Reviews & Ratings for
"Monk" Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever (2008)

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
'Natalie' Becomes A Local Celebrity, 7 August 2008

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Natalie becomes San Francisco's "Gold Rush Lotto Girl." The previous one is chased out of the TV station late one evening and killed. (These are the women who read the day's lotto numbers off the ping pong balls.) At the crime scene, the station manager notices Adrian Monk's assistant and - presto! - Natalie Teeger is the fill-in the next night. She does so well that the manager asks if she'd do it full-time, meaning three times a week.

Immediately (at least in the episode) Natalie's face and body is plastered over city buses and she becomes a San Francisco celebrity. People stop her on the street and ask for autographs. She's a star.....and Monk is not happy. She isn't paying attention to the crime job and Monk gives her an ultimatum: pick which job she wants but she can't do both. She quits him! Monk, of course, is now very depressed....but at least he continues on the case. (We all know Natalie will come back to him in the end, anyway.) It was pretty obvious who the killer was, but how it all transpired is kind of neat. We also get a humorous look at a lotto fanatic.....and I mean, fanatic.

The episode, like many Monk ones in the last few years, is more humor than crime story. Some of the stuff with Stottlemeyer and Disher is kind of stupid, but that's normal, too! This episode really belonged to Traylor Howard ("Natalie Teeger") who seems to be getting more and more airtime, but that's okay. She's been with the show now for three years and has fit in admirably, replacing the popular Bitty Schram as "Sharona Fleming."

6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
It's show time, 4 August 2008

Author: ctomvelu-1 from United States

Natalie gets lottery fever when she is asked to fill in for the lottery girl on a local TV channel. Monk is adrift without Natalie, who ends up getting a full-time gig as the lottery person. A very funny scene has Monk disparaging Natalie's new job to his shrink, only to find he is unable to duplicate what she does on stage. Meanwhile, the lottery fix is in and people are getting killed, and Monk is soon on the trail of the bad guy. The gal playing Natalie has been getting more and more screen time, and deserves it. She has turned out to be a cut above Monk's last nanny, Sharona. Heck, the pretty teenager playing her daughter gets her fair share of screen time, and also deserves it. Monk by himself can grow tiresome, but with a solid supporting cast, he comes up a winner every time.

Excellent Drawing, 13 November 2010

Author: dmcreif from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

In this rather excellent episode, we see Natalie stepping into the spotlight as a lottery hostess when the previous occupant of the job is murdered. But dividing her time between this job and being Monk's assistant is the hardest part.

What makes this episode great is the constant use of running gags throughout the plot:

1. During the initial investigation, Monk signs an autograph for a police officer, using Natalie's back as a writing desk. Later, Natalie signs an autograph for a fan, using Monk's back for the same thing.

2. People say things that are normally other peoples' lines.

Randy writes down a zinger: "It looks like her number came up." The same police officer whom Monk has just signed an autograph for then says the same thing (Randy gets very angry hearing this).

Monk says "You'll thank you later," which is how Natalie signs off as a lottery hostess.

3. Monk twice mocks Natalie's drawing of lottery numbers, first while in session with Dr. Bell, and later while investigating a lottery fanatic's death.

All in all, a great episode!

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Can someone close this plot hole?, 22 December 2009

Author: nycadre from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I just watched this episode last night (okay, so I'm a little behind). It seems to me there's a colossal hole in the plot that invalidates the whole story. Can anyone answer this question? *SPOILER ALERT*

According to Monk's reconstruction, after Billy the sound guy fixed the balls so that the six numbers his truck-driver friend had would come up, he was fired, so he couldn't undo the gaff. So instead, he arranged for Stottlemeyer to share the prize, so that Billy could raise a scandal based on Stottlemeyer's and Natalie's friendship.

But how in blue blazes could Billy the (fired) sound guy arrange for Stottlemeyer's ticket to have the exact same numbers as the truck-driver's? If the lottery is one where you pick your own numbers, he'd have to control Stottlemeyer's mind so that he picked those six numbers. Otherwise, he'd have to know where Stottlemeyer was going to buy his tickets, and hack the computer *at that location* so that *at the moment* Stottlemeyer bought his ticket, it would issue those same six numbers. There was nothing in the plot that would suggest Billy had that kind of skill.

<-----12-22-2009-----MSG----->

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