Nearly crippled by the loss of his wife and his OCD coping mechanisms, detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) keeps busy as a consultant for his former commanding officer, Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), at the San Francisco Police Department, solving otherwise unsolvable crimes. Monk’s obsessive-compulsive tendencies give him a near Sherlock Holmes-level of attention to detail, which works exceptionally well on the crime scenes, and not so well everywhere else. Fortunately, he’s got the help of his nurse/assistant Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) in the first three seasons and Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard) in the rest of the series. He’s also got the ongoing counsel of his therapist, Charles Kroger (Stanley Kamel) in the first six seasons and then Neven Bell (Hector Elizondo) for the last two seasons.
I’m only in the third season of this beloved comedy-drama mystery series, and it’s a light and fun evening watch. For fans of more current production levels and intense mysteries or police procedurals (myself included), Monk is a little soft on the mysteries, but what it lacks in intensity it makes up in charm. It’s easy to see why Shalhoub won three Best Comedy Actor Emmy Awards—he’s endearing and captivating as Monk, who’s haunted by the unsolved mystery of his wife’s death, dogged by his inability to get back on the police force, and propelled to solve crimes that Stottlemeyer can’t pin down. And the odd-couple relationship between him and Sharona is both hilarious and touching. (eight seasons, approx. 45-min episodes)
—Andrea Rooks
