Monk Season 5 split? (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Back when "Monk" got picked up for its fifth season, USA announced it was committing to 16-episode pick-ups for both season five and season six. Yet the Monk website is avertising that Sunday's episode (the eighth this season) is the season finale. Is the season being split in half Battlestar style or did the order get drastically cut back?

 

[Walter C]

I think the season will be split in half, like what they did last year.

 

[LCD22]

"Psych" will also be split (since USA has extended its first season order).

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/newswire.aspx?id=7195

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Good news! Thanks guys. I just started watching the show this season so I was unaware this was standard policy.

 

[RoryR]

January, that is a long time to wait :frowning:

 

[Steve Berger]

Maybe they'll throw us a bone with a Christmas episode again.

 

[LCD22]

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.a...=20061010usa01

 

[Steve Berger]

Just to keep this up to date, USA does have the holiday special scheduled for this coming Friday, the 17th.

 

[Linda Thompson]

At 10:00 PM (Eastern), instead of the usual (as of this past half-season) 9:00 PM slot.

 

[Patrick Sun]

New episode of Monk tonight on USA. Check your local listings.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Not bad. Monk was a little bit less Monk-ish than usual by necessity, since he didn't have Natalie to tend to his eccentricities. I liked Dan Hedaya; he struck just the right balance between complete asshole and someone who could have possibly been the father of Monk.
One idea I had from the lower eccentricities is that perhaps in the presence of his father, he reverted to having only the eccentricities that trace back to childhood, rather than the ones that followed Trudy's death.
How old is Julie supposed to be? She was on a high school basketball team earlier in the season; is Monk's request today riddiculous or just semi-riddiculous?
Anyone else thinking that Monk's dad would be a bit more spectacular considering the Ambrose episodes? It was my impression that he was atleast partially the cause of their eccentricities. Now it sounds like he's just a regular sort of joe.

 

[Patrick Sun]

For some reason, I think this episode would have worked better as a 30 minute peisode.

 

[Linda Thompson]

Reminder: new ep Friday night...some sort of "B&W vs color" event.

According to the promos, apparenly it's an all-new ep, shown in B&W at 9 PM Eastern, followed immediately at 10 PM by the exact same episode, in color. Then viewers are invited to vote for their preference.

More details and info at the official website: http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/index.html

Seems a bit of an odd stunt... I wonder if the content / style / plotline of the ep will shed any light upon the reasoning behind this supposed "one time only" event?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Apparently it's a very "noir"-style episode.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

So what'd everybody think? I forgot it was on, so only saw that 1:00 am "color" repeat. Pretty good episode. It was nice to see Randy finally win one. Also really loved Natalie freaking out about hygiene while Monk tells her to get it together. Now that Julie's shaken the leper's hand, will Monk ever go within twenty feet of her again?

 

[Joe_H]

The black and white one seemed much more noir, but the color one seemed much more like an episode of Monk.

 

[Steve...O]

B&W wasn't really B&W. It was color turned off and did not seem noir to me. Calling this noir was an insult to real noir.

Episode was fairly weak in my view with no real mystery to speak of and too little of Monk using his skills. Hopefully Monk will return to form in a couple of weeks when new episodes start up again.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Anybody watch Friday's episode? Went to some pretty dark places.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Yeah, poor Mr. Monk.

Steven Webber did a great job as the Howard Stern/Tom Leykis type.

wipe, wipe, wipe, wipe, wipe, wipe, wipe

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I wanted to reach into my screen and strangle that bastard for what he said about Trudy! That's the first time i've ever seen Adrian get truly angry at someone, and his moment at the very end watching the video of his wedding was very touching.