Monk, le retour

While one review here says that nostalgia is causing people to overrate this TV movie, I'm inclined to think that it's making people underrating it, because they're forgetting that, as funny and brilliant as the show could be, and as great as Tony Shalhoub was, the series always flawed and towards the end could be genuinely bad.

In the movie, Monk, an brilliant ex-detective with diagnostically fuzzy OCD is at the end of his always short rope. But when murder happens close to home (I really hate "this time it's personal" plot lines, but what can you do?) Monk comes out of retirement for what he's determined to be one last time.

As always, Monk unsteadily treads the line between character-driven comedy and cartoonish laughs. Monk sometimes responds as someone trapped in a world of obsessions, and sometimes just acts like a weird two-year-old having a freak-out.

In short, the movie, like the series is sometimes smart, and sometimes irretrievably dumb.

The mystery itself is decent though unexception - I figured it out way before Monk. The returning characters are decent although underutilized (except Randy, who is overutilized). The new characters are bland and add nothing, which is unfortunate.

Shalhoub, though, is still great, and his dry, anguished weirdness is still funny, even if it is the same shtick he's always done.

If you're expecting more than an overlong episode of the series then you'll be disappointed, but if you just want to see one more episode of Monk, this is worthwhile.

I am a Monk fan and Tony Shalhoub didn't disappoint. He was, as always, a delight to watch. But most of the other actors were mediocre, especially McGee, whose grief was not at all convincing. Even Ted Levine was unconvincing in his conflict of interests. The story had such a great potential if each actor had tackled into it and had taken their role as seriously as Shalhoub. Except for Monk's wife, everyone seemed to be there just to create a background for Monk.

I earnestly hope this is not Monk's last case, not only because I will gladly watch more of Monk any time but also because he deserves a better "last case," if there has to be one.

I'm a die-hard Monk fan and eagerly awaited this movie. However, I was disappointed to see the depressive turn the writers took with Monk's character. As another reviewer wrote, I too would have loved to see Monk embracing how the world dealt with germs during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr. Monk gleefully witnessing the world wearing masks, using sanitizers amd wipes would have been hilarious. It seemed as if the writers weren't aware of the subtle nuances that make Monk "Monk". All in all, It was an enjoyable hour and a half. I loved seeing the old crew back together but it definitely missed its mark.

I soo wanted to like this movie. I was a huge fan of Mr. Monk, and I used to enjoy the show immensely. The fact that we can have a quirky hero with OCD was intriguing and I was rooting for another season.

But, if we can't have the show returning, a TV movie is great, right?

Well, it could have been, but this has got to be the most lazy writing ever done for a movie.

Mr. Monk isn't quirky, he's just awkward.

He's not allowed to be clever and use his intelligence, because the case is so clumsy presented, that we all know who done it and how immediately.

That means, the entire movie we're just waiting for Monk to catch up on what we already know, because no one made the effort of making an interesting case.

Great to see all the belowed characters again, but man - I'm rage-writing this review because it's probably the only time the cast gets back together, and then they get a script written by a 10 year old.

When watching this all I was thinking was; why does this have to be his last case?

It ends on a good positive note and his relationship with his daughter was handled perfectly and she almost set herself up to be a perfect Sharona/Natalie style sidekick for a new series run if this happened.

Tony Shalhoub seems to fit the role like a glove and it doesn't feel like its been 13 years since his last episide. It just feels like it was a year or so ago he was last playing the role

If they could offer a new series of Dexter many years later they can easily do it with Monk.

All you need is to find a way to get Stottlemeyer into the fold.and you have perfect TV.