Monk - Season Four Monk Skills

Monk - Season Four

Monk - Season Four

"Monk" is one of those intelligent cult shows that usually dies a quick and painful death -- and this is one of the few that has lasted more than a few weeks. The obsessive compulsive detective returns on DVD with his fourth season of bizarre, seemingly unsolvable crimes, from homicidal dentists to amnesia.

As the season opens, Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) encounters a nasty new obstacle -- an inept private eye, Marty Eels (Jason Alexander), has suddenly become better than him. Everyone thinks Mart is a genius -- but Monk knows better. And when Eels' case explodes in his face, he calls on Monk and Natalie (Traylor Howard) to bail him out.

As the series goes on, Adrian deals with all sorts of weird cases -- murderous dentists, black widows, a case of amnesia that has him thinking he's married to the town weirdo, a wine tasting, a stolen diamond with a million-dollar reward, deals with his boss's marital problems, fashion models, and a Christmas party that turns deadly. Worst of all, he's called on to do jury duty, and has to solve two crimes without leaving the room.

And on the personal front, Monk reunites with his even-more-neurotic brother Ambrose for a Halloween mystery. But when Adrian shows signs of overcoming his disorder, Natalie sees what seems to be his dead wife Trudy walking around San Francisco -- and she's implicated in a murder.

"Monk" just wrapped its fifth season (which wasn't quite as good as this one), which is something of a record for any semi-intelligent TV show. And for the fourth season of a detective series, it has aged quite well -- the stories are still unusual and cleverly written.

The writing is still quite solid, albeit with one or two lesser episodes ("Mr. 

Read more

Monk - Season Four

Monk Monk - Season Four Tony Shalhoub (Actor), Ted Levine (Actor)

Monk Monk - Season Four  Tony Shalhoub (Actor), Ted Levine (Actor) 

 

 

 

Everyone's favorite obsessive-compulsive phobic detective is back! Police consultant Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) has sixteen more cases to solve. They're sure to leave him terrified and us helpless with laughter.

In this batch of episodes, Monk is faced with a brand new set of puzzles. Who shot the pizza delivery guy? Why did a masked man break a stock analyst's right hand? Did Monk's late wife fake her death? Who tried to run over Lieutenant Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford)? And how could an astronaut commit murder when he was in space? While working on answering these puzzles, he must face the challenge of dealing with the dentist, the flu, a cubical, a hangover, and amnesia.

Once again, the plots here are a little on the thin side. Heck, Monk usually tells us 15 minutes into the show who done it. The problem is figuring out how the person did it. I usually can't put all the pieces together until Monk explains it at the end, and then I feel foolish for missing it.

Of course, the heart of the show is the humor. The writers go out of their way to put Monk into situation that make him uncomfortable to show him over reacting to things. Yet they keep him human, making us care for him. This is best shown in "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut." In one scene, we're laughing at his reaction to the laser pointers, the next we're feeling sorry for him as the suspect in the case belittles him. Yet by the end we're proud as always of the way Monk overcomes his fears to save the day. Overall, this keeps Monk human.

Of course, the show works because the acting is so good. The actors take the material and make it shine. The cast is lead by Tony Shalhoub who brings Monk to life expertly.Read more