Arise, chicken!
Monk is ending. I am sad :(
Is this where I can opine that Shaloub’s best performance was in the criminally underrated The Man Who Wasn’t There and how I’m baffled he never won an Oscar for that role?
I think you meant to say his performance as Tech Sgt Chen in the little known indie flick, Galaxy Quest.
Yes, please. He was stunning in that film and deserved to get heaps of accolades poured on him. Love the film, but Shaloub in particular was outstanding.
I own all of these on DVD. There is just something about Monk that allows me to stick reruns on the TV while I am doing something else. So many little touches that I chuckle at as it plays through.
That said as long as Shaloub keeps working in comedy Im fine with it. I’ll be first in line to see the next movie/series he is involved with. Who would have guessed so much from the taxi driver on Wings, sometimes talent does win out.
I’m glad Shaloub got the Emmy recognition he did for this role. Although I don’t think I truly appreciate Monk until the first time his brother Ambrose, played by John Toturo, was in an episode. It really nailed home the core tragedy to the series.
I think you meant to say his performance as Tech Sgt Chen in the little known indie flick, Galaxy Quest.
I just rewatched that! He’s really funny in that part.
I stopped watching somewhere around season six (whichever one felt the effect of the writers’ strike) and recently started watching again when I heard it was ending. It’s quite charming once more, in both season seven and eight, and I find myself far more susceptible to my own obsessive-compulsive tendencies now that I’m watching it again…
Also, I was very surprised that I didn’t like the Sharona character after getting used to Natalie. I remembered liking her until I went back to some early episodes. The Captain was different in season one as well. Both characters were very irritated with Monk in the early days, which has nearly disappeared at this point.
Oh man, I love Sharona. Natalie seems like such a one dimensional character to me. I liked that Sharona pushed Monk to get over things and was a total, unapologetic whore! I have a feeling this is like the Joel vs. Mike debate though.
The episode where Sharona and Monk have to pretend to be a married couple in counseling for a weekend always kills me.
yes, this. I’m a crime drama junkie and nothing else brings the unique Monk magic.
Stottlemeyer’s attitude change is actually good. He grew as a character. Came to regard Monk as a friend and an asset rather than someone the mayor was forcing him to utilize.
I won’t throw around spoilers in the thread, but the show just ended with a pretty good final episode. There was, of course, a bit too much sentimentality at the very end, but otherwise it played almost as well as the one where he got his badge back. It was much better than first part of the finale, which ran right before it and needed some more work. But overall I liked it–very true to character.
Now that it’s come to an end, I’d hold up seasons 2, 5, & 7 as the best of the show.
Enjoyed the show, but I’ve been giving it a pass the last couple of years - it’s one of those types of characters that a little goes a long way. It took a while for the role of Natalie to fill out - I really missed Sharona when the actress left.
A rather sentimental last 15 minutes to the show, but all in all fitting, and I especially liked that they got Randy Newman for the closing song.
Favorite Shalhoub performance other than Monk? Without a doubt, Jeebs in Men in Black. How different can you get from Monk?
Lalalala, I’m not listening – or reading, or whatever. I’m still in the middle of season four or five, so I’ll catch you guys back here in a while. But it’s good to know it holds up in the end.
You know what I couldn’t stand about the end, and really about the whole series in general: The context music. Even in the most sentimental scenes, across every season, there’s this characterized “boomp boomp boomp” music going on that’s reminiscent of the silly goofy Randy Newman opening music.
Now, Newman doesn’t normally bother me, but you’ve got a time and place for everything, and when Monk is crying his eyes out, you don’t want that goofy little drip music going on.
-= SOME FINALE SPOILERS AHOY =-
Agreed. I have no problem with Newman’s music (I love “Political Science”), but he’s just too damn hokey for the series. And it’s a hokey series at times.
All in all I really enjoyed the ending. I felt the obligatory montage was completely unnecessary, but that’s a given with montages. I love that they didn’t go overboard with the wrapping-everything-up-ness. The only real major change was Randy’s move. Other than that it stayed mostly the same. I really like that the show ends with them starting a new case, because it twangs a certain melancholy “Oh, I wish I could see what happens” nostalgic chord.
One thing that did bother me about the finale, though, was that “The Guy Who Killed Trudy” was a ringer. I feel like if you’re gonna string us along for eight years about someone’s murder, at least figure out the story from the start so you can drop the character into a few episodes here and there. Actually build a history between him and Monk, rather than just imply it. Show, not tell. It would’ve been a lot more powerful if the character had shown up a handful of times in previous episodes. It’s not like he would’ve been hard to write in. It’s not surprising, though. Monk was an entirely episodic series with only the faintest hint of mythos.
Still, I enjoyed the finale and thought it was a good send-off for one of most entertaining fictional detectives of the last century.
-= MORE DEAD SPACE =-
One thing that did bother me about the finale, though, was that “The Guy Who Killed Trudy” was a ringer. I feel like if you’re gonna string us along for eight years about someone’s murder, at least figure out the story from the start so you can drop the character into a few episodes here and there. Actually build a history between him and Monk, rather than just imply it. Show, not tell. It would’ve been a lot more powerful if the character had shown up a handful of times in previous episodes. It’s not like he would’ve been hard to write in. It’s not surprising, though. Monk was an entirely episodic series with only the faintest hint of mythos.
Eh, I don’t think you can fault them for not having the finale written when the show premiered eight years ago, and if they’d suddenly introduced a new character who stuck around episode after episode and didn’t have a clear purpose, it would have pretty strongly telegraphed the ending anyhow. That doesn’t happen on Monk; every frequently-recurring character is a friend or at worst a lighthearted rival, and every new addition to the cast is a friend’s love interest or a replacement for a departing actor. The one exception is Stottlemeyer’s fiance, but her ending up a villain really smacked of broken down contract negotiations more than anything else and I’m sure it wasn’t planned. The only way to make this a real twist would have been to have an established character be the killer… and really, that would have let down the fans more than anything else.
So I liked it overall. There was some goofy stuff, and some unsurprising stuff, and some just plain weird stuff, but there was also some genuine suspense and excitement and tension and emotion, and while it’s easy to think about the hundred other ways they could have ended the show, I think this was probably about as good as any of them.
I was a little disappointed to not see Ambrose at any point during this season, though.
I used to make fun of this show for being formulaic, but in the end I really enjoyed it. As for the finale, I think it was touching and appropriate.
/edit due to semi-spoilers.
My main issue with it was that they tried to make us feel like there was some history with a character that had only been introduced in that same episode. I’m not saying they necessarily should have plotted the ending from the very first episode, but if you’re gonna paint the villain as someone the leads know, then at least give us a little history. Even if he only shows up once a season to sign a warrant or in a court hearing. So that there’s an actual history and not an implied one.
while it’s easy to think about the hundred other ways they could have ended the show, I think this was probably about as good as any of them.
Which was actually a disappointment for me. I had expected the finale to be a little bigger than that. Again, mostly because it’s been the one huge storyline for the past eight years.
I thought they should have ended fading out the walk on the beach. And sitting through most of the marathon run-up to the finale of Trudy-related episodes, I don’t have a problem with who turned out to be the villain.
I watched the show when it first started but Sharona drove me away. Only caught it sporadically over the years. Watching a chunk of the marathon they ran the week before the wrap-up -the one with the little boy, man they played me like a cheap fiddle with the bedtime story and the final scene.
I didn’t see that one – I had kinda fallen off of watching Monk these last few years and only recently watched some of the latest ones since I was hoping the build to the end would be a season-long climb but I must’ve missed that episode. Which one was it?