Mr. Monk and Sharona

It was great to see Sharona back with Adrian. I've really missed her on the show. I don't want to take anything away from Natalie, or dis her in any way because she has been a great replacement. However, Sharona was a huge part of the appeal of this show. I am so glad they brought her back for an episode before retiring this awesome television comedy/drama. I'm thankful that Sharona ended up with some much needed finances AND I loved that she hooked up with ____________(spoiler). Watch the episode to see who I mean. I know Monk is coming to an end soon and I'll have to find another series for comedy. As far as the mystery/detective stories, I've already found an awesome one, "The Mentalist". It's a wonderful series with a lead that is just as smart as Monk, but he also "reads people's minds", not literally but somehow he can sense what they are thinking. This was a great episode that would score high anyway but, with the addition of Sharona, I give it a perfect 10..!!

Wait. Something's not right.....

How can an episode of Monk, which contains BOTH his lovely assistants, Natalie and Sharona, at the same time, on the same show, have only one lone user review (July 2012)?

And how can the description of this most excellent episode be so commonplace? It's written as though the return of Sharona is just another plot line in this 8th and final season of Monk. Hello?!

Here's the thing...

Is it not thoroughly understood that Monk fans loved both Sharona AND Natalie, not to mention the fine actresses behind the characters? Hey, initially we loved Sharona, and for some people, breaking up the dynamic duo of Adrian and Sharona was like breaking up.... well, you know. (hint: "dynamic duo"). But then the impossible happened. We fell in love with Sharona's replacement, perky Natalie Teeger. Traylor Howard fell into the role in season 3.5 every bit as naturally as Bitty Schram did in season 1. So here we are, the audience, men and women alike, loving two characters at the same time. :>

So what could be better than having both Howard and Schram appear TOGETHER in the same episode?? This is big news people! So let's see if we (the audience) can't get it together and tell the world, visa vi a few more reviews, that we loved this episode. It may not have been easy to make it happen! And, it was a good episode. Natalie and Sharona played off each other beautifully. Throw in Monk, and all of them together reminded me of the Three Stooges... with emotional battering substituted for a physical poke in the eye.

But seriously, you really get an opportunity in this episode to see how each actress adapted to the role in her own unique way, with Schram taking the no-nonsense tough-girl stance toward Monk, and Howard playing the compassionate, sympathetic assistant. Neither approach was better or worse, simply the right approach for each actress's core temperament. But what is really noteworthy here are the *similarities* between the two women. Both actresses take full advantage of the gifted writing, acting out the script with not only convincing performances, but enhancing their performance with *nuance*. For instance, there are many Ricky Gervais style "throw away" lines in the scripts, and what I am referring to is the many many one-liners that are not given a focused setup... just simply uttered (or muttered) by Monk's assistant. Both Schram and Howard get the lines off wonderfully, without out drawing undo attention to themselves. Sometimes I have to stop the DVD to compose myself after Sharona or Natalie squeeze in a short one-liner that leaves you howling. And then there's the looks they give Monk. Priceless. Either actress would have fared well in the silent picture days.

So how did the producers entice Bitty Schram to come in and do a guest shot, considering that there may have been hard feelings on both side when she departed? Well....

Here's what happened...

Andy Breckman was secretly in love with Betty. When she moved back to New Jersey after leaving the show at season 3.5 Breckman was heartbroken. He only had himself to blame however, as it was at his insistence that Betty demanded 100 Million dollars per episode.

For the next 5 years Breckman tried to get Betty back to the show, but David Hoberman blocked every attempt, because he had fallen in love with Traylor Howard. This left Breckman and Hoberman in opposition for that 5 years because Howard started showing sympathy for Schram and wouldn't date Hoberman until the issue was resolved. Bitty and Traylor finally stepped forward with a proposed solution. In their personal lives this meant something along the lines of a love quadrangle (whatever that is). On the show it simply meant writing in Sharona to appear as a guest star.

Duh! Why didn't they think of that sooner? They did, and both Breckman and Hoberman loved the idea, but as it turns out Schram and Howard secretly detested each other, but only as actresses, and refused to work together on set. Bitty thought she had played the best assistant Monk could ever have, and of course Traylor felt the same way about her own performance. Thus, animosity abounded.

Finally though the two actresses agreed to work together for one show only... just to see how it went. Breckman and Hoberman were ecstatic!

But if this is all true how come Howard and Schram had such good chemistry in the episode? Because they are PROFESSIONAL actresses, that's how. And it was worth the effort, because not only did the cast turn in a great episode, Traylor and Bitty got past their superficial contempt for each other and became gal-pals.

And everyone lived happily ever after.

Someone give me a wipe. I think I'm gonna cry...

Q: Dude, is all that love stuff actually true?

A: Not a single word. Except for the fact that Howard and Schram rock!

Sharona returns to look into her uncle's accidental death, and Monk is soon caught up in what may be something other than an accident. The old guy took a spill on a golf course, but Monk isn't so sure that's what killed him. Sharona is beside herself, as the country club involved has offered her a very generous settlement that will more than cover Benjy's college. Sharona and Natalie spar over Monk, of course. We all know the actress who played Sharona in the first season left in a contract dispute, but there's no way to tell. It's like Bitty Schram never left the series. Monk, upon seeing Sharona for the first time in years, says "What year is this?" A fun episode.

It seems almost everyone prefers Sharona but after the first season with Nathalie and I got used to her, I ended up liking her more.

This episode is good but maybe because I've been binged watching the series, something felt off.

Sharona used to be more passive to Monk (except the episode where see had a phobia) so it felt strange to hear her say things like "shake it off", while Natalie is not assertive and she's the one to cave in tool Monk.

Sharona returns to San Francisco to deal with the settlement of her uncle's wrongful death. He fell down some steps on a golf course at a country club and hit his head and died in the process. Sharona was expecting that the settlement would be about five thousand dollars, but it turns out to be "real money", although the audience is never told the amount. Sharona does say it is enough to send her now grown son, Benjie, to college.

But then Monk is in the room where the settlement was made, looks at a few of the photos of the scene, and begins to make those Monk noises indicating this might not be the scene of an accident. Sharona doesn't want to hear it, because if this is murder there is no check. Complications ensue.

This was, of course, part of a season long set of episodes tying up the loose ends of the characters, and so Bitty Schram is brought back one last time to wind up the story of Sharona, Monk's nurse when he first had his breakdown and for the first two and a half seasons of the show. So Natalie and Sharona are at first glad to meet, each having heard so much about the other. But as they work on this "case", their very different styles rub each other the wrong way. Natalie is more the assistant - she was never a nurse. She is even more formal in how she addresses him as "Mr. Monk". Sharona was always tough on him. She had to be, especially in the beginning, or else his phobias would have forever paralyzed him. And there is one last very surprising turn to Sharona's story at the end.