"Monk" Season 7 Thread (1 Viewer)

Tonight Mr. Monk buys a new house and gets a new therapist, after the untimely passing of Dr. Kroger (resulting from the untimely passing of Stanley Kamel).

I've got the DVR all set up to record the new shows on USA-HD. Time to get your Monk on!

I'll be watching this one tonight, for certain. Is this the final season of this excellent series?

Yep. Already have Monk and Psych set to record.

I started losing interest in Monk a couple of seasons ago. Now that I have USA in HD I will start watching it again.

I liked the way they handled things tonight. I think that anything else would've really seemed cheap.

Does anyone know if Bitty Schram might make a guest appearance sometime this season? I think it could be worked into the storyline; however, I'm not sure the two parties (Schram and TPTB) left on the best of terms, which might make it difficult for her to return in any capacity. I'd love to see it, though. Some of the dialogue between she and Traylor Howard might be fascinating, to say the least.

I fully expect for them to go to this well before the show is over, they'll run out of ideas eventually and suddenly they won't have so much pride.

Since this is the last season, I seriously doubt they're going to "run out of ideas" before reaching the finale. (I also seem to recall reading that this will be a short season because of budget problems.) As for Bitty Schram returning... I could see it going either way.

Sharona and Benjy did get a name-check when Monk when they were planning Monk's memorial service, which was a nice touch, and it sure looks like Schram is available .

OTOH, mentioning a character costs nothing. Bringing in a guest star does, so they wouldn't have her drop in to do a cameo just because the fans would like to see that. Sharona would have to have a major role in the episode. She'd have to be either the client or the perp. (Which would make for an interesting story, but I doubt Schram would ever go for it.)

Finally, Schram left in a dispute over money, and the show budget has been reduced so much that even Shaloub took a pay cut. So she might not want to return for a one-shot role on an already-cancelled show for a reduced fee.

Back to the actual season debut - I thought the passing of Stanley Kamel/Dr. Kroger was handle with restraint and good taste. Kudos to all concerned.

I loved the morse code jokes and the fact that they tied into the plot at a critical moment. I loved Monk dragging himself to the hammer only to drive the errant nail. I kept waiting for Natalie (at least) to realize that they could have taken the hammer and broken the friggin' tub to free themselves, but I'll forgive the lapse because we got the wonderful gag of Monk making Natalie drag the tub by herself. (The claw-foot tub and the fact that it would be disconnected from the plumbing was another example of how well-thought-out the show is, and how the writers play fair with the audience in setting this stuff up well in advance before pulling it out in the 3rd act. The morse code seemed like a throw-away bit in the "gee, we're bored" scene and with an extra pay-off with Natalie in the door-knock gag.)

The introduction of the new shrink was also well-handled. And Brad Garrett makes a good comic villain. (Although, again, the script broke down a little with him. Since he was willing to kill his squeeze when she became a liability, and was obviously planning to kill his other accomplice from the start, why would he keep Natalie and Monk around? He couldn't afford to have them as living witnesses, he wasn't at all squeamish about killing in general, and they had no information about where the money was. They should have at least established a reason within the plot for him to keep them alive after Monk figured out what he was up to.)

Regards,

Joe

IMO the show ran out of ideas several years ago which is why we don't watch it much anymore. We did tune in last night to see how the Kamel transition was handled. Agree they handled it fairly decently.

Unfortunately the rest of the show had the typical flaws of the past few seasons: poor writing, little mystery and an unbelievable plot.

I had not realized that this was the last season, but it's probably time to go. At its best, MONK was one of the finest, most clever shows on TV. Unfortunately it became a self-parody of itself making the OCD the main focus rather than integrating it into the storyline.

Rather than bring back Sharona a better gimmick would be for Monk to finally solve Trudy's murder and to find some inner peace.

I haven't seen anything saying that this is Monk's last season. I know that the show is expensive and when they renewed for Season 7 (16 episodes) they said they'd have to start looking at "the end," but that doesn't mean it actually is. USA will probably find that money somewhere for Season 8.

Zack,

Thanks. I was curious if there was anything definitive at this point.

Well, I absolutely loved the season premiere. I also loved Psych, but I'll discuss that in passing below, and more so in the appropriate thread.

I too was wondering why 'Honest Jake' kept Monk and Natalie alive; sometimes, I just resort to the 'it's in the script' line, like I do with much of Trek.

I thought the camera work -- and especially the marked pause right before we left the early scene with Monk and his new therapist -- was very well done. The relative symmetry in the room, from the paintings to the end tables at the right and left, to the lines in the trim along the back wall and the number of windows, etc. was a sight to behold. It really conveyed to me how the new therapist knew Monk quite well; that, and the mention of the Chopin piece (the Prelude in A major) being one of Kroeger's favorites was a very nice touch. I really appreciated how the length of the pause as we backed away from Monk and Hector A. (I didn't catch the name of his screen character) was such that we the viewer could let it sink in a bit before we moved to the next scene.

The Morse Code angle was wonderful. I loved how Natalie was the only one who really seemed to be able to decode it. Disher? Right. Stottlemeyer? Maybe. Also, I thought that 1) the fireplace might have been one of the places where the money was hidden; and 2) the fireplace being very clean and subsequently being used (in Monk's new house, no less) was going to be the key that something was wrong, as opposed to the Morse Code in billowing smoke giving it away to the Captain and the Dishman.

Incidentally, although I didn't catch the false wall angle as far as the hidden money is concerned, I did finally deduce (with around twenty minutes remaining) that the off-centered light had something to do with the story line and the money.

N.B.: Did anyone who watched Psych catch what Spencer's Dad said about the mold and spores? LOL! I thought I was having deja vu, having just watched Monk.

Obviously I misremembered something I read as stating that this was definitely the final season. I stand corrected. It is not certain, just "likely."


I guess it depends on your expectations. I never watched Monk for the mystery or the plot - both of which have clearly always been secondary (at best) in the eyes of the producers. I watch Monk for the characters. The plots have always been a thin excuse to trot out Monk's quirks and tics and explore his character. As with any show, some episodes are better than others, and some parts or elements of indivdiual episodes are better or worse than others. If you haven't been watching for the past couple of years, how do you know that tonight was "typical". In fact, where the elements you criticize are concerned, it was subpar. Last year's 2-part finale was much better in these areas - as were any number of other episodes you never saw.

But the weaknesss didn't bother me very much because the point of the episode was Monk coming to terms with a traumatic change. As the new shrink correctly said, Monk's upset over the piano playing was a way of displacing his feelings about Dr. Kroger's loss. In a way this whole episode was a way of displacing everybody's feelings - including the auidence's - about the loss of Stanely Kamel and of a favorite character. So it made sense to go with a less-demanding mystery that would be easy for the audience to figure out, and a less complicated plot (because they needed extra time to deal with the fall-out from Kroger's passing.) The mystery was actually so simple that Monk should have probably solved it in act two. The fact that he didn't is a measure of how distracted he was. He just wasn't thinking straight for most of the episode - and that was part of the plot.

As always, YMMV.

Regards,

Joe

This was definitely one of the weaker mysteries, even by the looser standardds of the later seasons. I think this has to do with the fact that the script was written before Stanley Kamel died; Dr. Kroeger's death gave Adrian greater motivation to move, but it also ate up a lot of screentime with showing Monk's loss and introducing the new pyschiatrist. That pushed the mystery even further into the background than usual.

Which was okay with me; both the actor Stanley Kamel and the character Dr. Kroeger deserved an episode that paused and paid its respects. The most movie scene in a long time came at the very end, with Adrian back in his apartment reading a book in the open window as Chopin wafted through, the camera pulling back to a photo of Dr. Kroeger and then fading into an "in loving memory" title card for Stanley Kamel.

Bravo. I too loved this ending. About the only topper for me (and I realize that this may not be pragmatic at this point) would be to end the series with Trudy somehow being found alive and well....

I don't think Trudy's return was ever in the cards, but solving her murder certainly is. And it may be that Monk will move on once that happens and find happiness with someone else.

Regards,

Joe

Yeah, I know. The episode with the donation of Trudy's eyes kind of nixed it, but still, I'm hopeful that the writers could somehow come up with a fascinating way around that. Much more plausible, however, is that the final mystery (that of who killed Trudy and why) will be solved. I think we may be seeing Dale the Whale again. I must say, IMO the first actor who played Dale the Whale was more fitting than Tim Curry, although I like Curry in other things.

I also liked Adam Arkin in the role better than Tim Curry, and both of those actors better than the third actor to portray him (in Season 6), Ray Porter. He seems to keep getting more repulsive, which may be what they want I suppose.

List of Monk characters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Glenn,

I didn't know there was a third 'Dale the Whale' episode. I'm now looking forward to it. (I have yet to see all of season six.)

I loved the season premiere and how they handled the loss of Dr. Kroger, it was bugging the heck out of me how they were going to do this and it was a good move having his death already happen prior to this episodes events and having him pass from the same health issue that Stanley passed away from.

It gave Adrian ample time to gather himself so we weren't subjected to him becoming a total basket case upon learning of his death. It also saved us from going the "on a very special episode of Monk" route.

On the whole the eposde was great in the usual breezy way although I must say that the whole plot about there being stolen heist money hidden in the walls of the house seemed very familiar to me, probably because I got the entire series of What's Happening!! for my b-day and there was an episode where the gang is tearing apart Raj's house looking for stolen heist money lol.

Natalie looked yummy as usual, she seems to get cuter with each passing season.

Also, they should definitely not bring Trudy back from the grave, it would be too easy an out for Adrian and it would come off as nothing but an enormous cop-out to let him off the hook like that when we've watched him struggle with his problems like he has been all these years.