"Monk" Mr. Monk and the Psychic (2002)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Kevin Inch

Writers:

Andy Breckman (creator)
John Romano (written by)

TV Series:

"Monk" (2002)

Original Air Date:

19 July 2002 (Season 1, Episode 3)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery | Crime

Plot:

A panicky woman driver goes off the road thanks to a skid block placed by her husband, former police commissioner Harry Ashcombe...

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Obsessive Compulsive Disorder | Murder | Widower | Multiple Actors For One Character

Cast

Tony Shalhoub	...	Adrian Monk
Bitty Schram	...	Sharona Fleming
Jason Gray-Stanford	...	Lt. Randall Disher
Ted Levine	...	Captain Leland Stottlemeyer
Linda Kash	...	Dolly Flint
John Bourgeois	...	Commissioner Harry Ashcombe
Kate Trotter	...	Kate Ashcombe
Jenny Levine	...	Jennifer Zepetelli
Max Morrow	...	Benjy Fleming
Dean McKenzie	...	PR Spokesperson (as Dean Monroe McKenzie)
Bill Lake	...	Hardware Owner
Andrew Gillies	...	Daniel
Roger Peterson	...	First Reporter (as Roger Petersen)
J.C. Kenny	...	Second Reporter
Vito Tassielli	...	Uniformed Cop

Color:

Color

Certification:

Portugal:M/12

Company:

Mandeville Films

Quotes:

Adrian Monk: [about Ashcombe's wife] You don't believe it was an accident?
Jennifer Zepetelli: All I know is, Harry Ashcombe is a very dangerous man. I hope you know what you're doing.
[cut to later, in Monk's apartment]
Sharona Fleming: Do you know what you're doing?
Adrian Monk: Relax, I have been handling refrigerators since I was fifteen.
Sharona Fleming: I mean about the case. The former Commissioner isn't just another suspect, Adrian. He is connected. He is the man, and you'd better be sure about this.
Adrian Monk: I'm as sure as I can be... without, any, you know, proof.
[Sharona face-palms]

Movie Connections:

References "Law & Order" (1990)

Quirky as expected

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A woman disappears but is soon found by a psychic who claims she found the woman's body through her special gift. Monk doesn't believe in psychic powers and soon suspects it is murder but must convince everyone else, especially Sharona who thinks the psychic is the real deal and wants a lovelife reading.

Monk's techniques are very similar to the sort of stuff in the original Sherlock Holmes stories (blisters on an finger in one later episode leads him to conclude a man has been on a fishing trip), but often the murder case takes a back seat to an exploration of Monk's OCD and the tragi-comedic situations it leads to.

This episode has some amusing and lovely interactions between him and his nurse, Sharona, and lifts the whole thing above the usual detective fare on TV. The endings is a little implausible, and no-one seems to actually feel anything for the dead person, but this is a quirky show rather than a drama.