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.
…and here’s the trailer!
Everyone is a bit greyer, but it seems to capture the original vibe pretty well.
We watched this tonight. Was nice to see the gang back together and I’d say they all got back into character without issue. That said, the core case wasn’t anything special, and all pretty straightforward. Fun references throughout and a few good jokes. I totally bought Monk’s arc through the movie and thought it was well done.
I hate to pay for yet another streaming service. Waiting for it to pop up somewhere else.
Yeah, Tony Shalhoub didn’t miss a beat, and he still carries the show by a wide margin. Otherwise, this movie mostly rests on nostalgia. I literally figured out the core murder mystery before it happened, so don’t expect much on that front.
Yeah the “mystery” of the story was definitely secondary. Also did they ever actually explain the death on the boat that Griffin was digging into initially?
Yep, it was pretty obvious how it happened very early on and there was never any doubt about who did it. Not sure why they didn’t leave at least a little more mystery for the audience.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Monk, but weren’t the “mysteries” not the focus of the show as far as as the viewer was concerned? Wasn’t it all pretty much about watching Monk do his thing and seeing how HE solves what the audience can already figure out? If I remember correctly, Columbo was like that as well, except I think they actually showed the criminal in the act at the beginning of each episode.
Anyway, same here: will wait for this to come to Netflix or Blu Ray, if it ever does.
Yeah, both Monk and Columbo are more character studies than whodunnits.
Don’t think that was always the case. Often you’d see the victim but not who did it. I believe there was always at least some part of the killing that was left a mystery to the viewer as well that wasn’t revealed until the “Here’s what happened” bit at the end. In this case, they left the how a mystery, except it was pretty blindingly obvious how based on everything else they showed.
But yes, the show is very much about Monk and seeing him tackle the case. Often with how it also related to whatever personal struggle he was going through. Very much the latter in the case of the movie.
It was a mix of the two. Sometimes the cold open would show you the murder, and it would play at Columbo, but many of the best episodes would instead opt for the impossible mystery, more in the Sherlock Holmes tradition. The two most memorable episodes for me are the one where someone drowns in a skydiving accident and the one with the clocktower. I believe know the who but not the how in the latter case, which plays by the typical locked room murder mystery rules. None of that cleverness is to be found in the movie. Just the same two decades old joke that’s been wrung dry.
What a disappointment. I enjoyed the characterizations and “getting the band back together” aspects (I was wondering how they would account for Ted Levine), the mystery itself was subpar.
It was too obvious that the main suspect was the guy. If you are going to cast Jame Purefoy, at least make him a red herring. And once they reached that “Since you are about to die anyway, Mr. Bond” moment, I was out.