Tuesday 23 May 2023

Monk - Season 3 (2005 Creator Andy Breckman)

Monk goes to New York - finds it overwhelming. Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Really funny scene where Monk is trying to complete a sentence with pneumatic drill interrupting, goes on for ever - Shaloub can make that work. And can a chimp have killed a man in a panic room? Of course not, though we are treated to the bizarre and funny spectacle of Stottlemeyer trying to enrage the chimp to shoot him, unaware the gun is loaded.

Most of the plots don't stand up to close scrutiny e.g. episode in which Sharona thinks she's cracking up - how did 'dead' man swinging from bathroom ceiling vanish so completely so quickly? (Liked Monk's new sassy 'nurse' in this one, Niecy Nash.) Power cuts to stop concert being transmitted - it would have gone out eventually.

Weirdly, in episode 10 'Mr Monk and the Red Herring', Sharona has abruptly gone back to her husband in Jersey leaving Monk looking for a new assistant. What happened? It sounds like Bitty Schram tried to renegotiate her contract and was fired. She's only had one small film appearance since then. I guess they were negotiating the next season's contract, but to cut her out so abruptly mid-season seems somewhat draconian and cruel - the network is NBC Universal - don't fuck with the network.

The new Sharona is the rather more feisty Natalie, played by Traylor Howard.

Vegas episode is fun, as Stottlemeyer has solved the case, drunk, then can't remember how. Charming finale has Monk looking after two-year-old.



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