reunion within the park with matching T-shirts is just not a rich-people exercise. Perhaps in the event that they promised a poor child 1,000,000 {dollars} if he made a house run …

There are a handful of standout Randy episodes over the present’s run, together with this season-six spotlight. The writers have loads of enjoyable with our trusty lieutenant being so insecure about individuals taking him severely that he inadvertently turns himself right into a joke. That occurs right here when a residing statue ignores Randy’s questioning, so Randy tries to show he may do a greater job standing nonetheless for lengthy durations of time. It’s solely becoming that Randy’s ongoing rivalry with the road performer is what saves his life, together with Monk, Natalie, and Stottlemeyer, who’ve been locked in a vault after determining that the financial institution’s whole employees deliberate a theft.

If “Mr. Monk and the Miracle” and “Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa Claus” endure from reaching for implausible premises, the season-four Christmas episode goals proper down the center with a killer Secret Santa. Enjoyable! A cop is killed by a poisoned wine meant for Stottlemeyer, who instantly thinks he is aware of who tried to kill him — the brother of a financial institution robber whom Stottlemeyer killed whereas arresting him. However in between Christmas-y excessive jinks, together with performing as a mall Santa to attempt to extract information from the suspect’s daughter, Monk figures out that the poison was by no means meant for Stottlemeyer. It’s somewhat queasy to see our favourite captain so zealously pursue an harmless man, however the truth that he’s proved flawed is a Christmas miracle.

Brooke Adams, Tony Shalhoub’s spouse, seems right here as her third Monk character … and the primary one that really likes Mr. Monk. That real-life connection is nice, however that is Randy’s episode. He quits the power after making a significant mistake that just about ruins a case, going to change into a farmer on the ranch his uncle left him after dying in an obvious suicide. Just a few days later, although, Randy calls Monk to research the loss of life, which Randy thinks is suspicious. The farm life clearly doesn’t sit properly with Monk, which supplies us some humorous scenes (together with one through which Mr. Monk thinks he’s unintentionally gotten excessive), however it’s Randy’s investigation that gives the very best jokes. Mirroring Mr. Monk’s customary line, “Except I’m flawed, which, you realize, I’m not,” Randy presents his concept with, “Except I’m flawed, which I most likely am.” Monk even lets him imagine that he solved the case himself, which is simply the boldness increase Randy must return to the power.

Bradley Whitford is completely solid on this episode as Dean Berry, a crunchy biotech CEO whose bike is stolen from exterior his lab. However his case takes a backseat to Natalie’s relationship with Monk, which is strained almost to its breaking level. Monk is shot within the leg whereas pursuing the suspect who stole the bike, which Natalie insisted on investigating. Natalie feels intense guilt for inadvertently getting Monk damage and almost kills herself caring for him. He’s being an actual dick to her, displaying us an unsightly facet of his persona that will get somewhat onerous to look at. Finally, although, he sees how merciless he’s being, and apologizes to Natalie earlier than fixing the case. The episode ends on an ideal button when Natalie unintentionally shoots Monk within the different leg whereas pursuing the dangerous man (Berry’s assistant, performed by Pamela Adlon). At the very least now they’re even!

As a result of many Monk writers are comedy guys, they regularly get fellow comedy guys to visitor star. Working example: Amy Sedaris, who’s an absolute pleasure as Sharona’s youthful sister, Gail. This episode introduces her character, who’s proven to be aggressive with Sharona — from accusing her of following her to San Francisco (Sharona insists Gail begged her to maneuver right here) to flirting with Randy (who has an apparent crush on Sharona). This isn’t Gail’s greatest episode (see: “Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater”), however it establishes her as a significant determine in Sharona’s life, fleshing out her character and explaining what a girl with such a robust New Jersey accent is doing on the West Coast.

Our second run-in with Dale the Whale (performed right here by Tim Curry) bogs down what’s in any other case a very enjoyable season finale. The primary time we see Monk go undercover, he poses as a brand new switch to an area jail when a death-row inmate is poised proper earlier than he was scheduled to be executed. He apparently owed cash to Dale, which makes him the prime suspect, however he swears he’s not the perpetrator — and can give Monk info on Trudy’s loss of life if he can show in any other case. Monk will get a tip a few harmful inmate named Spyder Rudner (Danny Trejo), however that’s a useless finish as properly. By the point Monk figures out that the jail’s librarian is the dangerous man, he’s made buddies with Rudner, simply in time for Rudner to save lots of him from a Nazi gang that the librarian despatched to take him out.

Monk usually doesn’t get too ugly in the way in which a procedural equivalent to, say, Legal Minds does. This episode is the closest Monk will get to that grittier tone, with some chainsaw-induced blood splatter and an in depth description of a torso discovered within the San Francisco Bay. (There’s additionally a close-up of a child coughing, which can be gross, simply another way.) That grimness is exacerbated by the overarching subplot a few new police commissioner (Saverio Guerra) who fires Monk and the melancholy that Monk falls into after shedding the factor that provides his life which means. The darkness is punctuated by a satisfying conclusion, although, as Monk solves the case of the recovered torso by matching its DNA to a toupee worn by the commissioner, which Sharona rips off his head when he refuses to confess he’s sporting a chunk. To not fear — that is nonetheless a really foolish present.

In season one the writers are nonetheless experimenting with determining Monk’s background, and this episode takes a enjoyable swing at establishing him as a former monitor star who give up after he misplaced a race as a result of he was fixing his uneven shoelaces. He’s so obsessive about working, in actual fact, that he’s pumped to see his hero, skilled marathoner Tonday Mawwaka (Zakes Mokae) collaborating within the San Francisco marathon — that’s till Mawwaka allegedly helps a fellow marathoner kill his mistress through the race. In fact, Monk figures out that he’s harmless, and Mawwaka provides Monk a pair of sneakers and encourages him to start out working once more. The one unfavorable is a bizarre subplot the place the marathon staff maintain pondering Monk is being racist in a sequence of misunderstandings. It’s not, like, offensive, it’s simply not very humorous.

We hear snippets of details about Monk’s time on the power within the first few seasons, however this episode does loads of background dumping once we’re launched to his former SFPD associate, Joe Christie (Enrico Colantoni). Christie, now working as a safety guard for a Megamart superstore, suspects that an worker was murdered, however Monk initially doesn’t need something to do with him. We be taught that quickly after Trudy’s loss of life, Christie was discharged when a brick of cocaine went lacking from a case he labored. Monk reluctantly agrees to assist, although, and it’s touching to see him heat to his previous pal. As soon as they clear up the Megamart case, Monk even helps work out what occurred to the medication and clears Christie’s title. It’s a disgrace that we by no means see Christie once more, almost definitely as a result of Enrico Colantoni was too busy on Veronica Mars. (In a enjoyable crossover nod, his character provides a pretend title of “Adrian Monk” in a later Veronica Mars episode.)

The primary time we see Monk begin to have emotions for an additional lady sends him spiraling on this season-one episode. A lady (who seems remarkably like Trudy) wants his assist when she’s accused of murdering her neighbor and his lawyer over a property line dispute. It’s fairly surprising — in a great way! — to see Monk on a date, however the surrounding thriller is much less fascinating than the romantic stress, which will likely be explored extra totally in later episodes. (See: “Mr Monk Falls in Love” and “Mr. Monk and the Blackout.”)

The second unusually anti-union episode is extra forgivable as a result of the union boss doesn’t truly turn into concerned on this one — it’s all collateral injury from an unrelated prison named Evan Coker (Daniel Goddard), who wanted to get better proof from his automotive that was being towed by a scab driver. However the emotional core of the episode is Leland’s relationship along with his spouse, as indicated by the title. When Coker shot the tow truck driver, it brought on an accident that left Karen in a coma, which sends the captain right into a gap of rage and grief. We get loads of glimpses of the hurting coronary heart behind Leland’s gruff exterior, however on this episode it’s fully uncovered.

And right here’s the place Leland’s coronary heart lastly breaks. Whereas trying out against the law scene, the captain punches a cop named Ryan Sharkey (Nicky Katt) for making innuendo that he’s having an affair with Karen. Stottlemeyer is distributed to anger administration lessons and asks Monk to comply with Karen to see if she is certainly having an affair. He tracks her to a restaurant the place she’s having lunch with a person, however the lessons truly labored. Leland tells Karen he forgives her and so they can work via her infidelity. However she reveals that she wasn’t assembly Sharkey — she was assembly a divorce lawyer. Sharkey was the assassin, and simply picked a struggle with Stottlemeyer so his DNA can be on the scene.

Natalie’s first episode comes halfway via season three, after Bitty Schram, who performed Sharona, left abruptly, reportedly over a contract dispute. Natalie first exhibits up as an unintended killer — she stabs an intruder whom she discovered attempting to steal Julie’s fish in the course of the night time. She asks Monk to assist work out why somebody would need to steal an strange pet fish, however he’s been having a tough time since Sharona moved away. (Within the fiction of the present, she received again together with her ex-husband and moved to New Jersey with him and Benjy.) The title of the episode is a pun, although, because the man was not after the fish however the “pretend” moon rock within the tank, which turned out to be actual and value a ton of cash.

That’s a very intelligent premise for a thriller, and the episode does an excellent job of introducing Natalie as a succesful substitute for Sharona in Monk’s life, however the writers are nonetheless determining her character. Right here she’s simply sort of mimicking Sharona’s brash persona. We’ll ultimately come to like Natalie for who she is in her personal proper, however at this level it’s simply highlighting how a lot we miss Sharona.

Clearly I’m biased, however the joke on this episode about Julie having two buddies named Emily will get me each time. Nonetheless, it’s in any other case a strong episode, with Julie and the Emilys asking Monk to research the loss of life of their beloved basketball coach, which was dominated an accident. Within the meantime, Natalie steps in as coach of the basketball group, with Monk reluctantly becoming a member of as her assistant coach. As a result of that is Monk, there’s a tragic little subplot about how he by no means gained a trophy regardless of his mom cleansing off the mantle to make room for some, and the episode ends with Natalie and Julie presenting Monk with 100 trophies representing all of the instances he solved. (This units up a continuity error for “Mr. Monk’s a hundredth Case” in season seven, although, which might drive Monk loopy.)

Let this be a lesson to all of us: By no means break up with somebody once you’re alone on a ship with them! This episode opens on a health care provider named Jay Bennett (Frederick Weller) killing his mistress and dropping her within the bay. We don’t test again in on the homicide till later, although. First, Natalie convinces Monk to open a non-public detective company since work from the police division has been scarce. He’s employed by Linda Fusco, in her first look, to research who dinged her automotive, which Monk feels is beneath him. Seems, although, it’s none apart from Dr. Jay Bennett. It’s an gratifying little episode total, however it seems like a missed alternative for extra nods to basic hard-boiled detective tales.

This episode loses factors for retreading a narrative line we’ve seen earlier than, with Monk creating emotions for a girl who isn’t Trudy (see:“Mr. Monk and the Different Girl”), however features factors for doing a greater job of it. This thriller is less complicated to comply with because the lady, Leyla (Joanna Pacula), is a suspect instantly. It additionally makes the strain extra simple, with Monk refusing to imagine that Leyla is a assassin, regardless of all proof on the contrary, together with Leyla admitting to the crime. He lastly figures out that her mom was the actual perpetrator, and that her sufferer was a struggle prison who butchered her individuals within the fictional nation of Zemenia. Leyla was simply attempting to guard her mother by confessing. Sadly for Adrian, most relationships would have a tough time bouncing again from accusing their mother of homicide, and Leyla tells Adrian to return to his life/spouse.

One other episode the place Monk turns into obsessive about a girl, although this time it’s not explicitly romantic. “Mr. Monk Is Up All Evening” has an attractive noir-y vibe, a method that was admittedly executed higher within the season-five episode “Mr. Monk and the Leper.” Monk can’t sleep as a result of he can’t cease eager about a girl he handed on the road and witnesses a homicide whereas wandering round late at night time. It seems that the girl had a cornea transplant — she has Trudy’s eyes. Positive. This episode does get bonus factors for my favourite character actor, Donal Logue, who steals the present in a single scene as a grifter who bets he can guess the place Monk received his sneakers. (The reply: “You bought your sneakers … in your ft.”)

One of many higher homage episodes, “Mr. Monk and the Cobra” is a love letter to kung fu films, highlighting the monklike self-discipline (pun very a lot supposed, clearly) that Monk follows in his personal life. It’s elevated by the late actor Mako, who visitor stars right here as a instructor whose pupil, martial artist and film star Sonny Chow, appears to have come again from the useless. The most important bummer of the episode is the stinginess Monk exhibits towards Natalie, who’s nonetheless attending to know her new boss, in refusing to pay her bills. Monk’s miserly tendencies are one of many uglier features of his persona, and it doesn’t all the time learn because the quirky eccentricity it’s offered as.

We’ve already touched on Monk’s inflated ego in “Mr. Monk Paints His Masterpiece,” however this episode reveals that Natalie’s ego is simply as simply overrated. She’s requested to current the lottery numbers on TV when the earlier lotto lady is discovered murdered and begins performing like a little bit of a diva. Natalie’s angle drives Monk loopy since she’s getting extra consideration than he’s, however it doubles because the catalyst for Monk fixing the case. Natalie will get the sound operator fired when she chides him for leaving cords on the bottom, however he had rigged the lottery balls by protecting sure numbers in metallic paint and hiding a magnet within the mics. He murdered the actress who discovered in regards to the scheme after which framed Natalie for the dishonest. It’s a neat little thriller, made extra satisfying by the Natalie and Adrian position reversal.

Natalie was Monk’s assistant for longer than Sharona, however she by no means fairly fills the sneakers of his unique nurse and companion. So it’s a humorous, meta second when the 2 lastly meet for the primary time close to the top of the sequence and butt heads over learn how to deal with Monk’s eccentricities. It’s actually good to see Sharona once more, so we will forgive the considerably boring thriller about her uncle falling on a golf course, because it’s an excuse to get her to California. Her arrival has one other function, although. It’s near the finale and we have to begin establishing everybody’s blissful ending. Randy’s is, delightfully, shifting to New Jersey to be with Sharona, who he’s had a crush on for years. Awwwwww.

An enormous a part of a Monk author’s job is determining learn how to set off Monk’s phobias, and so they received the most important bang for his or her buck by dropping him into Manhattan, with all its noise and dirt and other people. (Biggest metropolis on earth!!!) He’s right here to trace down Warrick Tennyson (Frank Collison), whom Dale the Whale advised him was concerned in Trudy’s loss of life. However he’s stymied by the New York district legal professional, who wants the dying Tennyson to testify in a federal racketeering case. Their NYPD liaison strikes a deal that if Monk can clear up the current homicide of a Latvian ambassador, he can meet with Tennyson. He, after all, does, and the ultimate scene with Tennyson is chilling as Monk learns that he was employed to homicide Trudy by a six-fingered man after which turns off his morphine. He watches as Tennyson’s ache comes flooding again, earlier than telling him, “That is Trudy, turning [your morphine] again on.”

The pursuit of the six-fingered man is Monk’s foremost purpose for many of the sequence, which involves a head on this season-six two-part finale when Monk thinks he’s tracked him down. It’s a ploy, although; Monk is framed for murdering the person by a small-town sheriff named Rollins (Scott Glenn) and goes on the run to clear his title. The primary episode of this two-parter ends with Captain Stottlemeyer showing to shoot the fugitive Monk, solely to disclose at the start of the following hour that they deliberate the entire thing to present Monk cowl to research. It seems that Rollins was employed by none apart from Dale the Whale. It’s a fittingly dramatic finale that provides Monk new results in chase in Trudy’s homicide, even when the two-part format makes it sag a bit within the center.

For as many {powerful} criminals as Monk crosses, it’s a marvel he doesn’t go into hiding extra usually. On this episode, Monk is taken into witness safety after he sees a mob hit go down. It’s an excellent alternative for the writers to place him in a basic fish-out-of-water state of affairs, because the feds place him in a distant lakeside cabin to attend till trial. However homicide follows Monk in all places, and he quickly suspects his neighbor throughout the lake of killing her husband. Each instances come to a head when Randy inadvertently leads the mob’s hitmen to the cabin after a fortune cookie convinces him Monk’s in peril. The fortune-cookie factor is a bit heavy-handed, however it does result in a humorous dual-summation by Randy and Monk, with the 2 speaking over one another to clarify, “Right here’s what occurred.”

One of many few episodes the place nobody truly dies, “Mr. Monk and the Lacking Granny” sees Monk monitoring down a kidnapped aged lady. Her law-student granddaughter, performed by Rachel Dratch, says she doesn’t come up with the money for to pay Monk however guarantees to assist Monk get reinstated to the police power in change. Dratch’s signature fashion of nervous comedy performs nice towards Monk’s personal, and the answer to the crime is intelligent — the vintage sellers who kidnapped her assumed everybody can be so relieved when she was discovered that they wouldn’t keep in mind the dear chair they stole from her home. The one bitter word is the implication that Monk probably getting his job again via ADA lodging is taking a shortcut.

Within the majority of Monk episodes — and police procedures usually (with the notable exception of Regulation & Order) — as soon as the crime is solved, it’s over. Credit roll; the great guys gained. This season-eight standout reminds us that there’s an entire authorized course of to type out earlier than the dangerous man is convicted and makes the logical leap that Monk’s outlandish theories don’t maintain up properly in court docket. Jay Mohr visitor stars as a splendidly punchable protection legal professional who needles Monk on the witness stand and defends the person who (allegedly!) murdered his spouse. He’s acquitted, however Monk finds a strategy to convict him on one other homicide, which additionally resolves a candy subplot involving Randy and a child he mentored who was being pegged for the crime.

The primary of Monk’s parody characters, the sufferer on this episode is a Invoice Gates–kind laptop genius named Sidney Teal (J.C. MacKenzie) who’s shot to loss of life in a mugging — he was the mugger. Nobody can work out why a billionaire was shaking down a man for a couple of dollars, however Monk ultimately connects Teal to the person who shot him, a fraternity brother who was sleeping along with his spouse. It’s a neat sufficient little thriller, with a humorous subplot in regards to the captain attempting to trace down the “fraidy-cop” who was seen working from the scene of the crime, however essentially the most fascinating component is in hindsight, as we see Silicon Valley’s rising influence on San Francisco when this episode aired in 2002.

One other fairly customary Monk episode elevated by a superbly solid visitor star, “Mr. Monk Makes a Good friend” brings on Andy Richter as a person named Hal who turns into buddies with Monk after working into him exterior a grocery retailer. Natalie and the captain are suspicious that anybody who didn’t already love Monk would willingly hang around with him. In fact they’re proper; Hal is simply buddying as much as Adrian so he can intercept his mail, which might tie him to a homicide. Watching Adrian nearly change into a giddy child with a brand new BFF is basic Monk — an addicting mix of unhappy and foolish — since we all know he’ll be crushed when he finds out Hal doesn’t truly care about him and even like him. (Although the writers dip a toe into too-silly territory when Monk begins treating Hal like a childhood crush, asking him to be his greatest pal as if he’s asking him to go regular.)

Monk’s aggressive relationship with Harold Krenshaw is properly documented, so when it seems that Harold has been residing a double life as a daredevil generally known as the Frisco Fly after falling off a constructing in a inexperienced morph swimsuit, Monk spirals. He visits Harold within the hospital to strive to determine how he received over his worry of heights, however quickly realizes that Harold was arrange: Somebody tried to kill him by dressing him up and throwing him off a roof. David Koechner visitor stars as Harold’s cousin who tried to homicide him so he’d inherit all of their uncle’s cash. The episode sort of sags within the center as soon as it’s clear that Harold isn’t the Frisco Fly, however the premise is so enjoyable that you simply nearly don’t discover. Plus, we get the very best summation of Harold and Monk’s relationship when Natalie says, “They’re good buddies, they simply don’t wish to admit it.”

By the point season 5 rolls round, all of us love Dr. Kroger as a lot as Monk does, so it’s genuinely upsetting when he broadcasts he’s quitting. His workplace cleaner is murdered after hours, and Dr. Kroger blames himself since everybody assumes {that a} affected person did the crime. Tony Shalhoub turns in one of many funniest scenes of the sequence when he goes via the entire phases of grief within the span of about 90 seconds … solely to cycle proper again round to denial as quickly as he reaches acceptance. Naturally Monk solves the case — the assassin wasn’t a affected person in any case, it was a drug vendor who labored in the identical workplace park — and we blessedly get one other season and a half of Dr. Kroger’s knowledge.

This can be a actually enjoyable instance of Monk’s Columbo-fashion episodes through which we all know who the killer is from the start, so the primary narrative stress comes from questioning how Monk goes to catch them. That enables visitor stars to actually lean into their villainy, since they don’t have to take care of the thriller of who the dangerous man is. Sean Astin takes on that position right here, and commits onerous as an obnoxious wealthy man who killed his father and stepmother, stealing the inheritance from his stepsisters. He’s additionally been carrying a torch for Natalie since childhood (we be taught in “Mr. Monk Goes to a Marriage ceremony” that her household is extraordinarily rich) and is completely smarmy as he tries to woo her.

Monk’s brilliance is simplest when it’s squared up towards an equally good (evil) thoughts, like Sherlock and Moriarty. On this episode, that metaphorical chess match turns into literal. The villain is a chess grasp, Patrick Kloster (David Strathairn), whose spouse dies of an obvious coronary heart assault whereas he’s at a event miles away. Monk is aware of Kloster did it, although, as a result of his spouse employed Monk to unravel her homicide days earlier. Kloster had been taunting her, telling her he was going to kill her quickly. Monk figures out how he did it by learning Kloster’s favourite chess transfer — the poison pawn — and deduces that he poisoned a secret bottle of wine his purportedly sober spouse had stashed within the bedpost. Monk’s “Right here’s what occurred” would possibly as properly be “checkmate.”

We’ve solely recognized Natalie Teeger for 5 episodes earlier than we get the primary try on her life. She’s working for varsity board, when somebody shoots up her marketing campaign workplace and leaves a word demanding that she drop out of the race. However Monk notices that the shooter’s letter refers to her as Natalie Teege, matching an indication within the window of the marketing campaign workplace that had misplaced its “r,” and figures out that it’s not truly about her. The scanner Natalie purchased at police public sale had a harmful arms vendor’s consumer checklist caught in it, and the shooter was attempting to get her to drop out in order that they wouldn’t uncover the proof. The expertise helps Natalie and Monk perceive one another somewhat higher, as Natalie admits to her boss that she’s refusing to drop out of the race as a result of she realized that her husband could have abandoned his unit when he was killed in motion: She doesn’t know what to imagine, however she desires to be courageous in case he wasn’t.

Monk’s brother Ambrose (John Turturro) is without doubt one of the present’s most beloved facet characters, so it was an enormous danger to introduce one other brother so late within the sequence run. Fortunately Steve Zahn is as much as the duty. He exhibits as much as Monk’s home coated in sewage and introduces himself as Jack Jr., a half-brother Monk’s father advised him about in “Mr. Monk Meets His Dad.” He’s a con man who wants Monk’s assist proving that he didn’t homicide a social employee when he escaped from jail. Monk reluctantly agrees, and there’s a very enjoyable stress as Monk tries to determine how a lot Jack is mendacity to him. It’s only a disgrace we couldn’t get Ambrose to hitch this household reunion.

Mr. Monk has loads of candidates for least-favorite place on earth, however a music pageant is a robust contender. He has to suck it up when Stottlemeyer’s son, Jared (Jon Kyle Hansen), runs away to a “rock present,” and Monk’s excited to attend as a result of he thinks they’re speaking a few geology exhibit. He begrudgingly sticks round when a roadie named Stork (Terry Fradet) dies of an obvious overdose, however a pal insists he was clear and sober. The episode is usually about Leland and Jared’s relationship, although. Jared is offended and damage by his dad and mom’ divorce, and the captain will get a wake-up name that he must be extra current along with his child.

One other episode through which Mr. Monk is pushed means exterior of his consolation zone, this one opens at a hearth station with Monk shedding his eyesight when an intruder throws a corrosive acid in his eyes after murdering one of many firefighters. References to Mr. Magoo abound, together with Natalie rebranding the basic cartoon character as a well-known blind inventor to make Monk really feel higher about his handicap. Although he falls right into a melancholy that’s in some way additionally humorous, due to each the well-calibrated writing and Shalhoub’s fine-tuned efficiency, Monk nonetheless figures out who blinded him and solves one other homicide within the course of. In a uncommon second of humility, Monk admits he’s no Magoo.

100 episodes is the standard threshold for tv syndication, and Monk celebrated this milestone in a delightfully meta means by setting the episode at a watch celebration for a TV present about Mr. Monk fixing his a hundredth case. Whereas watching the present, in between Natalie bickering with Leland over flipping channels to look at basketball and Randy flirting with the actress within the reenactments, Monk notices that one thing was off with one of many murders. He figures out that the present’s host (Eric McCormack) planted proof whereas following the investigation, in order that he may homicide his mistress and blame it on the serial killer Monk is monitoring. Meaning Monk technically solved 101 instances, which drives his OCD loopy and means he’ll have to unravel 99 extra to retire at an excellent 200. Thus the syndication celebration doubles as a known as shot. (So we’ll want 59 extra Monk films to catch up. Get engaged on it, Andy!)

It’s a standard joke that males are infants after they get sick. That’s doubly (perhaps quadruply) true for Mr. Monk, who treats coming down with the flu like he has the bubonic plague, turning into extra demanding and paranoid than standard. Monk holes up in mattress surrounded by humidifiers, tissues, and his most popular model of water bottles, even when the complete power known as as much as examine a decide’s disappearance. Monk’s invalid standing provides the writers a chance for some enjoyable position reversal: Natalie does Monk’s job of investigating when her pizza-delivery driver turns up murdered, and Stottlemeyer does Natalie’s job of caring for Monk, which he completely can’t deal with.

Monk’s assistants are (rightfully) pissed off that he refuses to make use of his abilities for financial acquire, so when Natalie needles him into monitoring down a stolen diamond to gather the reward, Monk drags his heels — till it turns into a aggressive race as different detectives search to get in on the motion. It’s enjoyable to see Monk in comparison with different basic detective tropes: a Sherlock Holmesian British inspector, a burly bounty hunter, and a geeky tech whiz who depends on devices. Ultimately none of them get the reward. As an alternative, the police station’s cleaner, Gladys (Davenia McFadden), finds the diamond, which was caught with gum to the underside of an interrogation room desk by the museum safety guard who stole it. It’s a second of karmic justice for Monk, as he had been harassing Gladys to scrub underneath tables. A intelligent resolution and a reminder to all the time be good to your cleansing girl!

The thriller of this episode — through which the lead suspect in a sequence of mail bombs has been in a coma for 4 months — is so compelling, I can forgive the truth that it doesn’t make a lot sense. The suspect, Brian Babbage (Matt Winston), wished to kill his siblings so he’d inherit their dad and mom’ whole property. He discovered how lengthy a parcel would stick with the highest of a metropolis mailbox by gluing ketchup bottles to his ceiling and ready to see how lengthy they’d take to fall. If you concentrate on it for longer than just a few seconds, there are such a lot of variables that will have an effect on how briskly glue would give out, however no matter. Brian then deliberate to be in jail when the packages had been ultimately mailed. We see him at the start of the episode flipping off Randy and Leland, main them in a automotive chase. He didn’t plan to get hit by a truck whereas driving away and falling right into a coma, however that alibi labored simply as properly. Or it could have, if Monk didn’t determine it out.

This episode can be the primary trace we get that Sharona won’t stick round perpetually when her ex-husband exhibits up in San Francisco to try to persuade her to maneuver again to New Jersey with him, and it establishes her flirtation with Randy. It takes some time for the latter to repay, however it’s very candy when it does! (See: “Mr. Monk and Sharona.”)

One of many comedy writers Breckman employed on Monk is fellow Late Evening alum Nell Scovell, creator of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and writer of a incredible memoir in regards to the not-so-funny components of working in a writers’ room. “Mr. Monk Goes to the Workplace” is the very best of the three episodes she penned (“Mr. Monk On Wheels” and “Mr. Monk and the Election” are the opposite two). It options each a brain-tickling thriller — we see the dangerous man power somebody to crush their hand in a automotive door however don’t discover out why till Monk’s summation — and a humorous office comedy pastiche. Mr. Monk goes undercover at a generic workplace job to search out out who crushed the boss’s hand (and killed the parking storage attendant) and it’s like he’s been dropped in the course of an episode of The Workplace, full with a too-intense kiss-ass who’s a stickler for the principles. Someway, it’s not Mr. Monk.

Monk has just a few run-ins with the mafia over the course of the present’s run (see: “Mr. Monk is Somebody Else”) however this encounter stands out due to a home-run efficiency by Philip Baker Corridor. The legendary actor performs a Don Corleone-type determine who wants Monk’s assist determining who shot up his barber store (that he was utilizing as a entrance for cash laundering, naturally). Along with that includes maybe the present’s greatest single-episode visitor star, we additionally see Monk’s first standoff with a slimy FBI agent and get a candy Randy and Sharona second through which he lets her know that the mobster she’s courting was caught on tape admitting to mendacity to her. The gangster stuff will get somewhat muddled when the mafia guys suspect a Chinese language gang was accountable for the hit, however this episode’s greatest sin is that there’s not sufficient Philip Baker Corridor.

It’s a testomony to the writing that this penultimate episode, through which Monk is lastly reinstated to the SFPD solely to appreciate he doesn’t truly need the job, feels each stunning and inevitable. We really feel his aid and pleasure when he will get the badge again, his frustration at being placed on desk obligation as a substitute of working a high-profile case, and his loneliness when he’s stored at a distance from Randy and the captain, who aren’t allowed to “babysit” him anymore. He learns what we most likely ought to have recognized from the start — he’s chasing one thing that doesn’t match him anymore. It’s a becoming strategy to wrap up that story line, which leaves the finale free to focus totally on fixing Trudy’s homicide.

Whereas “Mr. Monk Takes His Drugs” has an excessive amount of baggage to be totally gratifying, “Mr. Monk Will get Hypnotized” is only a blast. Monk is reverted to his childhood persona when a hypnotist encourages him to take his thoughts again to earlier than his ache began. Natalie is shocked when her boss begins leaping in puddles and selecting up frogs and total performing very un-Monk-like. He’s performing so erratic, that when he figures out instantly {that a} lady is mendacity when she says her ex-husband kidnapped her and she or he killed him in self-defense, Stottlemeyer doesn’t imagine him and banishes him from the police station. The signature Monk mix of unhappy and foolish is particularly robust right here, when the little-kid Monk begins to shoulder grownup Monk’s loneliness as he wanders town.

In our first introduction to Kevin Dorfman, Jarrad Paul comes out swinging along with his efficiency because the endearingly annoying quirky neighbor. He’s a superb foil to Monk’s personal eccentricities. We’re principally simply watching Monk learn the newspaper on this episode — when his paperboy is murdered, he deduces that somebody doesn’t need him to see a sure information story — which doesn’t sound very fascinating … on paper. However it’s made dynamic by Kevin’s fixed chatter about how he’s fallen in love, distracting the analytical Monk. He solves a number of instances, together with a homicide in France, earlier than determining that it was truly Kevin whom the assassin wished to maintain the paper away from. He had gained the lottery, and Kevin’s new girlfriend was simply attempting to maintain him distracted lengthy sufficient to kill him earlier than he noticed the profitable numbers. It’s all the time beautiful when Monk has to acknowledge how a lot he cares about individuals in his life — even the individuals who drive him loopy — which he does in dramatic style right here, diverting a prepare from hitting Kevin’s automotive.

Randy and Stottlemeyer are in Sin Metropolis for a fellow cop’s bachelor celebration, when a Hangover-style journey follows (4 years earlier than The Hangover was launched). The captain drunkenly calls Monk, telling him to fulfill them in Vegas as a result of he solved a homicide, solely to haven’t any recollection of the night time earlier than as soon as Monk arrives. They must piece the narrative collectively whereas Leland and Randy nurse their hangovers and whereas dancing across the awkwardness that Monk wasn’t invited to the celebration to start with. The episode is basically a 42-minute advert for the Las Vegas tourism bureau, however it’s a supremely entertaining one.

We be taught that Natalie’s household is rich when she’s left with no date to her brother Jonathan’s (Rob Benedict) wedding ceremony and she or he takes Randy as backup. (“Davenport, just like the toothpaste,” the captain remarks upon listening to Natalie’s maiden title. “Not like the toothpaste, we are the toothpaste,” she replies.) Natalie insists that she’s by no means taken a dime from her dad and mom, however the privileged upbringing provides a brand new layer to her character, who we’re nonetheless attending to know as somebody who’s not only a knockoff Sharona. Holland Taylor is completely solid as Natalie’s chilly, vital mom, serving to us perceive why Natalie doesn’t have a lot contact together with her household at the same time as we will’t assist however be charmed by Taylor’s completely calibrated bitchiness. (It’s giving Emily Gilmore.) Sadly the black-widow story line falls somewhat flat, as we by no means fairly imagine Jonathan will likely be murdered by his sinister bride-to-be.

Sharona’s sister Gail returns in season two, when she’s accused of murdering her co-star in a play. She was imagined to stab him with a stage knife — which she swears she did — however he collapses onstage with an actual knife in his chest. The private connection makes the thriller extra participating, particularly since we all know how fraught Sharona’s relationship with Gail is. Tony Shalhoub additionally will get a really humorous scene right here, when Monk is requested to take the murdered actor’s place. It’s pleasant to look at a gifted performer performing like a nasty actor, and the stakes are raised when Monk figures out that Gail’s understudy is behind the homicide whereas onstage together with her. She had rubbed peanut oil — which the actor was allergic to — on an apple he ate within the play; her father, pretending to be a health care provider, rushed onstage and put an actual knife in his chest. We’ll let it slide that anaphylactic shock seems nothing like being stabbed to loss of life.

One in all Monk’s most overtly satirical episodes is that this season-four standout that includes Malcolm McDowell as a tyrannical designer named Julian Hodge who murdered a mannequin and pinned it on a supply boy named Pablo Ortiz (Alejandro Chaban). Monk will get concerned within the case when Pablo’s mom, his favourite shirt inspector, is so distracted that she begins to overlook flaws within the clothes. The case looks as if a slam dunk since Pablo’s DNA was discovered on the scene and the mannequin’s roommate mentioned he was stalking her, however Monk ultimately figures out that Hodge paid off the roommate and the SFPD’s forensic specialist (Scott Adsit) to assist body Pablo. Whereas investigating the case, Monk is baffled when his buddies attempt to impress the exacting and merciless Hodge, resulting in a humorous scene the place Natalie and Randy compete to see who can look essentially the most stylish whereas visiting a style shoot. However it’s Julie who catches the designer’s eye, and he hires her to stroll in an upcoming present. There are such a lot of particular jokes about style that I’ve to imagine the episode’s author, Jonathan Collier, labored within the trade sooner or later. Both that or he simply watched loads of America’s Subsequent High Mannequin.

Monk is in the dead of night, actually, on this episode a few blackout that hits San Francisco. When the outage is discovered to be intentional — and seemingly an inside job — the facility firm’s PR rep, Michelle Rivas (Alicia Coppola), hires Monk to research. However she has an ulterior motive: She’s into Monk. That is the primary time we see a girl actively present an curiosity in courting Monk, however she fairly shortly turns into disillusioned with the prospect when he refuses to take the elevator to a restaurant on the 52nd flooring. The blackout is a intelligent strategy to throw Monk off steadiness, a tactic that the writers would use to extra dramatic impact in “Mr. Monk Can’t See a Factor,” and there’s a enjoyable callback to Monk’s Willie Nelson connection (see: “Mr. Monk and the Pink-Headed Stranger”).

We are able to forgive the truth that this story line, about Monk attending his school reunion, is type of a reskin of “Mr. Monk Goes Again to College” for 2 causes. One is that we see the beginnings of Monk and Trudy’s courtship, an important piece in how Monk turned Monk. The opposite cause is that the thriller is absolutely good. Monk is confused when Trudy’s pal Dianne (Cynthia Stevenson) tells him that her husband, Kyle (Brian McNamara), is happy to fulfill him, however when Kyle arrives he doesn’t know that Monk is a detective. Different bizarre stuff retains occurring round Kyle, seemingly a sequence of coincidences that mirror Dianne’s experiences in school. Ultimately Monk figures out that Kyle had discovered a suicide word Dianne wrote when she was depressed in class and got here up with a plan to kill her on the reunion. He wanted to re-create the occasions she wrote about in her word — together with consuming at a diner with Adrian and Trudy. (Kyle discovered a random lady named Trudy to hitch them.) Probably the most satisfying Monk summations really feel like puzzle items becoming into place, lastly revealing the entire image.

Monk’s season-five Christmas episode totally captured the spirit of the season: It’s about household, with all of the magic and the luggage that entails all swirling collectively like a mulled wine. We lastly meet Monk’s dad, Jack (Dan Hedaya), who left the household when Adrian was 5, when he’s arrested on rushing prices on his means via San Francisco as a long-haul trucker. Jack asks for his son’s forgiveness — and assist fixing the ticket — when Stottlemeyer convinces Adrian to hitch his dad on his route for some long-overdue father-son bonding. We see Jack’s boss on the trucking firm homicide his associate within the opening scenes of the episode, however crime fixing takes a backseat to emotional storytelling, which implies this episode spins its wheels for some time earlier than Monk lastly figures out what occurred. (That was two truck puns. Merry Christmas.)

A handful of musicians have appeared on Monk, both as themselves (see: “Mr. Monk and the Pink-Headed Stranger”) or as heightened, parodied variations of themselves (see: “Mr. Monk and the Rapper”). However essentially the most delightfully incongruous musical friends on Monk are nü metallic icons Korn, who open their tour bus toilet to Julie when she has to pee whereas they’re caught in site visitors behind the scene of a automotive crash. Additionally pleasant: Larry Miller, who performs a fellow traveler who follows Monk round as he tries to determine what brought on the crash, after observing that it couldn’t be an accident. A freeway site visitors jam is a intelligent tackle a locked-door thriller, plus there are some compelling emotional stakes as a still-new Natalie almost quits resulting from Mr. Monk’s lack of empathy when she sprains her wrist. He makes it as much as her later by unbuckling his seat belt and leaning out the window whereas rushing down the freeway with a purpose to rescue her from a dump truck pushed by the killer who staged the accident. They each agree that their relationship is a two-way road. (That pun is within the episode, I can’t take credit score for it.)

It’s all the time enjoyable when Randy, who regularly throws out loopy theories that aren’t even price a response from the captain, will get one proper. In fact nobody believes Randy when he insists that his dentist (Jon Favreau) and his assistant (Brooke Langton) killed somebody whereas he was getting a cavity crammed, since he was underneath anesthesia on the time. The dentist laughs off Randy’s accusation, insisting that folks say all types of issues whereas sedated, however Randy is so pissed off by his colleagues laughing at him that he quits the power in anger. It’s right here that we get Randy’s greatest second of the sequence: He revives his high-school band known as the Randy Disher Venture and writes a determined track about how he’s “bored with sucking up” and he doesn’t “want your mustache.” It’s charming and cringe on the similar time, similar to Randy. (His track “I Don’t Want a Badge” is lovingly referenced a number of occasions for the remainder of the present’s run and even pops again up in Mr. Monk’s Final Case.) Randy will get the final giggle, although, when Monk figures out that the homicide actually did happen; a affected person had admitted to an armored-car theft whereas underneath sedation and returned to confront his dentist after determining that he’d taken the stolen bonds. They weren’t mendacity about individuals saying loopy issues on anesthesia!

One other nice villain who thinks he’s smarter than Monk at his personal peril, this Columbo-style episode closely implies that science instructor Derek Philby (Andrew McCarthy) murdered his fellow instructor and mistress, Beth Landow (Erica Yoder), and made it appear to be she jumped off the college’s clock tower whereas he was proctoring the SAT, however we don’t know the way he did it till Monk’s summation. And the “how” is extraordinarily humorous, with a type of basic detective story logic. Philby had murdered Beth earlier than the take a look at, at 8:15 a.m., and laid her physique out on the horizontal clock hand. Because the minutes ticked previous and the hand rounded the clock, the physique slid off and hit Philby’s automotive, which he’d parked under the tower so as. McCarthy is so good because the boastful bully who thinks he’s outsmarted Monk, it’s additional satisfying when Monk will get him to incriminate himself.

Monk’s ego faces its best take a look at when one other personal detective appears to be even higher at fixing crimes than he’s. Jason Alexander visitor stars as Marty Eels, the opposite detective who shatters Monk’s already fragile sense of self when he exhibits up at a homicide scene and seems to have all of the solutions. Not solely is Alexander a superb option to play the “skilled ache within the ass,” in response to Stottlemeyer, however little feedback like which might be a fantastic instance of how Monk writers construct out their world. Slightly than simply some random man displaying up, all of them know Marty as a hack, which makes his obvious brilliance much more annoying. Because it seems, Eels is “dishonest” — his mother is an airline cellphone operator and heard the murderers discussing their crime whereas they had been on maintain shopping for tickets.

Some Monk premises you’ll be able to simply inform had been inexperienced lit as a result of they made the writers room giggle onerous sufficient. “Monkey assassin” is a kind of premises. Monk has to show {that a} pet chimpanzee named Darwin didn’t kill his proprietor, music producer Ian Blackburn (Stewart Finlay-McLennan), after they had been discovered locked collectively in a panic room, Blackburn with a gunshot wound to the again of the pinnacle and Darwin holding a gun. There are simply so many avenues for comedy with a killer monkey, from Monk’s pristine condo getting trashed by the wild animal to Stottlemeyer attempting to impress Darwin with a purpose to show {that a} chimp can shoot a gun. The facet plot about Sharona proving to Benjy that it’s okay to face as much as bullies is somewhat ham-fisted, however who cares once we’re having this a lot enjoyable?

Monk and Sharona’s relationship is the spotlight of these early seasons. Although Natalie will change into an important character in her personal proper, the bond between Monk and the nurse who helped him via his psychological breakdown when Trudy died is simply too particular to copy. That relationship is put to the take a look at in “Mr. Monk Will get Married,” when Monk and Sharona go undercover at a pair’s retreat to determine what’s occurring with Randy’s mother (Susan Kellermann), who just lately received married in a whirlwind romance just for her new, a lot youthful husband, Dalton Padron (Nestor Carbonell), to right away insist they want couple’s remedy. Whereas there’s by no means any romantic stress between Monk and Sharona, their mix of annoyance and affection is shut sufficient to a wedding that the couple’s therapist (a superbly solid Jane Lynch) insists they want particular assist.

With apologies to all the opposite self-perceived geniuses who dismiss Monk as an odd nuisance, one in all them stands out as a result of he’s performed by Gary Cole. The versatile character actor performs a sleazy laptop nerd turned playboy mogul named Dexter Larson. The episode follows a basic Monk format, the place we see a loss of life occur that seems unintended. Larson’s writer tells him that they’re going to cancel his males’s journal, Sapphire; the following morning he’s strangled by a barbell in his residence gymnasium. Larson is clearly accountable, however how? He stood underneath the ground with a super-powerful magnet, after all. The answer is so dumb it’s good, and Gary Cole sells Larson’s disbelief at being bested by Monk so, so properly.

Actual-life tragedy bled into Monk’s fictional unhappiness when actor Stanley Kamel died of a coronary heart assault between seasons six and 7. Monk’s grief over shedding his beloved psychiatrist certainly mirrors the grief felt by the present’s solid and crew; Adrian struggles to discover a new therapist as a result of nobody can fill Dr. Kroger’s sneakers. Along with the stunning tribute to Kamel, although, it’s received a very glorious thriller, with Brad Garrett visitor starring as a handyman named “Sincere” Jake, who actually earns these scare quotes. Monk buys an aged man’s home to get away from his neighbor’s piano taking part in, however he quickly figures out that the person was murdered by his nurse when he admitted to her that there was cash hidden someplace in the home. She tells her boyfriend, Jake, about it, and he convinces Monk to let him smash up the home’s partitions underneath the guise of discovering structural issues he wants to repair. By episode’s finish Monk finds a worthy sufficient substitute for Dr. Kroger — for each him and us — in Hector Elizondo’s Dr. Bell, who helps Monk notice that the piano was bothering him as a result of it was a track that he used to listen to in Dr. Kroger’s ready room. Monk strikes again into his condo (and presumably has a hell of a time promoting a smashed-up home).

USA aired two variations of this episode: one in colour and the opposite in black and white, however the black-and-white rendition is way superior. As an homage to noir films, the black-and-white tackle the episode isn’t only a thematic novelty — it additionally works virtually to assist conceal the truth that the titular leper, Derek Bronson (Stephen Bogardus), doesn’t even have leprosy. (Within the colour model it’s extra apparent that his lesions are make-up, however that might pretty be attributed to TV magic.) He’s relying on Mr. Monk’s germophobia to maintain him from trying too intently when he admits that he faked his loss of life eight years in the past, and asks Monk to assist him destroy some papers that will point out to his spouse, Mandy (Sarah Pleasure Brown), that he was having an affair, which he says will crush her. It’s all a setup, although, and the person isn’t truly Derek Bronson — it’s Mandy’s boyfriend in make-up and bandages. They want a decide to imagine that Bronson is alive and desires to go away his fortune to his spouse as a substitute of his nephews, as he wrote in his will. They knew that Monk can be an unimpeachable witness. The double crossings and secret identities play into the noir of all of it, as does the over-the-top climax through which Monk dangles off the facet of a hot-air balloon to keep away from being shot by Mandy.

Ambrose is right here! Monk’s very personal Mycroft Holmes, Ambrose is simply as good and observant as his brother, however as an agoraphobe who hasn’t left his home in over 30 years, he makes his residing writing instruction manuals. The connection between the 2 brothers is the main focus of the episode, as we be taught they’ve been estranged since Trudy died. Adrian resents his brother for not reaching out when he was struggling, however Ambrose stored the gap as a result of he blamed himself for her loss of life since she was working an errand for him when she died. John Turturro and Tony Shalhoub convey these years of stress with a barbed type of chemistry, and whereas “Mr. Monk Goes House Once more” develops that chemistry even additional, this introduction to Ambrose is sort of nearly as good for the way it establishes Monk’s background whereas giving us a recurring character so beloved it’s simple to overlook he solely seems in these two episodes (plus a fast cameo in “Mr. Monk’s a hundredth Case”).

Drunk performing is an artwork — simply ask Catherine O’Hara — and Tony Shalhoub proves to be an artist on this episode that sees Monk visiting the vineyard the place he and Trudy honeymooned. The usually teetotaling Monk will get properly and plastered when he drinks a full carafe of what he thinks is nonalcoholic wine in an try to loosen up a witness. He’s investigating a fellow visitor’s disappearance — a visitor whom the remainder of the resort’s friends and employees insist by no means existed. In a basic whodunnit twist, everybody is in on the crime. The lacking man (Daniel Roebuck) had stolen cash from the mob and was hiding out in wine nation when he died of a coronary heart assault in his room. Slightly than report his loss of life, the friends who discovered him resolve to separate the cash and fake they’d by no means seen or heard of the person. It’s essentially the most Agatha Christie–ish Monk ever received.

Sarah Silverman’s character of obsessed fan Marci Maven was so good in (spoiler alert) Monk’s greatest episode, she got here again for an episode totally her personal. Whereas the episode suffers a tiny bit from the Captain Jack Sparrow downside — shifting a comic-relief facet character into the highlight, to diminishing returns — it’s filled with so many nice meta jokes that it’s simply neglected. Marci’s first episode, “Mr. Monk and the TV Star,” is essentially the most self-referential Monk ever will get, however this episode is an in depth second. With references to earlier episodes and Monk fanfiction, Marci’s obsession with Mr. Monk could be learn as (loving) ribbing of Monk followers. (Extra on that later.)

“Mr. Monk Bumps His Head” breaks some guidelines for what makes an excellent Monk episode. Monk is on his personal, with out Natalie, Stottlemeyer, or Randy, for many of the episode, and it does a imply little bait-and-switch at the start by making us assume Monk has a brand new lead on the six-fingered man. However it all works, thanks largely to Laurie Metcalf, who was nominated for an Emmy for her visitor efficiency as an eccentric lady named Cora. Monk is hit over the pinnacle and left on a truck mattress by a con artist who provides him solid details about the person who killed Trudy. When he’s found by the trucker he has no reminiscence of who he’s. Sadly for Monk, Cora spots him and is very happy to present him a brand new id — as her new husband, Jerry. It’s so enjoyable to look at Monk chafe towards this new life whereas his pure abilities for deduction shine via the amnesia, as he solves the disappearance of an area waitress. It’s much more enjoyable to look at Cora scold him for it, insisting that he’s a roofer and undoubtedly doesn’t have a worry of heights. Laurie Metcalf deserved that Emmy!

Monk is particularly gratifying in case you’re somewhat stoned, so it was solely a matter of time earlier than Snoop Dogg confirmed up. Snoop doesn’t simply visitor star as a gangsta rapper, unluckily named Murderuss, who’s accused of killing his rival, Further Giant (Marcello Thedford), with a automotive bomb. (Much more unluckily, Murderuss has a success track known as “Automotive Bomb.”) He additionally contributes a rap model of Randy Newman’s iconic theme track, which legitimately slaps. That’s not the one Snoop monitor that makes the episode although. Murderuss raps the “Right here’s what occurred,” explaining that he was arrange and the bomb was planted by the pinnacle of Further Giant’s document label, who deliberate to kill his associate however forgot to account for daylight saving time when he set the timer.

Good Monk episodes have each a compelling thriller and emotional stakes to maintain you invested. Nice Monk episodes, like this one, weave the 2 collectively in a neat little package deal. Monk has to go to the circus when its ringmaster is murdered by a masked acrobat. The principle suspect, his ex-wife, Natasha (Lolita Davidovich), is a trapeze artist, however she has a damaged leg from when she fell just a few days earlier so couldn’t probably have somersaulted away from the scene of the crime. Whereas investigating, Sharona reveals that she has a lethal worry of elephants, which Monk dismisses as foolish and tells her to “suck it up.” Clearly that’s extraordinarily wealthy coming from a person with, by his personal rely, 312 phobias. The stress is ratcheted up even additional when, whereas the elephant Dede’s coach tries to show to Sharona that elephants are innocent, Natasha instructions Dede to step on his head with a walkie-talkie taped inside her ear. It seems she didn’t injure her leg within the fall in any case; she pretended to fall after which had the elephant step on her leg after she murdered her ex. The coach noticed her do it, so she killed him too. The trauma of witnessing one thing so brutal is sufficient for Monk to see that he must be extra compassionate towards Sharona, and after they catch Natasha by discovering her fingerprints on the walkie’s batteries, she even consents to feed Dede.

This 12 Offended Males homage was a slam dunk for Monk, with Tony Shalhoub taking part in an offbeat model of the Henry Fonda basic. Monk, like Fonda’s Juror 8, is the lone “not responsible” vote on a jury in what seems to be an open-and-shut case. As he tries to persuade his fellow jurors of the younger defendant’s innocence, he chafes on the expertise of working as a group. Monk’s eccentricities are merely annoying when he’s introduced in as an skilled; to the jury of his friends, they’re a irritating hindrance. Just like the movie it’s impressed by, “Mr. Monk Will get Jury Responsibility” is electrical when it’s ratcheting up the strain between jurors, so we will ignore the truth that, as an lively contractor for the SFPD, he most likely can be dismissed from a jury fairly shortly.

An enclosed house and a ticking clock give this episode a jittery momentum, as, whereas on a flight to New Jersey with Sharona, Monk turns into satisfied {that a} fellow passenger killed his spouse and changed her with a doppelgänger. It’s not essentially the most intelligent thriller — the doppelgänger is horrible at pretending to be the useless spouse — however there are such a lot of enjoyable, meta jokes that the crime is sort of an afterthought. Tony Shalhoub’s Wings costar Tim Daly is right here taking part in himself, and Sharona is starstruck. When Monk asks her if the present was good, she replies, deadpan, “He was.” It’s additionally the primary time we see Brooke Adams, as a flight attendant who completely can’t stand Mr. Monk. Add Garry Marshall and an annoying little lady (Haylee Wanstall) to drive Monk loopy, and also you’ve received one of the crucial enjoyable Monk episodes ever aired.

It’s a seaside episode! Sharona takes Monk on trip together with her and Benjy, forgetting the truth that homicide follows him in all places. Monk has some good bonding with Benjy when the child witnesses a homicide via some seaside binoculars, however nobody believes him as a result of the room the place he noticed a girl die is squeaky clear. The shortage of Randy and the captain is made up for by Polly Draper because the resort’s safety chief, Rita Bronwyn, who is barely too excited to unravel an actual crime. That is the platonic superb of a Monk vacation spot episode: We get plenty of jokes about Monk made uncomfortable by new environment (a resort comic roasts him for hitting the seaside in a full swimsuit), friction with a brand new authority determine who doesn’t admire Monk’s items (the resort’s supervisor, who simply desires to keep away from a scene), and a last-minute clear up that ties every little thing collectively (Benjy noticed the resort’s maids murdering one in all their very own, who had been in a position to clear up the scene so shortly, then hid the physique in a suitcase within the foyer).

The scariest episode of Monk can be one in all its sweetest, as Sharona thinks she’s going insane when she begins to see a useless man following her round. There are some nasty bounce scares (or as nasty as a blue-sky present will get) of the person with a screwdriver in his neck and different gory results. Sharona, it seems, is being gaslit by her artistic writing instructor, who deliberate to make use of particulars from one in all Sharona’s tales to homicide her husband however wanted to first discredit Sharona so she couldn’t inform the police about it. However earlier than Monk figures that out, he’s at a loss for learn how to assist his assistant — and pal — and it’s heartbreaking to look at them each really feel so helpless. However that is Monk, so there are many humorous moments, too, particularly when Sharona asks her pal Varla (Niecy Nash!) to fill in for her as Monk’s assistant. That is additionally the primary time we, and Monk, meet Harold Krenshaw, after they run into one another in Dr. Kroger’s ready room after a scheduling mix-up.

Tony Shalhoub is reunited along with his Massive Evening costar Stanley Tucci on this episode about an actor who’s set to play Monk in a TV film. It’s essentially the most meta the present ever received, with plenty of little in-jokes, almost definitely together with some that went over our heads however had been references only for the present’s employees. For instance, allusions are made to an unseen producer named Hoberman, which is, after all, additionally the title of Monk’s producer. The TV film in query is a reenactment of the “killer astronaut” case (see “Mr. Monk and the Astronaut”) and Tucci’s actor character, David Ruskin, desires to spend a while shadowing Monk to be taught his methods. The tactic actor can’t deal with Monk’s darkness, and the button on this episode-long joke is that Ruskin is in England taking part in a much less miserable character — Hamlet.

The Ambrose-Adrian relationship will get its full due on this Halloween episode. With their awkward reunion out of the way in which, the writers have ample runway to discover these brothers’ relationship when Monk returns to his childhood residence. Ambrose advised him their dad known as and wished to see them. They act rather more like brothers right here — or at the least like Monk brothers — pedantically one-upping one another (Ambrose retains correcting everybody that the man dressed as Frankenstein who tried to steal his sweet ought to be known as “Frankenstein’s monster”) and bickering over whether or not they can clear out their dad’s workplace. When it turns into clear that the Frankenstein(’s monster) was attempting to steal the sweet as a result of he poisoned one of many bars, it looks as if Ambrose is likely to be in precise peril, since he ate one of many candies. Monk and his assistants are sometimes put into hazard, however we will assume that they’ll be positive; the chance of a sequence common getting killed off is fairly slim. There was an precise chance that the Monk writers may kill Ambrose after wrapping his story line. As an alternative, he pulls via, and comes again residence to a word on the door from Jack, saying that he didn’t blame them for not eager to see him, and that he was happy with Ambrose for leaving the home. Somebody hand me a tissue.

I imply … it’s Willie Nelson. Subsequent entry.

Simply kidding, however the arrival of the “Pink-Headed Stranger” does really feel like a thrown-down gauntlet on this early Monk episode. The present is looking its shot for the standard of visitor stars that it could characteristic throughout its run. As this checklist signifies, there are many iconic performers that made their strategy to Monk, however this primary one is essentially the most particular. It’s additionally only a actually tight episode of tv. Willie Nelson is accused of murdering his tour supervisor, Sonny (David Anderson), whom he caught stealing cash, as a result of a blind lady named Wendy (Jackie Richardson) recognized his voice on the scene of the crime. However Monk figures out that she’s not likely blind — she misplaced her imaginative and prescient in a childhood accident, and slowly regained it as an grownup — when she laughs at a streaker who has been pissing off the captain for many of the episode. What may have been only a humorous little bit is a part of the entire puzzle, a fantastic little trick that Monk regularly makes an attempt, to combined outcomes. However the writers pull off an additional trick with one of many uncommon situations the place a homicide feels considerably justified; Sonny brought on the crash that blinded Wendy and killed her dad and mom, and she or he killed him in revenge. It’s a uncommon second of ethical ambiguity for the usually black-and-white procedural format, with the proper bittersweet soundtrack to match.

We don’t hear a lot about Trudy and Adrian’s plans for youngsters, however this, Monk’s saddest episode, explores Monk’s fears and hopes for parenthood when he reluctantly takes in a foster child named Tommy (Preston Shores) who discovered a severed finger within the park. We watch Monk open his coronary heart to this little boy after which watch it break when he realizes he can’t take care of him the way in which he must be cared for, since he can barely take care of himself. Monk verbalizes this all in a narrative he tells Tommy, which additionally doubles because the “Right here’s what occurred,” when he figures out that Tommy’s foster mom (Nicole Sullivan) had kidnapped a person and deliberate to current his severed finger as extortion. There are, after all, some very humorous moments as Monk figures out how messy and irritating a toddler is, however relatively than merely offering comedian aid, they’re later framed as proof for Monk’s unsuitability as a father. It’s devastating, particularly because it’s Monk himself coming to that conclusion, as we acknowledge the complete extent of what Trudy’s loss took from him.

That is the platonic superb of Monk’s Columbo-fashion episodes. It has all of it! We all know who the assassin is straight away however not how he did it, offering us with a enjoyable puzzle to unravel whereas giving Monk a nemesis to sq. up towards. And this nemesis, astronaut Steve Wagner (Jeffrey Donovan) is without doubt one of the worst/greatest we’ve ever seen. He outright bullies Monk in entrance of Julie’s class, calling him weak and inspiring the youngsters to purpose their laser pointers at Monk, which might actually annoy anybody. It’s supremely satisfying, then, when Monk stops Wagner from destroying proof by actually standing in entrance of his airplane. Not so weak, buddy! I can’t show that this episode was so good it received Jeffrey Donovan his personal present, however it aired in 2006 and Burn Discover premiered in 2007, so that you do the maths.

To not be confused with “Mr. Monk and the Actor,” “Mr. Monk and the TV Star” is the very best episode of Monk for the way it pulls collectively each component that makes the present nice. There’s a winking however nonetheless goofy humor, quirky facet characters, and sufficient private stakes for Monk to present the thriller an emotional weight. Billy Burke visitor stars as an actor named Brad Terry who performs the lead on a cop present known as Crime Lab S.F. The Monk writers right here do loads of riffing on cop exhibits that permit us to really feel like we’re in on the joke, particularly with Crime Lab S.F. as an apparent stand-in for CSI, right down to its made-up tech (Stottlemeyer scoffs on the present’s “spectroscope”). “We all know that is only a present, it’s not likely how cops act. That’s positive! It’s simply TV,” the writers appear to be implying. Monk, greater than another procedural, acknowledges that stress, and takes it a step additional by having enjoyable with it.

That is additionally the place we meet Sarah Silverman’s Marci Maven, who’s launched as an obsessed fan of Terry’s. Solid earlier than Silverman’s profession took off, the character is brazenly mocking Monk viewers when she complains about Crime Lab S.F. altering their theme track; in actual life, Randy Newman’s iconic “It’s a Jungle Out There” changed a jaunty instrumental theme throughout Monk’s second season, which a vocal contingent of the fanbase was not pleased with. (To be truthful,  a lot of the fanbase is made up of boomers who worry all change.) However it’s a delicate mocking, which is strictly what makes Monk so enjoyable. Please, roast me, Andy! Monk exhibits us that we will tease one another about our obsessions — and generally even annoy the crap out of one another with them — however they make us who we’re. Loving our buddies not despite their eccentricities, however as important to what we love about them, ought to be Monk’s lasting legacy. That, and the truth that milk is definitely actually scary.