Thanks for the tip on The Man Who Wasn’t There.
My wife and I have been watching this since it hit Amazon streaming recently.
We’re a few episodes past the point where they introduce Natalie. God, I forgot how much she annoys me. Maybe it’s the fact she talks with her teeth clamped shut, maybe it’s because they have to redo many of the same plot points we already went over with Sharona (Monk being miserly etc), or maybe it’s because of her stupid squinty eyes and pixie haircut, I don’t know. But it sucks that by the end of it she’ll be in more than twice as many episodes as Sharona ever was.
Too bad she isn’t half as memorable or interesting.
I also never realized how irritating Randy could be (both the character and the dude singing that utterly terrible new theme song from season 2 onwards). I’m probably just too old to find Disher funny any more, but not nearly old enough to understand what people see in Randy fucking Newman.
Hey, if Bitty Schram hadn’t left Monk, she might never have gotten her next role 7 years later as Officer Lori in the 2016 indy film “Moments of Clarity.”
So waiting for the phone to ring paid off.
Arise!!!
Looks like Monk is returning to solve ONE LAST CASE!
I really enjoyed the show back in the day so cautiously optimistic to see Shalhoub do his thing again! (though never went back again, so not sure if it still holds up…)
Other returning cast members are Ted Levine as Leland Stottlemeyer, Traylor Howard as Natalie Teeger, Jason Gray-Stanford as Randy Disher, Melora Hardin as Trudy Monk, and Hector Elizondo as Dr. Neven Bell.
Looks like their getting the whole gang back together!
I catch reruns airing during lunch every so often. I’d say it still holds up.
At its best, it was able to build compelling puzzles while splitting the difference between a traditional Sherlock tone and zany Phoenix Wright antics, but at its worst—and this show had a season during the writers’ strike—it was phoned in by everyone except Tony Shalhoub, who was really the only serious actor in the show.
Fortunately, a movie should be able to highlight all the strengths, especially with better supporting actors for any new roles. Hopefully the directors will be able to tease out decent performances from the other returning actors. They should hire the people from Netflix era Cobra Kai! Those directors worked miracles.
I stopped watching when his sidekick mysteriously changed to a different lady. I had missed that episode so it bothered me so much that the lady he’d built this rapport with was suddenly gone and there was someone else helping him now.