This has to rank as one of the funniest in this series as Monk actually winds up with the job of coaching a high school basketball team. We begin with Julie on the court with others in a practice where he coach Lynn Hayden is obviously bothered by something so much that she cannot focus on her coaching at all.
After practice and after the players all left, in an unusual move, Coach Hayden takes a shower in the players' locker room. She would be much more likely to just go home to shower OR there would be a coach's shower in her office area. While she is showering, an unknown person sneaks into the room and sets up a hair dryer, a towel over a drain, and a leaky pipe under a sink to arrange for the electrocution of the coach when she steps out of the shower.
The police view it as an accident, but Julie and two teammates "hire" Mr. Monk to investigate. He finds plenty of evidence that it was done on purpose, but nothing conclusive and no leads toward anyone who might have wanted her dead. He interviews Hayden's brother, who is living with her after two bad divorces and he is full of praise for his wonderful sister.
We then learn that Hayden went camping in a forest some 2½ hours drive from San Francisco two weeks ago when a terrible fire was set by accident when the wind shifted that destroyed several homes but injured nobody. What wasn't explained is why a fire this far from the bay area would be investigated by Captain Stottlemeyer, as stated.
Intermingled with the investigating, when Natalie and Monk go see the principal of the school, the principal mentions the team will have to forfeit their upcoming championship game because they don't have a coach. Natalie volunteers and the principal agrees, but says "You'll have to have an assistant." Natalie immediately looks to Monk and he is the assistant. I immediately wondered why this one game coach "needed" an assistant when the season-long regular coach didn't need one. He was eager to get a whistle even though Natalie tells him he won't need one. Later, in the forest talking to the ranger about the fire from two weeks ago, Monk drives the pair crazy by blowing his new whistle so often. How Natalie handled it was remembered by me but Monk's reaction to that surprised me, even on the third viewing, but it was a real hoot.
It was funny watching Monk trying to be useful in practice, but all he did really was repeat almost everything Natalie told the players to do. We learn that he always wished he could have won a trophy and he was excited to learn he would get one if the team won the big game.
In the big game, Natalie makes a very mild objection to a referee's call and is amazingly ejected from the game. This sets up Monk to coach solo the game's last few minutes. Meanwhile, Natalie is in the locker room and she finds the telltale clue that reveals the murderer. She gets the school mascot to lend her the cougar suit and rushes back onto the court holding the key evidence because even though the tight game has just two minutes to go, she has to tell Monk, and then the spectator captain and lieutenant, all about the evidence.
Problem is, the killer-as Natalie knew-was in the stands and he sees the evidence and he takes off running-which of course proves his guilt. After a brief chase, he is caught and now we can finish the game. This too has a surprise ending which need not be revealed here. I thought it was amazing to see that this rabbit-eared official who ejected the coach for the mildest criticism delivered rather quietly, walks past her twice while she is in the cougar suit without the cougar head, and ignores her. A coach who is ejected in high school who is then found courtside long after the ejection but before the game is over, would create a forfeit. Otherwise, an ejection would mean nothing. Can't believe the ref would have ignored her.
So pretty much everything connected with basketball here, from the girls wearing their first names on the backs of their uniforms, to the home team wearing the dark uniforms, to this varsity (apparently) team winning their league title and not having any sort of state tournament coming up (One game left, we were told), is not realistic at all. The gym had fewer seats than the one in Hoosiers, which was set in a tiny town, not San Francisco.
Monk did do some clever detecting in the locker room and of course, we viewers knew there would be a connection with the murder and the second case Monk investigated. There were few suspects so we couldn't play "Whodunit"-which is fine, because only some Monks are whodunits. There were also two nice touching scenes involving Monk and trophies.
I didn't think the inaccuracies involving basketball took away from the many comedic scenes and the drama portions were satisfactory for me. This episode was loads of fun to enjoy again, which is why I have no problem giving it a 10.
After practice and after the players all left, in an unusual move, Coach Hayden takes a shower in the players' locker room. She would be much more likely to just go home to shower OR there would be a coach's shower in her office area. While she is showering, an unknown person sneaks into the room and sets up a hair dryer, a towel over a drain, and a leaky pipe under a sink to arrange for the electrocution of the coach when she steps out of the shower.
The police view it as an accident, but Julie and two teammates "hire" Mr. Monk to investigate. He finds plenty of evidence that it was done on purpose, but nothing conclusive and no leads toward anyone who might have wanted her dead. He interviews Hayden's brother, who is living with her after two bad divorces and he is full of praise for his wonderful sister.
We then learn that Hayden went camping in a forest some 2½ hours drive from San Francisco two weeks ago when a terrible fire was set by accident when the wind shifted that destroyed several homes but injured nobody. What wasn't explained is why a fire this far from the bay area would be investigated by Captain Stottlemeyer, as stated.
Intermingled with the investigating, when Natalie and Monk go see the principal of the school, the principal mentions the team will have to forfeit their upcoming championship game because they don't have a coach. Natalie volunteers and the principal agrees, but says "You'll have to have an assistant." Natalie immediately looks to Monk and he is the assistant. I immediately wondered why this one game coach "needed" an assistant when the season-long regular coach didn't need one. He was eager to get a whistle even though Natalie tells him he won't need one. Later, in the forest talking to the ranger about the fire from two weeks ago, Monk drives the pair crazy by blowing his new whistle so often. How Natalie handled it was remembered by me but Monk's reaction to that surprised me, even on the third viewing, but it was a real hoot.
It was funny watching Monk trying to be useful in practice, but all he did really was repeat almost everything Natalie told the players to do. We learn that he always wished he could have won a trophy and he was excited to learn he would get one if the team won the big game.
In the big game, Natalie makes a very mild objection to a referee's call and is amazingly ejected from the game. This sets up Monk to coach solo the game's last few minutes. Meanwhile, Natalie is in the locker room and she finds the telltale clue that reveals the murderer. She gets the school mascot to lend her the cougar suit and rushes back onto the court holding the key evidence because even though the tight game has just two minutes to go, she has to tell Monk, and then the spectator captain and lieutenant, all about the evidence.
Problem is, the killer-as Natalie knew-was in the stands and he sees the evidence and he takes off running-which of course proves his guilt. After a brief chase, he is caught and now we can finish the game. This too has a surprise ending which need not be revealed here. I thought it was amazing to see that this rabbit-eared official who ejected the coach for the mildest criticism delivered rather quietly, walks past her twice while she is in the cougar suit without the cougar head, and ignores her. A coach who is ejected in high school who is then found courtside long after the ejection but before the game is over, would create a forfeit. Otherwise, an ejection would mean nothing. Can't believe the ref would have ignored her.
So pretty much everything connected with basketball here, from the girls wearing their first names on the backs of their uniforms, to the home team wearing the dark uniforms, to this varsity (apparently) team winning their league title and not having any sort of state tournament coming up (One game left, we were told), is not realistic at all. The gym had fewer seats than the one in Hoosiers, which was set in a tiny town, not San Francisco.
Monk did do some clever detecting in the locker room and of course, we viewers knew there would be a connection with the murder and the second case Monk investigated. There were few suspects so we couldn't play "Whodunit"-which is fine, because only some Monks are whodunits. There were also two nice touching scenes involving Monk and trophies.
I didn't think the inaccuracies involving basketball took away from the many comedic scenes and the drama portions were satisfactory for me. This episode was loads of fun to enjoy again, which is why I have no problem giving it a 10.