My wife and I have been enthusiastic and faithful viewers of the USA Network hit program, Monk, since it debuted in 2002. We found the stories entertaining, the characters endearing and engaging, and Tony Shalhoub’s portrayal of Adrian Monk, the obsessive compulsive detective, apt and insightful. When we, along with the rest of series’s fans, learned that this was to be the show’s last season, we were saddened but understanding. Although we felt there were more stories to tell, the series had largely run its course and I’m sure that Tony Shalhoub is eager for new challenges.
**SPOILERS**
Last night was the second part of the final two part episode of the series, something of a riff on DOA, in which Monk has been poisoned and attempts to solve simultaneously his own impending murder and that of his beloved wife, Trudy, which had taken place some 12 years earlier and been his obsession ever since and which has been given new urgency by his own impending death. We found it engaging and true to the series right to the very end, one of the very best of all series finales, best possibly only by that most glorious of series finales, the legendary last episode of Newhart. It also completed a process that the series producers had begun earlier in the season, something that all final episodes should do.
They reassured us that our friends would be all right. Leland Stottlemeyer, Monk’s old police partner, is newly remarried and happy with his lovely bride. Stottlemeyer’s assistant, Randy, has coupled with Monk’s old assistant and nurse, Sharona, and found a new job as police chief of Summit, New Jersey where, presumably, he can’t do too much harm. Natalie, Monk’s assistant/caregiver/foster mother has found a handsome new love interest.
And Monk, too, will be all right. He has begun the healing process. He has found somebody to love in the unexpected form of Trudy’s daughter that he never knew existed. The daughter convinces Monk that his unique talent for remembering and seeing is purely a gift and not a curse and it’s a gift he must use to solve mysteries for “the other Trudies”. In the final scene of the show Monk is wearing a new shirt and he’s striding onto the crime scene with new confidence rather than his hangdog shuffle. He will be all right.
I too have been a fan of Monk for many years. I find it is be at once a most hilarious comedy, and one, I might add, the did not take itself too seriously, and yet at the same time a deeply insightful and moving meditation on the human condition.
As Stottlemeyer earlier says to Randy (oh such comically expressive names characters have in this show), Monk problem is that he is more human than the rest of us, not that he is less of a human. He cannot let the ugly reality of his experience go; he cannot just shrug it off. He is not that shallow or superficial. He knows of the sanctity of the ordinary.
But truly, Adrian is an Everyman. He expresses what we all feel but are afraid to say: That the world is an absurd, crude, stupid, cruel and senseless place and that the simple truths of love and spirit and mind and common sense are all that are worth having. He knows the truth. His friends know this, that is why they love and protect him.
The creators of this show should be satisfied that they have create a great rarity: Intelligent and moving TV.
I liked the show for the first season or two, but it’s hard for me to watch a “formula” show too long. I came back for the last season though, and enjoyed most of them. They even had me thinking that they might actually do it, and kill Monk off.
To be honest, I think that might have been the original plan. The last episode certainly shows the signs of it but they decided to write in a quick happy ending. That makes sense from a continued syndication and possible later made-for-TV movie basis.