Mr. Monk Takes the Stand

Being a Criminal justice major I have a hard time with many shows about lawyers and specially court room shows, and even though I know they did it for comedy sake, this was HORRIBLE! You want to see a funny comedy about courtrooms watch, "Nightcort", at least they get it (bacially) correct. There was SO Much wrong with this its not even worth my time to mention them all, but lets highlight the worst thing...NO ONE that takes the STAND is allowed to guess or speculate, nor can they testify on 'hunches' 'feeling' or 'beliefs' specially of people other than themselves. No lawyer would allow such questioning without objection and the judge would make sure it was stricken from the record.

Again if other shows had NOT managed to 'set the bar' for courtroom commedy (My Cousin Vinny/Night court) I would let this slide but I just can't.

Monk quickly figures out that a husband, a long-haired sculptor with a surly attitude, killed his wife, but then must face the accused man's lawyer, played by Jay Mohr. The lawyer and Monk have crossed swords before, and the lawyer soon makes mincemeat of Monk's testimony. The killer walks, but as we have seen before, you don't want to cross Mr. Monk. In a subplot, a young man whom Disher once mentored is accused of killing a store clerk. Disher asks for Monk's help, and pretty soon ... well, see the episode for yourself. Mohr and Shalhoub play off each other very well. And wait until you find out what happened to a missing two-ton piece of quartz, which has to do with the surly artist with the dead wife (again, see the episode).

... especially in some of Monk's wilder cases like that of the astronaut.

Here Monk has accused a sculptor of murdering his wife. The artist had been working on a sculpture that he could not have possibly completed in one night if he had taken the time to drive to his wife's house, committed the murder, and driven back. He has a delivery receipt for the marble from the previous afternoon, thus proving he has not been working on the sculpture before last night. Monk postulates that the artist used his jackhammer to reduce the slab to gravel and spread it in his driveway, and that the statue in his studio is something he completed from some other slab of marble at an earlier point in time.

Normally this would be the end of the episode, but in walks a prominent attorney to defend the artist in court. When Monk takes the stand the attorney has figured out all of his weaknesses and ties him in knots. The artist is acquitted. Is this the end of the story? Watch and find out.

This show is only about 45 minutes in length, so there was never time to see what happened in court or if any of the defendants had attorneys who tried to push back on the theory of the crime as delivered by Monk. In short, to give us Order they had to shortchange on the Law. Here we see the opposite for a change.

When one considers that idiosyncrasies are a daily part of Monk's life, one has to imagine that they have shown up before when he is the most distinctive witness. Here, a fast talking jerk is able to turn him to rubble (like the driveway). He is so quick to quit when things aren't perfect. But on tis show, there is always a second chance.

That accolade belongs to Mr Monk and the rapper, which I have reviewed.