I started watching this show in 2013, about four years after the show's run ended. I got into it because my mom owned some seasons of the show on DVD and I started watching them with her. I became a huge fan at one point and we ended up collecting all seasons on DVD. However, as I continued watching the series, I came to realize that I do have some issues with it, a lot of them having to do with some of the later seasons.
The show is about a former detective named Adrian Monk. He was once on the San Francisco Police Department, but was discharged after the utterly devastating event that was his wife Trudy's death from a car bomb. He now works with them as a consultant. He suffers from an extremely crippling case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and has over 300 phobias. However, he is an extremely gifted detective because of his amazing attention to detail, his flawless memory, and his ability to put all the pieces together. With help from his assistant Sharona/Natalie, Lieutenant Randy Disher, and Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, he is determined to bring justice to all the cases he works on and hopes to solve the mystery of his wife's murder.
There is a lot to love about this show. A lot of the plots and mysteries of the episodes are quite engaging and have you hooked all the way through. A lot of them are very intricately put together, and watching Detective Monk do his thing and eventually solve the case is always a pleasure to watch. When Monk solves the cases and explains what happened in each episode, they would always show the flashback in black and white, which is a good stylistic choice.
For the most part, Adrian Monk is quite an endearing character, played brilliantly by Tony Shalhoub. He is a character you really feel for, who you really want to see succeed. Some of the time, the OCD portrayed in the show felt quite relatable to me, having suffered from it myself. The supporting characters are quite great as well. They all play off of the title character really well and contribute a lot to the plot in most episodes.
The show can also be pretty funny and is even able to tug at your heart strings on occasions.
However, the show also has some things I didn't like. In the later half of the show's run, the show went into a somewhat sitcom-esque direction, which didn't quite sit well with me.
Also in the later seasons, they really started to lose their touch on the portrayal of Adrian Monk. As the series went on, a lot of his OCD quirks were becoming more and more exaggerated. It felt like OCD just for the sake of OCD. He sometimes felt like a man with OCD who just happens to work for the police department; he just wasn't as endearing as he used to be. There were honestly some episodes where I had a hard time taking the character seriously. There is a limit to how far you should take something like this.
There are also times in which Adrian Monk's self-centeredness went to far, such as in the series' worst episode, "Mr. Monk on Wheels." I also didn't care for what Randy Disher became as the show went on. He became too much of a buffoon and was often embarrassing to watch.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the later seasons were a complete waste, as there were still plenty of great episodes that came from them. It's just that the later seasons are where a lot of the show's worst material came from and aren't as consistent as the first few seasons.
Some of my favorite episodes are "Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum", "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect", "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail", "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month", "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic", "Mr. Monk and the Kid", "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk", "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad", "Mr. Monk is On the Air", "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man", "Mr. Monk and the Wrong Man", "Mr. Monk's Other Brother", "Mr. Monk and the Magician", and "Mr. Monk is Someone Else".
Some of the worst episodes after "Mr. Monk on Wheels" are "Mr. Monk Stays in Bed", "Mr. Monk Goes to the Office", "Mr. Monk and the Actor", "Mr. Monk Goes to the Hospital", "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", and "Mr. Monk and the Critic".
At the end of the day, I do still love this show, even if it's far from perfect. There may be quite a few episodes I never want to watch again, but there is definitely more good on this show than bad, and I recommend checking it out if you haven't already.
RATING: B
The show is about a former detective named Adrian Monk. He was once on the San Francisco Police Department, but was discharged after the utterly devastating event that was his wife Trudy's death from a car bomb. He now works with them as a consultant. He suffers from an extremely crippling case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and has over 300 phobias. However, he is an extremely gifted detective because of his amazing attention to detail, his flawless memory, and his ability to put all the pieces together. With help from his assistant Sharona/Natalie, Lieutenant Randy Disher, and Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, he is determined to bring justice to all the cases he works on and hopes to solve the mystery of his wife's murder.
There is a lot to love about this show. A lot of the plots and mysteries of the episodes are quite engaging and have you hooked all the way through. A lot of them are very intricately put together, and watching Detective Monk do his thing and eventually solve the case is always a pleasure to watch. When Monk solves the cases and explains what happened in each episode, they would always show the flashback in black and white, which is a good stylistic choice.
For the most part, Adrian Monk is quite an endearing character, played brilliantly by Tony Shalhoub. He is a character you really feel for, who you really want to see succeed. Some of the time, the OCD portrayed in the show felt quite relatable to me, having suffered from it myself. The supporting characters are quite great as well. They all play off of the title character really well and contribute a lot to the plot in most episodes.
The show can also be pretty funny and is even able to tug at your heart strings on occasions.
However, the show also has some things I didn't like. In the later half of the show's run, the show went into a somewhat sitcom-esque direction, which didn't quite sit well with me.
Also in the later seasons, they really started to lose their touch on the portrayal of Adrian Monk. As the series went on, a lot of his OCD quirks were becoming more and more exaggerated. It felt like OCD just for the sake of OCD. He sometimes felt like a man with OCD who just happens to work for the police department; he just wasn't as endearing as he used to be. There were honestly some episodes where I had a hard time taking the character seriously. There is a limit to how far you should take something like this.
There are also times in which Adrian Monk's self-centeredness went to far, such as in the series' worst episode, "Mr. Monk on Wheels." I also didn't care for what Randy Disher became as the show went on. He became too much of a buffoon and was often embarrassing to watch.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the later seasons were a complete waste, as there were still plenty of great episodes that came from them. It's just that the later seasons are where a lot of the show's worst material came from and aren't as consistent as the first few seasons.
Some of my favorite episodes are "Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum", "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect", "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail", "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month", "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic", "Mr. Monk and the Kid", "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk", "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad", "Mr. Monk is On the Air", "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man", "Mr. Monk and the Wrong Man", "Mr. Monk's Other Brother", "Mr. Monk and the Magician", and "Mr. Monk is Someone Else".
Some of the worst episodes after "Mr. Monk on Wheels" are "Mr. Monk Stays in Bed", "Mr. Monk Goes to the Office", "Mr. Monk and the Actor", "Mr. Monk Goes to the Hospital", "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", and "Mr. Monk and the Critic".
At the end of the day, I do still love this show, even if it's far from perfect. There may be quite a few episodes I never want to watch again, but there is definitely more good on this show than bad, and I recommend checking it out if you haven't already.
RATING: B