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Monk, new season
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Posted by: Cletus

The new season of Monk started last evening on USA. I've recorded it, but haven't watched it yet. It'll be repeated tonight at 10PM.

Posted by: TeeSee

You're in for a treat. It was a great episode.

Posted by: vertigo235

Agreed, I liked it.

Posted by: mrpurple

Thanks for the reminder. I kept meaning to check my season pass and never got around to it. Didn't get it last night. Will tonight.

Posted by: JPriller

I've been looking forward to it for months!

The good news is they're doing 16 new episodes this year, the bad is that 9 are this summer and we have to wait for winter for the other 7 (source: http://www.usatoday.com/life/televi...5-29-monk_x.htm)

But long about January, I'll be happy there's something new to watch at all, though...

Posted by: lachacg

I didn't like the new song over the opening credits. The old instrumental had a lot more charm.

Posted by: Wil

quote:
Originally posted by TeeSee
You're in for a treat. It was a great episode.

It was OK. You rarely over-build a piece of machinery to bear 100x or more of the weight it's expected to bear in use.

Smart people (Monk says maybe smarter than he is), probably don't misuse "it's"/"its" in suicide notes intended to be from top English teachers they've murdered.

I believe "This is written to whomever I may have hurt" _is_ correct. He's picking up on a common misuse, but not thinking it out. "This note is written to whoever wants to read it" would be correct.

If I were Monk, I'd suspect the writer did it.

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

On whomever, you are correct; the show was wrong. On its/it's, my experience is that intelligence is no indication whatsoever of whether the usage will be correct. My father, for instance, is smarter than hell, and he always gets it wrong. A science teacher might well be like good ol' Dad. But an English teacher wouldn't.

Posted by: Cletus

I liked it. Apart from the suicide notes thing, which ticked me off.

Spoiler below!

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
I'll have to remember the trick with the matches, just in case someone pisses me off badly... :D

Posted by: JolDC

quote:
Originally posted by lachacg
I didn't like the new song over the opening credits. The old instrumental had a lot more charm.

Yes, the old intro music was much better.

And did they replace the kid a third time? Maybe something related to filming in SF now.

Posted by: mrpurple

I agree completely on the song. Was that Randy Newman?

/too lazy to do a google search.

Posted by: holee

I was 50% right. I was so proud of myself for solving it partway.

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)

I figured around the 60% mark that the teacher killed her BEFORE she hit the ground. However I thought that he pushed her off maybe 30 minute s beforehand and just left the body there.

I thought maybe the broken bottles were a result of that somehow.

I didn't think of the hourhand, which was a little messier than it needs to be.

Posted by: kitsap

I found the "whomever" mistake (that is, pointing out an alleged grammatical error in a correct sentence) really jarring. Another weird thing was when, before walking out of a classroom, Monk "corrected" a word on the blackboard by dotting a capital "I" ...

It always amazes me when things like this get through the writers (along with everybody who is right there filming it when it happens). Doesn't anyone notice?? Especially in a show where the character is supposed to be unusually smart, it really makes things screech to an unfortunate temporary halt.

Posted by: mrmike

Another nit: (spoilered 'cause you never know)

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
I deleted it unfortunately but didn't the Teacher in the first scene say his wife got a 1680 on the SATs?

-MM

Posted by: kitsap

quote:
Originally posted by mrmike
Another nit: (spoilered 'cause you never know)

I forgot about that one, but I noticed it at the time, too. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe it was just "deliberate exaggeration for effect." Given the other goofs, however ....

Posted by: hawkamer

This was the first time I caught the show. Pretty good, but maybe I watch too much CSI, because:

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)

Shouldn't the medical exam show that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, thus ruling out the suicide? Grissom et al. would have been all over that!

I laughed out loud at several of Monk's compulsions. That type of behavior certainly adds a different flavor to the show.

Posted by: Cletus

quote:
Originally posted by hawkamer
This was the first time I caught the show. Pretty good, but maybe I watch too much CSI, because:

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)

Shouldn't the medical exam show that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, thus ruling out the suicide? Grissom et al. would have been all over that!

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
Not unless he put it on the minute hand facing the other way than they showed, which would have caused her to fall head first. That would have made a pretty good mess and I guess it's be impossible to distinguish the first blow...

Posted by: njtaz

quote:
Originally posted by lachacg
I didn't like the new song over the opening credits. The old instrumental had a lot more charm.

I agree, I don't like the new opening song at all. they should have left it the same as last year.

Anyway I have been waiting for the return of Monk for a while also and though it was a good episode. He always find the little things that everyone missed.

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
The Captain was all nervous at the beginning when Monk wanted to see the crime scene and was thinking of anything he could have missed.

In some ways he reminds me of Columbo.

Posted by: Redleg

My wife and I were a little disappointed with last night's episode. We LOVED the first season and have been eagerly waiting for new shows to watch. Unfortunately it felt like another pilot, actually, and to my mind was really missing the light touch of last season.

I'm not a fan of Randy Newman (seems like he wrote one song twenty years ago and has just been changing lyrics since then) and we always really liked the original theme (a Jeff Beal tune), so that kind of had us off on the wrong foot.

This was the first time I'd ever "solved" the case before Monk, and actually figured it out about 20 minutes in, so maybe that further spoiled it a little for me. His quirks and his memories of his wife came across very heavy-handed; overall something about the episode seemed overproduced, overwrought, and decidedly Murder She Wrote. I'm certainly a big enough fan of the show and Tony Shaloub to keep watching, but after liking every episode so much last year, this was a let down.

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

Redleg, I kind of agree with you. Let's hope that this was just a "catch the newbies up" episode, where they were trying to reintroduce all the elements of the show for people who have heard about it but haven't watched it yet, and that it will return to its usual pace and tone next week.

Posted by: Jon J

Not only did they screw up the opening music, they covered the ending music (which was last year's theme) with promos for three or four dozen upcoming shows. BOO.

Posted by: Rigelian

I agree bring back the old song. They played it a moment on the ending credits and it just reminded me how right that song was.

As for overproduced, you give someone a slightly larger budget they'll use it. I thought the film quality appeared brighter than typical, but that just might be my imagination.

The story was pretty good and Shalob seemed to be in good form.

Posted by: mostman

quote:
Originally posted by mrmike
Another nit: (spoilered 'cause you never know)

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
I deleted it unfortunately but didn't the Teacher in the first scene say his wife got a 1680 on the SATs?

-MM

Yes - I noticed that as well. I figured he was just inflating the score to be sarcastic.

-Mike

Posted by: njtaz

quote:
Originally posted by mostman
Yes - I noticed that as well. I figured he was just inflating the score to be sarcastic.

-Mike

Yeah to me it sounded like he was just being sarcastic.

Posted by: Captain Video

This was the first episode of Monk I had seen. My wife and I SP'd it based on the positive comments I had seen here regarding the first season. It was OK, but not all that impressive. I didn't feel his behaviors were that humorous and the plot had a serious hole in it.

Is this representative of the series and it just didn't work for us, or was this a weaker episode? We will probably give it one more try next week.

Posted by: lachacg

There have been much better episodes than this one. This one seemed to try too hard in my opinion.

Posted by: JolDC

quote:
Originally posted by Captain Video
This was the first episode of Monk I had seen. My wife and I SP'd it based on the positive comments I had seen here regarding the first season. It was OK, but not all that impressive. I didn't feel his behaviors were that humorous and the plot had a serious hole in it.

Is this representative of the series and it just didn't work for us, or was this a weaker episode? We will probably give it one more try next week.

Don't view Monk for the mystery. You will be dissappointed. In fact, it is often listed as a comedy. Similar to Columbo, you are either told who did it or can guess it easily.

The show is really about Monk and his interactions with the world. This first episode was a little more broad than usually. Maybe they were hoping for an influx of new viewers. Personally, I would give it a couple more episodes before you decide to dump the SP.

Posted by: Captain Video

Thanks for the heads up JolDC. When I saw the

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
dead body perfectly balanced on the hand of the clock, which couldn't have been more than a half-inch or so wide

I did in fact laugh out loud, but for the wrong reasons.

We'll try another few shows and see if we develop an interest in the character, and I'll spend less time on the "mystery" part of the plot.

Posted by: Redleg

Like others here, I'll also recommend that you not pass judgment on the show based on this latest episode. Whatever they were trying to do, they sort of broke the easy-going feel of the show and the light touch they usually used to handle Monk's quirks (granted in a few season one episodes they went way overboard too -- the comic at the hotel, anyone?).

Give it some time and let the characters develop a little; there is pretty good chemistry between the players for a TV whodunit -- friendships, rivalries, and frustrations that run a little deeper than the formulaic "grouchy police chief" and "sassy assistant." We're all optimistic that this was just a detour and that the rest of the season is on track.

The first thing we need is a grass-roots movement to abolish the Randy Newman song. The original opening of the show was perfect; I thought that song was up there with The Sopranos theme in terms of setting the mood for the show.

Posted by: grecorj

I thought it was a pretty funny episode.

Best scene: Monk and Sharona in the lunch line at the school ("Can I have neither, please?"). Too funny!

I'll take the comedy over the mystery anyday.

Posted by: Jon J

I also wondered how the body ended up 12-15 feet away from the bottom of the clock tower...strong wind? Or, was the law of gravity briefly repealed during her fall?