"Monk" Mr. Monk and the Leper (2006)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Randall Zisk

Writers:

Andy Breckman (creator)
Charles Evered (written by)

TV Series:

"Monk" (2002)

Original Air Date:

22 December 2006 (Season 5, Episode 10)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery | Crime

Plot:

Monk deals with leprosy on two fronts as he's called to testify that a leper is indeed alive so that his money isn't given away. |

Plot Keywords:

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

Cast

Tony Shalhoub	...	Adrian Monk
Traylor Howard	...	Natalie Teeger
Jason Gray-Stanford	...	Lt. Randall Disher
Ted Levine	...	Captain Leland Stottlemeyer
Sarah Brown	...	Mandy Bronson
Paul Blackthorne	...	Dr. Polanski
Stephen Bogardus	...	Derek Bronson
Emmy Clarke	...	Julie Teeger
Lawrence O'Donnell	...	Judge Barr (as Lawrence O'Donnell Jr.)
Timothy Davis-Reed	...	Nephew's Lawyer
Anne Gee Byrd	...	Mrs. Kennedy
Geoffrey Wade	...	Mandy's Lawyer
Katie F. Ward	...	Receptionist

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Certification:

USA:TV-PG

Company:

Kaledo Dritte Productions

Trivia:

On its original airing, this episode was presented first in black & white and then in color. USA Network then held an on-line poll for viewers to indicate which version they preferred. The episode opened with Tony Shalhoub providing an intro from the set about how it would be airing in black & white. It closed with Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford introducing the color version, with Ted insisting it was better in color and Jason preferring to agree with Tony.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Randy is trying to remove his picture from the wall in the dermatologist's office, the picture below his is straight, crooked, and straight again in subsequent shots.

A FILM NOIR: Cool......Very Cool!

This has the best beginning I've ever seen on a Monk show. That's because I am biased, being a big fan of film noir movies, those great black-and-white crime films of the late '40s and early '50s.

The star of this show, actor Tony Shalhoub, greets us in a first-ever pre-introduction and explains that this show has all the elements of a film noir and so they filmed it in black-and-white. Sit back and enjoy, he says.....and I did. That opening segment has some of the best photography I've ever seen and it is truly great film cinematography. Monk meets a rich man who has disappeared for seven years and then tells (and shows himself, out of the shadows) as a man who has leprosy!!

After the commercial, we see the germ-conscious Adrian Monk freaking out and the film shifts to comedy for a bit until it settles into the story featuring deception, a femme fatal and all the other goodies of good noir.....yet, at the same time keeping it's comedy close by.

We also find Natalie getting a boy friend, a dermatologist played by Englishman Paul Blackthorn. He's the guy who played a terrorist in the series '24."

It got a little silly in the end and, for once, I had the crime solved before Monk figured it out. Kudos to the show for this unique black-and-white presentation. It was nice to see.