User Reviews

The episodes have been getting progressively worse over the past two seasons. Monk has become more of a buffoon, leaving the detective that he was in the first seasons farther and farther behind. He has become a walking OCD joke. And whatever happened to solving Trudy's murder? Oh, wait--we have to watch visual gags in which Monk is paralyzed by things that did not paralyze him in the first season. Stottlemyre and Disher are cartoons, a complete 180 from the competent, tough and sometime hostile cops that they were in the beginning. Natalie is not Sharona--well, volumes have been written about that. That dispute comes close to the debate among "Star Trek" fans over Kirk vs Picard. Now, with this season, it seemed like there was a bit of a turnaround, like the quality of the writing was returning to the show's roots. "Monk" was going to be about mysteries again, and watching Monk solve them, and not about visual gags involving OCD. I was able to go along with tonight's episode, until we reached the half-hour mark. *****Caution: Some spoilers******** There is a robbery at Monk's home bank branch, where he keeps a safe deposit box, with a memento of Trudy. So far, so good. The characters were introduced competently, and the plot is not so far-fetched as to require us to accept the broad contradictions of the past three seasons (55 minutes of Monk as a quivering mass of OCD jelly, then solving the case--Monk ex machina--in the last 5 minutes). But this one fell apart at the half. The robbery is an inside job, and the co-conspirator locks Monk, Natalie, Stottlemyre and Disher in the vault. OK, at this point, I was disappointed, because, in my opinion, the stories are most enjoyable when the audience is kept in suspense until as late as possible about the true identity of the perpetrator. The worst "Monk"s have been those in which we see the killer murder his victim in the teaser before the opening credits. This one avoided that. But there is a huge plot hole here: In every other episode, going back to 2002, Stottlemyre and Disher carry cell phones. So, when locked in the vault, where are the phones? Next, bank vaults are not air-tight. But this story turns on the perpetrators' hope that Monk and crew will suffocate "in 9 hours". If you worked in a bank, like I did, you'd know that vaults are vented, for just such a situation. Next question about this episode: In the advertising run-up for tonight's episode, the tag line was that Monk was cured. But that is not part of the story, and is not even hinted at in the dialog, from any character. He was not "cured". If anything, Monk was written tonight to behave pretty much like he did in the first season. That is, he has his obsessions, but he can still function. The next problem: This plot recycles elements from previous episodes. Locked in a vault--same as being trapped in an elevator in "Mr Monk and the Blackout". SPOILER: Every employee in the bank is involved in the robbery? Same as the cleaning ladies in "Mr Monk Takes a Vacation". Actually, it's the same plot as "Murder on the Orient Express", isn't it? I hate to see what was once such a good show fade like this. Tony Shalhoub must have gambling debts, he must need the money. Otherwise, I would have expected that he would have chosen to go out on a high note, when the quality of the show was still high. Just watch the old episodes, when USA has another Monk-a-thon, or on DVD, and you can see, you can see how the quality of the scripts has fallen, and how the characters have been redrawn in ways that contradict their earlier incarnations. And no, you can't explain that away by saying, "people change or grow over time". They were more believable before, and so, more enjoyable to watch. It's hard to watch "Monk" anymore, and that's too bad, because of what the show once was.

The show opens with Natalie telling Moron Monk he needs to replace his 27 year old toaster. Moron Monk is too cheap to spend the 20 to 30 dollars to replace his precious heirloom which he may have owned before his Trudy marriage. Wow. Cheapo Monk has a nice apartment that likely cost 1200 dollars a month, he sees Dr. Kroger, what 3 times a week. That must cost him 300 dollar a visit. That adds up to 3600 a month. No wonder he can't pay his assistants what they are worth. Yet because, well he is a moron, halfwit Monk can give a stranger 2 dollars so she will have an even 100 dollars to put in the bank where he is now working as a security guard to find Trudy's missing jewelry. The clod wastes his bank time and ink to even out the ink in two Bic pens. Wow. This is funny, ha ha.