"Monk" Critique
02-03-10, 05:18 PM
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"Monk" Critique
Critique of “Monk”
“Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man”
I thought it was very realistic how the Captain was having a sort of mid-life crisis in this episode. In the real world, it is typical of a man of his age to question his capabilities, especially in that field. This episode was also an accurate portrayal of a marriage on the rocks. The Captain getting kicked out by his wife and living with Mr. Monk and then what he did to get back into her good graces supported this image. I think it is unrealistic however, that the Captain was comparing himself to Mr. Monk, in that real society doesn’t often see Mr. Monks, at least not in that sort of profession. I did, however, find the main plot of the episode to be lacking in realistic terms. While we do find corruption in our government, I don’t think it typically goes as deep as murder. I thought that the part about the Mayor’s assistant accidentally running over and killing the teen and hiding it was realistic enough; it has happened before many times, maybe not mostly within governing offices. I didn’t agree with the portrayal of the Mayor’s assistant killing the old man. I thought it was kind of hokey that the Mayor’s assistant would kill the oldest man in the world to keep a time capsule form being dug up on the possibility that the whimsical promise that the mayor made to that man about digging up the time capsule would be kept. It seems like a long stretch to murdering two people. I also thought that it was unrealistic that the Mayor’s assistant would write a letter of confession and bury it in the time capsule; the thing that started the whole episode. A person who has committed a murder might tell someone or bury evidence, but typically would not write a letter of confession to bury. Also, the snakebite that the Mayor’s assistant had was really, really unrealistic. No snakebite that I have ever heard of or seen is circular with fang marks the whole way around. A snake bites down with two fangs, typically one time. It looked like he was bitten by a sawed-off can lid instead of a snake.
From a biblical perspective, this episode presented several problems. Captain Stottlemeyer definitely did not handle the trouble with his wife in a Godly manner, nor had he been respecting his wife in a Godly manner in the first place. The Bible tells husbands to love their wives and to treat them well. He wasn’t doing this when he wasn’t being supportive of her documentary making. Also, the way in which the Mayor’s assistant handled his original, accidental, murder of the teen, which then spiraled into two more murders, was way off line biblically. After he had discovered that he had killed the teen, he should have immediately turned himself in and sought forgiveness. His denial and refusal to confess led him into further sin.
“Mr. Monk Goes to Jail”
I thought that this episode was entertaining, but very unrealistic in several ways. First of all, Mr. Monk never would have been allowed inside of the prison in real life had the guard not personally patted him down. Also, the fact that the prison guards left Dale the Whale’s cell door open was unrealistic because even though they may not have considered him a flight risk it may not be the getting out that is the problem, but rather the who is getting in. I thought that the plot line of this episode was also pretty farfetched. A reading lady in the jail bribing a prisoner to poison another prisoner so that some suing debt could be resolved between the reading lady’s son and the author of a book is pretty out there. The framing of the inmate, “Spider,” for all of this, however, is fairly realistic, as inmates who are particularly dangerous have been known to get framed for things. I also thought that the gang of knife-wielding Nazis was also unrealistic in how they all surrounded Mr. Monk and are definitely looking like they are going to kill him, but end up twirling their knives around a couple of times and seemingly trying to talk him to death. If they were going to kill him, as it seemed that they had intentions to, they would have done it quickly, especially as they were in a prison where a guard could show up any minute. This episode was also unsound biblically in that it portrayed bribery as acceptable. Dale the Whale was prepared to give Mr. Monk information on the murder of his wife Trudy in exchange for Mr. Monk getting the police off his back about the murder of the inmate and the installation of his window. Biblically, we would never accept something from a criminal on the terms that we would help him get around the law. Even though Dale the Whale wasn’t guilty, he was still trying to evade standard police investigation, the law.
“Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man”
I thought it was very realistic how the Captain was having a sort of mid-life crisis in this episode. In the real world, it is typical of a man of his age to question his capabilities, especially in that field. This episode was also an accurate portrayal of a marriage on the rocks. The Captain getting kicked out by his wife and living with Mr. Monk and then what he did to get back into her good graces supported this image. I think it is unrealistic however, that the Captain was comparing himself to Mr. Monk, in that real society doesn’t often see Mr. Monks, at least not in that sort of profession. I did, however, find the main plot of the episode to be lacking in realistic terms. While we do find corruption in our government, I don’t think it typically goes as deep as murder. I thought that the part about the Mayor’s assistant accidentally running over and killing the teen and hiding it was realistic enough; it has happened before many times, maybe not mostly within governing offices. I didn’t agree with the portrayal of the Mayor’s assistant killing the old man. I thought it was kind of hokey that the Mayor’s assistant would kill the oldest man in the world to keep a time capsule form being dug up on the possibility that the whimsical promise that the mayor made to that man about digging up the time capsule would be kept. It seems like a long stretch to murdering two people. I also thought that it was unrealistic that the Mayor’s assistant would write a letter of confession and bury it in the time capsule; the thing that started the whole episode. A person who has committed a murder might tell someone or bury evidence, but typically would not write a letter of confession to bury. Also, the snakebite that the Mayor’s assistant had was really, really unrealistic. No snakebite that I have ever heard of or seen is circular with fang marks the whole way around. A snake bites down with two fangs, typically one time. It looked like he was bitten by a sawed-off can lid instead of a snake.
From a biblical perspective, this episode presented several problems. Captain Stottlemeyer definitely did not handle the trouble with his wife in a Godly manner, nor had he been respecting his wife in a Godly manner in the first place. The Bible tells husbands to love their wives and to treat them well. He wasn’t doing this when he wasn’t being supportive of her documentary making. Also, the way in which the Mayor’s assistant handled his original, accidental, murder of the teen, which then spiraled into two more murders, was way off line biblically. After he had discovered that he had killed the teen, he should have immediately turned himself in and sought forgiveness. His denial and refusal to confess led him into further sin.
“Mr. Monk Goes to Jail”
I thought that this episode was entertaining, but very unrealistic in several ways. First of all, Mr. Monk never would have been allowed inside of the prison in real life had the guard not personally patted him down. Also, the fact that the prison guards left Dale the Whale’s cell door open was unrealistic because even though they may not have considered him a flight risk it may not be the getting out that is the problem, but rather the who is getting in. I thought that the plot line of this episode was also pretty farfetched. A reading lady in the jail bribing a prisoner to poison another prisoner so that some suing debt could be resolved between the reading lady’s son and the author of a book is pretty out there. The framing of the inmate, “Spider,” for all of this, however, is fairly realistic, as inmates who are particularly dangerous have been known to get framed for things. I also thought that the gang of knife-wielding Nazis was also unrealistic in how they all surrounded Mr. Monk and are definitely looking like they are going to kill him, but end up twirling their knives around a couple of times and seemingly trying to talk him to death. If they were going to kill him, as it seemed that they had intentions to, they would have done it quickly, especially as they were in a prison where a guard could show up any minute. This episode was also unsound biblically in that it portrayed bribery as acceptable. Dale the Whale was prepared to give Mr. Monk information on the murder of his wife Trudy in exchange for Mr. Monk getting the police off his back about the murder of the inmate and the installation of his window. Biblically, we would never accept something from a criminal on the terms that we would help him get around the law. Even though Dale the Whale wasn’t guilty, he was still trying to evade standard police investigation, the law.
02-03-10, 05:28 PM
#2
Moderator
Re: "Monk" Critique
Ah... first off welcome 
Hopefully you'll enjoy your time here at DVDtalk as much as our regulars do. Second please take the time to get a feel for the layout of the site... in particular this main forum is for discussion of current DVDs, except for reviews/recommendations which really belong to the Review forum. There is also a TV forum that is for discussion of current TV shows, and proselytizing really should go in the Other forum, which is kind of a catch all. I'm not really sure where you are going w/ this post but I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong in this main forum. If you pick which direction you want to take it (talk about the TV show, just writing a review of the DVD or to make Biblical comparisons) please feel free to start a new thread in the appropriate forum.
Hopefully you'll enjoy your time here at DVDtalk as much as our regulars do. Second please take the time to get a feel for the layout of the site... in particular this main forum is for discussion of current DVDs, except for reviews/recommendations which really belong to the Review forum. There is also a TV forum that is for discussion of current TV shows, and proselytizing really should go in the Other forum, which is kind of a catch all. I'm not really sure where you are going w/ this post but I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong in this main forum. If you pick which direction you want to take it (talk about the TV show, just writing a review of the DVD or to make Biblical comparisons) please feel free to start a new thread in the appropriate forum.
