In the season finale (I think), Monk takes some pills prescribed by his shrink because Monk is distraught over his condition, and finds himself paralyzed to do anything when a suspect runs right by him in a police take-down of the suspect. Monk goes from being OCD to a carefree spirit with no-focus at all. Shaloub was pretty funny as "The Monk". The scenes with Monk and Trudy are so heartbreaking at times. (Trudy reminds me of Sela Ward with long dishwater blonde hair).

Pretty good episode, but the resolution of the case was too quick. It was nice to see "The Monk", but I hope it is not something that we will see more than once (ok, maybe twice).

I wish they would make up their minds about Disher. One week he is a total boob, the next week he plays this tough cop. He is definite more boob than tough cop, but since I hate the character, I wish that he would just blend into the background.

Part two of this season starts in the fall, October I think.

Or more like Part 3 of Season 3 starts in the fall for Monk, which is starting to be a year round series with 6 week breaks into between 5-6 episode spurts.

I'm pretty sure I read in Friday's NY Daily News that it was coming back in January..

Don't quote me on it.

Looks like Patman is right:
Link

"The Monk"

You're bringing The Monk down, man.

Why does Monk have to suffer through either extreme? Either a quivering mess, or an obnoxious dimwit. Can't the doctor just adjust the dosage?

What fun would that be?

First half was great ... second half was weak.

Once they got the jokes out of the way, there wasn't much left. The parts with Trudy were very good.

I would have preferred it to resolve over a couple shows. Take a more serial approach like the movie "Charly" (Flowers For Algernon). Monk always resolves into a nice episodic bundle.

Later, Cats and Kittens

I thought it was great how they handled Disher's character in this episode. It showed that when "it hit the fan" and Stottlemeyer got hurt, Randy really stepped up to the plate and took care of business.

It's interesting the differences in Disher. I watched a bit of one of the Friday marathon episodes, the one with Willie Nelson from (I think) 2002, and near the beginning of that one Disher was in charge of the crime scene because Stottlemeyer had been hurt in an accident or something, and he WAS a complete boob in that one. But in this episode, he was pretty much doing well being in charge of things, even if Monk did help with a couple of ideas.

Of course, my favorite thing about this episode was the Mustang - because I bought one exactly like it 3 months ago!

Steph

The Willie Nelson episode aired almost two years ago. I don't know how long that is in 'Monk years', but it doesn't seem terribly inconsistent. At least it didn't go the other way, with Disher going from competent to boob. That would have been annoying.

Anyway, I enjoyed this episode. I was wondering how they'd explain why Monk would go off his meds. I figured it would involve Trudy. I thought they handled it very well; it was kinda touching, actually. Of course, as others have said, the dosage could have been adjusted, but who knows, maybe they'll explore that in a future episode.

Can't wait for the rest of the season!

Rob

BTW, I enjoyed the viewer's choice marathon too, mostly because the episode I voted for, Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico, came in at #4. I voted for that one because, of the three I hadn't seen yet, it's the only one I hadn't read about online, so I didn't know anything about it. I'm glad I got a chance to see it.

Rob