TV is the New Reading

‘Mr. Monk

and The End’

There are several things to look forward to this week. There’s a special two-hour beginning-of-the-end for canceled FOX series “Dollhouse” at 8/7c on Friday, and what looks like breathtakingly intrusive schmaltz in ABC’s “Find My Family” Monday at 9/8c, and the premiere of the Syfy miniseries “Alice” premiering Dec. 6 at 9/8c.

But there’s a more significant departure on deck, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t devote this entire blog recounting it.

In the pilot episode, a shrinking, terrified character slinks into view. His hands are out in a defensive posture, as if to shield him from the world. Because this world is scary. It’s a world he could barely face anyway, but her love gave him the strength to get through it. It’s a cold world now. A shadow of his world, in the wake of the death of his wife, Trudy.

We meet Adrian Monk in his first attempt at a police consult. His nurse, Sharona, drove him 60 miles up the coast which opens all of its own nightmares – her car, the distance, the ocean – and as he totters around the crime scene looking through his hands, the officers don’t quite know what to make of this broken shell of a man. In moments, however, he uncovers the clue they need to crack the case.

Monk’s role as the defective detective began in the fall of 2002, some years after his wife’s violent death by a car bomb in a parking structure. As the series has progressed, Monk, assisted by his nurse, Sharona, and, since the third season, his assistant, Natalie Teeger – really, she’s been around that long? Oh well, I’m one of those people who objected to the new theme song, composed, played and sung by Randy Newman, which is about three-quarters of my objection to it. Yes, I’m aware of his awards.

Anyway, as the show progressed, Monk’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, which had reasserted itself with a vengence following Trudy’s death, slowly faded somewhat, but his tics and strange behaviors kept him from accomplishing much. In one situation he simply could not even begin a standardized test – he tried to fill in the circle so completely he destroyed the test paper. The test was required to be reinstated as a detective with the San Francisco Police Department – a longtime dream of his which he finally achieved this season, and then rejected because it wasn’t the job he remembered. And, of course, he wasn’t the same man who’d left the department.

But he was certainly a stronger man, and more so as the series continued. Oh sure, he lost it a little during the garbage strike and accused Alice Cooper of a crime because he saw his name on a poster. And there were some lapses where he’d curl into a ball – he’d get sick, or he’d meet a leper, or he’d meet a rapper who’d lost a friend and believe he was declining his case although his entire attitude was of enthusiastic agreement out of an instinct of self-preservation – now, Snoop Dogg’s reinterpretation of Newman’s theme was a joy.

There were instances where he even tried to move on romantically. These tended to be short-lived, especially when it turned out one of the women had murdered her husband and buried him under the garage. There was one instance where he got amnesia and reprised the entire plotline of Goldie Hawn’s “Overboard” with a redneck gal out in the boondocks pretending they were married. He’d always come back to who he was. Adrian Monk, widower.

With him throughout are friends who knew and loved him from way back. Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer was dismissive at first, but came to respect what Monk was bringing to his consults and in fact to rely upon Monk’s ability to see the world more clearly, the relationships between things, when something is missing, when something doesn’t look right. Monk’s whole deal was that the world was this big, scary, chaotic place, and if he, as a police officer, could make sense out of any one corner of it, solving puzzles, putting things right, then that was his goal.

The writing for Monk episodes is terrifically uneven. Wacky characters occasionally overwhelm the storylines. Randy Disher’s character is perennial comic relief and you can just tell Jason Gray-Stanford is sometimes just angry with his character because however competent and resourceful he proves to be time and time again in helping to save the day, he’s always the writers’ go to for a font of ridiculousness otherwise. And sometimes he’ll just get mad and quit and start his own band, or become a farmer, and he’ll haul off and let everyone know just what he thinks of them. And that’s just all the more embarrassing for him when he comes crawling back.

I think I’d mostly be satisfied to learn that Randy settled in with that model he was dating and in fact was doing well for himself emotionally.

As the series winds to a close Friday, Dec. 4, 2009, those of us who have been fans since the pilot episode have been promised some closure in the cold case of Trudy Monk, the case we are led to understand Monk is working on in pretty much all of his offscreen. There’s a race against time because he’s been poisoned and no one knows how (they pretty much gave it away in Dr. Bell’s office, but even Monk hasn’t figured it out) but Monk’s attitude was that he has been a prisoner ever since his wife’s death. He spent three years in a catatonic state. He has washed his hands raw with obsessive-compulsive disorder. His every waking moment is a painful reminder of his loss and how lost he is himself without her. So death might feel like a welcome change.

But longtime fans know better. We know that there’s someone there. Someone beneath the wreckage. A smile that is invariably followed by “Here’s what happened.” When the final puzzle piece falls into place and Monk has once again saved the day, he’s the hero. He’s the man she loved. And however they end this, what a long, strange trip it’s been.

Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, righting wrongs, dealing justice, and making the world better, one puzzle at a time. Sir, you will be missed.

The series finale, part two of Mr. Monk and The End, airs Dec. 4 at 9/8c, following an encore presentation of Part One and a daylong marathon of outstanding episodes beginning.at 6/5c on USA.

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