Up to now, the Monk series was terrific. Tony Shalhoub created a likeable,
interesting character. Bitty Schram's Sharona character was simply great.
Stoddlemier & Randy were solid entertainers. The puzzles were fresh. I
found myself watching reruns, even though I knew the ending, because the
interplay of the players was so much fun to watch, especially between Monk &
Sharona.



The two shows of this season are a big step down. Shalhoub is sometimes
stiff, sometimes over the top. Watching Traylor Howard's mean spirited
Natalie character is like listening to off-key experimental music. Randy
has been dumbed down to buffoon levels. And the plots, well..



If Bitty Schram was dropped because she was a difficult, demanding person,
here's a clue for Monk management: talented people often require managing.
You buy the package. As Woody Allen said in Annie Hall, you need the eggs.



All shows have a finite life. Miami Vice was great at the beginning, stupid
at the end. Same for X-Files. I knew it would happen to the Monk series
someday, but not this soon. It makes me sad.



Will I be watching next Friday? I'll probably give it one more shot, out of
habit. If it's the same thing, then I'll be catching up on my reading,
taking that evening walk, something else. Will I watch the reruns? Buy a
DVD? From what I've seen so far, definitely not.

"Nelson Wallace" <nwwallace@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:JsadnX53hudINWbcRVn-iA@adelphia.com...
> Up to now, the Monk series was terrific. Tony Shalhoub created a
> likeable, interesting character. Bitty Schram's Sharona character was
> simply great.

Total Agreement.

> Stoddlemier & Randy were solid entertainers. The puzzles were fresh. I
> found myself watching reruns, even though I knew the ending, because the
> interplay of the players was so much fun to watch, especially between Monk
> & Sharona.

Yes, that was one of the best parts of the show - and there was the obvious
Randy-Sherona possibilities being set up.
>
> The two shows of this season are a big step down. Shalhoub is sometimes
> stiff, sometimes over the top.

I didn't really get that. What I'm finding is as the series progresses, some
of the idiosyncracies are played down (or ignored) as if the powers that be
assume everyone already knows the charater so well. It's like we're getting
away from seeing any of Adrian's character traits - I don't think the first
episode had an "I've solved the case", and the second episode's was
presented like "I think I might have possibly solve the case, maybe" until
he was with Trudi. Additionally, it seems like they're assuming we all know
how great his "powers" are, and the solving of the cases is not as cool. I
had problems with earlier episodes where I figured it out early, or they
were so unlikely for him to get, I couldn't buy it. The best ones have been
those that remind of Holme's mysteries, with the annoyances of Columbo,
which is sort of what Monk is.

Watching Traylor Howard's mean spirited
> Natalie character is like listening to off-key experimental music.

Wow, that's harsh :-) I didn't think she was that bad - although it was a
little too obvious at the beginning of Red Herring that she was on deck. I
have to admit, I kind of always found Sherona's character to be a little
far-fetched in terms of her not wanting to quit. Natalie has been presented
as a little more normal where, if you don't pay me, I'm gone, which a little
more realistic (then again, there's other points of the show that are a
little far fetched too, but that makes it fun!)

>Randy has been dumbed down to buffoon levels.

I agree. He could make a good supporting character for each of the "main"
characters. He's being underused. The overzealousness he had was good, but
the, again far-ish-fetched possibility of him being that dumb is
disappointing.

> And the plots, well..
Red Herring was familiar. The latest was a Deus ex Machina - sounds like
they wrote all of the plot before they thought about the end too much. Hmmm.
The grave digger didn't need to kill the author as Sonny Chow to get him dug
up. Didn't he work at the graveyard? Didn't he have access to the backhoe?
Why didn't he just sneak in in the middle of the night and pull out the
monument and dig up the body without going through all of the trouble of
thinking up this convoluted plot that was probably beyond a common
criminal's ability (his character didn't strike me as a Lex Luthor or
anything). Wasn't like the Andrew McCarthy episode where you believed the
perpetrator was capable of thinking out and needing to execute such an
elaborate plot (as opposed to the one where they were trying to make Sherona
think she was crazy)

>
> If Bitty Schram was dropped because she was a difficult, demanding person,
> here's a clue for Monk management: talented people often require
> managing. You buy the package. As Woody Allen said in Annie Hall, you
> need the eggs.

Well, they obviously didn't give a crap about changing the theme song, so
they're not going to give a crap about what they see as an expendable
character. TV has gotten to the point where the entire show is expendable,
so they really don't care. They'll just try something else.
>
>
>
> All shows have a finite life. Miami Vice was great at the beginning,
> stupid at the end. Same for X-Files.

I think the death of a lot of newer shows is the running storyline - like
the X-files, and now especially Lost are going to alienate new viewers who
are afraid they're not going to get it (or start watching and can't figure
it out because they don't know what's going on). The Trudi issue and him
trying to find her killer could have overtaken the show - I'm glad it's
being approached in new ways (via a single mon who's lost her husband, as
opposed to a divorcee who's now seemingly back together with him???)

I knew it would happen to the Monk series
> someday, but not this soon. It makes me sad.

Well, I think it was doomed from the beginning. They kept on with the 6 new
episodes, then repeat for 24 episodes, and then give you 3 more new ones and
it's the end of the season. I'm surprised it's done as well as it has.
What's a normal season? Like 13 or 14 episodes per season? It's so wierd the
way it's broken up. The fact that it's still on the air actually give me
hope (and makes me assume that someone's got some good pull in the industry)
>
>
>
> Will I be watching next Friday? I'll probably give it one more shot, out
> of habit. If it's the same thing, then I'll be catching up on my reading,
> taking that evening walk, something else. Will I watch the reruns? Buy a
> DVD? From what I've seen so far, definitely not.

Yeah, I'll watch it. But it is already getting like the end of the X-files.
I used to arrange my Fridays specifically to watch Monk, and now, I figure
if I miss it, I'll catch it on Tuesday, or on one of the 50 million
re-reruns or marathons-leading-up-to-a-new-episode times we get.

Fingers crossed,
Steve

In article <JsadnX53hudINWbcRVn-iA@adelphia.com>, Nelson Wallace
<nwwallace@adelphia.net> wrote:

> The two shows of this season are a big step down. Shalhoub is sometimes
> stiff, sometimes over the top. Watching Traylor Howard's mean spirited
> Natalie character is like listening to off-key experimental music. Randy
> has been dumbed down to buffoon levels. And the plots, well..

I thought the first episode was okay, although the mystery wasn't much.
This second episode, though -- yuck. Monk is doing dumb stuff like
polishing light bulbs, Natalie *hit* him, and Randy's become a fool.

The stupidity about taking off the shoes went on about three times
longer than it should have, and -- unforgivably -- *it wasn't funny*.
Oh, and you show me a guy who hasn't spoken for nine years, and I'm
just going to have to guess that he will blurt something out because
Monk annoyed him so much.

> Will I be watching next Friday? I'll probably give it one more shot, out of
> habit. If it's the same thing, then I'll be catching up on my reading,
> taking that evening walk, something else. Will I watch the reruns? Buy a
> DVD? From what I've seen so far, definitely not.

I may watch it next week. I don't know. This show is no longer a
must-see for me. The days of the clever scripts -- where, for
instance, Monk has to solve a murder without leaving his airplane seat
-- are gone.

BTW -- a $600/mo office in downtown San Francisco? Such a bargain!
(Did you notice that it was really a hotel room? They didn't even take
the occupancy certificate off the door before shooting.) Did you also
notice that the cops were digging in unbroken ground, even though
everybody knew that Monk had *just* been buried alive? And that they
were using some sort of listening device over which Monk could be heard
softly saying "I love you," even though there's a dozen people digging
and walking around and stuff? And that, when they open the coffin,
Monk's hand is covered in melted wax, but in the next shot is isn't?

"Millard Fillmore" <bathtub@whig.org.invalid> wrote in message
news:290120052341092906%bathtub@whig.org.invalid.. .

And that, when they open the coffin,
> Monk's hand is covered in melted wax, but in the next shot is isn't?

I caught that, but I think the first shot was supposed to be real, and the
next was supposed to be him in that dream state (if you see it again, not
that the show's worth recording as it seems everyone's pointing out) it
looks like one of the previous shots, so I think it was intended (in other
words, they were seeing him as he was, but he was still seeing himself in
that peaceful state (or WE were intended to see how he was thinking of
himself in the coffin - oblivious to the outside world)).

Steve