Monks' latest case has him investigating what seems to be the "accidental" death of the police commissioners' wife. Monk, however, is suspicious right from the start, and of course he's proven right in doubting the way things are set up. A flaky, phony medium (Linda Kash, "Best in Show") has conveniently been "led" to the victims' body, making her think that for once she had a real psychic ability.
Eliminating a lot of suspense is the fact that we SEE the perpetrator in action in the brief pre-credits scene; overall, this is not a great "mystery", but it DOES entertain, largely because Monk himself is such an unconventional sleuth. Granted, he's obviously got an extreme case of phobias in order to maximize the comedy potential, but Tony Shalhoub is just so winning in the role, making Monk endearing even though we can totally see his capacity to annoy a person. ESPECIALLY long-suffering nurse / companion Sharona. SHE actually has to go digging in a trash bin for an important piece of evidence that he thinks he's lost!
One of the best bits is actually the grand finale where Monk enlists the help of others, including Stottlemeyer & Disher, in putting on a big show in order to trap the murder suspect.
Personally, I'm happy to see a TV series introduce such a healthy amount of humor in the over-stuffed detective TV show genre, although I don't doubt that some episodes of Monk will be better than others.
Seven out of 10.
Eliminating a lot of suspense is the fact that we SEE the perpetrator in action in the brief pre-credits scene; overall, this is not a great "mystery", but it DOES entertain, largely because Monk himself is such an unconventional sleuth. Granted, he's obviously got an extreme case of phobias in order to maximize the comedy potential, but Tony Shalhoub is just so winning in the role, making Monk endearing even though we can totally see his capacity to annoy a person. ESPECIALLY long-suffering nurse / companion Sharona. SHE actually has to go digging in a trash bin for an important piece of evidence that he thinks he's lost!
One of the best bits is actually the grand finale where Monk enlists the help of others, including Stottlemeyer & Disher, in putting on a big show in order to trap the murder suspect.
Personally, I'm happy to see a TV series introduce such a healthy amount of humor in the over-stuffed detective TV show genre, although I don't doubt that some episodes of Monk will be better than others.
Seven out of 10.