Personally, this was one of the worst Monk episodes I've ever seen. I may be a tad biased because it's a bit of an insult to the genera it tried to emulate but none the less.
The "geaera" I refer to is not biased on how much everyone knows about each other, but on how theatrical they can present that information. And, well, to be honest... Monk's character isn't really suited for the job and the "Genius" only complements monks own character. Basically instead of theatricality we have a bunch of old men bickering.
Hell, they further kill the genera by "humanizing" Monk (he tried to plant evidence that he would later "discover") and even making him incompetent in chess (yes, it's Monks character... but this is a battle of the MINDS, you can't turn down the opportunity to have Adrian beat the sorry fellow in his own game before solving the case) The worse thing is they spend so much time trying to emulate the genera that the case barely gets any notice. They spend more time having these isles "clashes" (I knew my wife would hire you before I killed her, I know you drink Sierra Springs, I noticed a car sitting in my drive way for 2 hours.) The whole case was solved in the first 10 min... which is particularly why the whole episode seemed desperate. There was no battle of wits to fill the space, just Monk trying not to lose and failing at that.
The "geaera" I refer to is not biased on how much everyone knows about each other, but on how theatrical they can present that information. And, well, to be honest... Monk's character isn't really suited for the job and the "Genius" only complements monks own character. Basically instead of theatricality we have a bunch of old men bickering.
Hell, they further kill the genera by "humanizing" Monk (he tried to plant evidence that he would later "discover") and even making him incompetent in chess (yes, it's Monks character... but this is a battle of the MINDS, you can't turn down the opportunity to have Adrian beat the sorry fellow in his own game before solving the case) The worse thing is they spend so much time trying to emulate the genera that the case barely gets any notice. They spend more time having these isles "clashes" (I knew my wife would hire you before I killed her, I know you drink Sierra Springs, I noticed a car sitting in my drive way for 2 hours.) The whole case was solved in the first 10 min... which is particularly why the whole episode seemed desperate. There was no battle of wits to fill the space, just Monk trying not to lose and failing at that.