Diane and I used to watch Monk, a hour-long police procedural, that aired from 2002 until 2009 on the USA Network. Each episode presented a different murder to solve. What differentiated Monk from the other whodunit TV shows at the time was the fun the screenplays had with the quirky brilliance of its lead investigator, Adrian Monk (played by Tony Shalhoub), who epitomized obsessive-compulsive disorder. Now, after almost 15 years, Shalhoub and most of his original castmates are back, in a new movie on the Peacock streaming service, titled Mr. Monk’s Last Case.
The original Monk series played like a comedy. Monk creator Andy Breckman submitted the show for Emmy consideration in the comedy categories, and Shalhoub competed against sitcom stars to win the award for lead actor three times. And, until The Walking Dead came along, the finale of Monk held the record as the most-viewed scripted drama on cable television.
In Mr. Monk’s Last Case things are not going well for Mr. Monk. After working on his memoirs for 10 years, Monk’s publisher rejects his massive manuscript–pages and pages praising Monk’s stove–which spends too few pages on the 140 murders he solved. The publisher demands Monk return the advance they paid him a decade ago. Monk has promised to pay for his step-daughter, Molly’s, wedding and now confronts another failure.
But Fate steps in just as Monk is on the brink of despair and proves him a murder to solve: Molly’s fiancé dies in a freak bungee-cord jump and Molly is convinced he was murdered. After a short resistance to entering the investigative world again, Monk goes all in.
Although the title of this TV movie is Mr. Monk’s Last Case, I’m hoping for more of Mr. Monk. Were you a Monk fan? GRADE: B+
Sometimes yes, but sometimes his shtick just got too annoying and we quit watching. I do recommend the series of paperback novelizations by Lee Goldberg, which always have enough humor to balance Monk’s neuroses.
Jeff, I agree with you on the Lee Goldberg MONK books. Fun reading!
Just what Jeff said. His shtick on THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL got to be too much too.
Patti, I agree with you and Jeff. Some actors have a Bad Habit in over-acting on occasion.
Even/particularly on WINGS, as well. Shalhoub will tend toward the easy thing too often (our latter-day Walter Matthau), but (like WM) can do better whenever he cares. I’m not quite sure how deep the joke went in suggesting his was an East Asian character in GALAXY QUEST.
Not really. Watched a few episodes the first season but didn’t find them particularly well written. More on a level of Murder She Wrote or Matlock.
Steve, I think the middle seasons of MONK were the best because of better scripts.
I found MONK acceptable when I was in the mood, though I recently caught a late/middle-season episode where Monk had grown enraged and vengeful (more so than usual) that had a surprising edge to it (the other characters were also taken aback. I also saw a chunk of this reunion film when it played on USA or NBC or one of their cousins. Not too shabby, indeed. About at the level of the COLUMBO revival’s better episodes.
Todd, MONK is available on the HALLMARK channel and the whole MONK series is on Peacock.
Also, I believe on several others, or was recently. I probably saw the series episode I refer to on IFC, not much of an International Film Channel any longer nor for quite some time, or on earlier runs on the NBC-owned broadcast network Cozi TV.
I had cut the cord by the time this hit cable but I remember it having a pretty good following at the time. I didn’t see any episodes until it showed up on one of the FAST channels I get with my antenna-COZI or maybe STARTTV. I like Tony Shalhoub enough but my impression of the episodes I caught seemed less clever and quirky than I expected and the whole OCD thing seemed a bit forced and even disingenuous. Still, I’m a big proponent of hang out TV and I suspect people are into this much as they are “Columbo” and “Murder She Wrote” (both of which are perfectly fine time killers and some “Columbo” episodes can even be pretty good). If Peacock ends up doing one or two “Monk” movies a year that’d be nice for the fans and I’m a fan of people having nice things, especially these days.
Did you end up watching all of “Poker Face?” I only caught the first episode but my library has the blu-ray set and I’m thinking of checking it out but I don’t know anyone around here who has watched it. If you think it’s worth a casual watch I’ll pick it up.
Byron, I enjoyed POKER FACE and hope the Second Season shows up sometime this year. I suspect MONK is not the kind of show that is binge-worthy. The formula gets a little tired after a few episodes. But, taken in moderation, MONK can be fun.
We never watched MONK. If we ever try it, I will keep all these comments in mind. I had forgotten that Tony Shalhoub was in Galaxy Quest. I love that movie and he was fine in that.
Tracy, if you watch MONK in moderation, it’s fun. But I found it formulaic so a little MONK watching is okay, binging will sour the experience.