The Bottom Line: "Superb"
The Next Generation of Comedy
You're flipping through the channels and all you can find are the dozens of Law and Order clones and the typical sitcoms starring a fat guy inexplicably married to a skinny and attractive wife. Just when you're about to toss the remote aside and go complain that there is nothing original on TV anymore, you find something different. You find a murder mystery show that can make you laugh and a comedy that can capture your imagination and appeal to your analytical mind. No longer do you have to ponder whether you feel like laughing at Homer Simpson's antics or want to be swept into a mystery with Detective Brisco. You have found Monk: a show where you can get the best of both worlds.
Monk, created by Andy Breckman, follows a consultant to the San Francisco police department named Adrian Monk; played by the brilliant yet understated former Wings star Tony Shaloub, who has the ability to solve any mystery with his super-heightened sense of awareness for the details of a scene. His ability to notice small clues and make accurate conclusions is unmatched by anyone in the police department. Monk once solved a case where the reason for a burgler's entry into a home was to steal a small valuable stone that had been accidentally placed at the bottom of a fish tank. That is why Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, played by Ted Levine, calls Monk in for the most difficult of cases. Although Stottlemeyer isn't a bad detective himself, he simply does not have the skills of Adrian Monk. One might ask why the greatest detective in San Francisco is only a consultant and not a full time detective. The answer to that is complex; Mr. Monk has a psychological disorder known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which was magnified when tragedy struck and his wife was killed in a car bomb. The mystery of who killed Trudy Monk remains to be the single mystery that Adrian Monk cannot solve. The event is so significant that it is referenced to in almost every other episode. But why is Monk funny? Although OCD is a serious mental disorder, it causes him to do funny and odd things and to worry about matters that not too many people would ever think to worry about. In the episode "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective" he is completely distracted by the presence of dog poop at the crime scene. His assistant asks "Did you step in it?" and Monk replies with a pained expression on his face "If I stepped in it I'd be in that ambulance right now, on my way to the emergency room praying for the sweet release that only death can bring". And when he is asked about his thoughts on the case by the Captain he replies "Ah, I'd say it's a terrier, a Yorkie, maybe a Chihuahua. Probably miles away by now. We'll never catch him" despite the fact that the captain wishes for his opinion about who killed the owner of a jewelry store, whose body is lying not ten feet away from him. Monk's OCD makes him fear a variety of different things, germs most prominently, and this is the source of many amusing moments such as when he reveals that he takes five showers a day and that he once washed his hands 100 times in one day. In "Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa" he was touched when he received a dust pan and brush for Christmas. His disorder also causes him to need things to be even and in order and in the episode, In "Mr. Monk and the Fashion Show" a fashion mogul was about to hire a model until Monk pointed out that one of her eye brows was slightly lower than the other. This would not have been noticed if it wasn't for Monk, so the model was plainly annoyed. Later in the episode Monk was so distracted by a model having only one mole on her back, that while she was turned around he tries to draw another mole onto her back (to make it even) but fails but tries again when her dead body is found latter in the episode.
Adrian Monk is a character that we both sympathize and admire, and despite his often comical difficulties, he still solves any and all murders that he is asked to take part in. Unlike such impersonal shows like CSI, Monk allows us to view the mysteries from a distinctly personal point of view. CSI gives us such an objective experience; the two-dimensional characters collect the scientific evidence and throw the bad guy in jail. Rarely do we get to see a true genius at work such as a character like Monk, who's past and struggles we know. How he can look at a crime scene and come to conclusions would take CSI half the episode to find in the lab. Unlike shows like Two and a Half Men whose most complex plot involves the slightly dorky Alan trying to get a very attractive girl and the humor of it lying in his fumbling and eventual lack of success; the plots of Monk weaves witty deadpan humor with suspenseful murder mysteries. Almost as if the writers of Frasier and Law and Order: Criminal Intent got together to write a sophisticated and funny murder mystery show, by which Adrian Monk is the lovechild of the comically persnickety and pretentious Dr. Niles Crane and the Holmes-like and slightly disturbed Detective Robert Goren.
Despite Monk being more interesting than shows like Law & Order and CSI, more smartly comical than Two and a Half Men and Friends, and having the best and funniest detective on television Monk airs on the USA network a channel that only cable subscribers get. The reason for this must be that Monk was the first show Andy Breckman ever created. I'm sure this show would have had a much larger venue if it had been pitched by more noted creators or producers like Dick Wolf or David E. Kelley who have had many shows on the larger networks like Fox and NBC. Fortunately Tony Shalhoub took the role of Adrian Monk, and won two Emmys, a Golden Globe and an SAG award for his role, the consensus is that no one could have played the role better than Mr. Shalhoub and his talent draws further attention to this underrated masterpiece of a television show.
Sign up to post comments!
