"Here's the thing," as Monk likes to say. This program, generally-speaking, has gotten away from its successful combination of a crime and humor, and that's why the usual episode isn't as good as it was the first few years.
The writers had a combination of maybe 50 percent humor and 50 percent crime. A lot of the fascination, in addition to Mon's humorous quirks, was how brilliant he was in solving tough cases. Each episode showed how he solved the murder.
This episode, the opening one of the fifth season, is typical of the new direction it has gone. Now it's 90 percent humor and 10 percent the crime. Unfortunately, since all the regular viewers - and there are many - are so familiar Monk and his obsessive behavior, the quirks know longer entertain. The writers, certainly knowing this, have made the mistake of substituting over-the-top behavior for cleverness. We, the viewers, wind up losing.
This fifth season debut episode just left me shaking my head in disgust. It could be me, and probably is to a degree, but I have talked to others and they, too, have noticed a definite decline in the show.
In this episode we have a Monk within a Monk, an actor (real life: Stanley Tucci) who is playing Monk in a movie and actually starts to become the famous detective with all his eccentricities. Some of it was good humor, parodying our hero, but most of it got just plain stupid. The ending with the "two Monks" actually fighting it out in a Volkwagen showroom was a perfect case in point how ridiculous things have become.
Tucci is a good actor and fun to watch but I get annoyed when Capt. Stottlemeyer and Lt. Disher act stupid, which they do here because are star- struck over people playing them in a movie. There was a similar theme in a past show where these guys acted goofy like this when meeting a film "star." I expect that from Disher's character, who always acts stupid, but not from the captain.
The actual crime story probably a couple minutes of the entire show. That's not enough.
The writers had a combination of maybe 50 percent humor and 50 percent crime. A lot of the fascination, in addition to Mon's humorous quirks, was how brilliant he was in solving tough cases. Each episode showed how he solved the murder.
This episode, the opening one of the fifth season, is typical of the new direction it has gone. Now it's 90 percent humor and 10 percent the crime. Unfortunately, since all the regular viewers - and there are many - are so familiar Monk and his obsessive behavior, the quirks know longer entertain. The writers, certainly knowing this, have made the mistake of substituting over-the-top behavior for cleverness. We, the viewers, wind up losing.
This fifth season debut episode just left me shaking my head in disgust. It could be me, and probably is to a degree, but I have talked to others and they, too, have noticed a definite decline in the show.
In this episode we have a Monk within a Monk, an actor (real life: Stanley Tucci) who is playing Monk in a movie and actually starts to become the famous detective with all his eccentricities. Some of it was good humor, parodying our hero, but most of it got just plain stupid. The ending with the "two Monks" actually fighting it out in a Volkwagen showroom was a perfect case in point how ridiculous things have become.
Tucci is a good actor and fun to watch but I get annoyed when Capt. Stottlemeyer and Lt. Disher act stupid, which they do here because are star- struck over people playing them in a movie. There was a similar theme in a past show where these guys acted goofy like this when meeting a film "star." I expect that from Disher's character, who always acts stupid, but not from the captain.
The actual crime story probably a couple minutes of the entire show. That's not enough.