Both "Monk" and "psych" suffer from the same implausibility -- Adrian Monk and Shawn Spencer are adept at noting details the officers and detectives around them should have no trouble spotting -- but don't.
"The Rockford Files" is also implausible. PIs rarely, if ever, get involved in significant crimes -- especially not week after week. But "Rockford"'s gritty/cheap ambiance, and its sharp writing, made it a classic that neither "Monk" nor "psych" will ever be.
Which is not to say that "lesser" series can't occasionally reach "Rockford" level. This episode does. An apparently simple event -- a car crash that causes a pileup -- is the starting point for Monk's analysis that reveals it wasn't an accident, but murder. Naturally, the Highway Patrol doesn't believe him. (It would have been even better had it been edited so that the audience learns what actually happened as Monk is investigating. But that type of non-linear presentation is asking a lot from casual TV viewers.)
An excellent change of pace for a formulaic series.
Students of drama will note that this episode obeys Aristotle's three unities -- time, place, and action.
"The Rockford Files" is also implausible. PIs rarely, if ever, get involved in significant crimes -- especially not week after week. But "Rockford"'s gritty/cheap ambiance, and its sharp writing, made it a classic that neither "Monk" nor "psych" will ever be.
Which is not to say that "lesser" series can't occasionally reach "Rockford" level. This episode does. An apparently simple event -- a car crash that causes a pileup -- is the starting point for Monk's analysis that reveals it wasn't an accident, but murder. Naturally, the Highway Patrol doesn't believe him. (It would have been even better had it been edited so that the audience learns what actually happened as Monk is investigating. But that type of non-linear presentation is asking a lot from casual TV viewers.)
An excellent change of pace for a formulaic series.
Students of drama will note that this episode obeys Aristotle's three unities -- time, place, and action.