WAT's-THE-WORD on The Monk?!

WAT’s-THE-WORD on The Monk?! The obsession began in November of 2009. For some reason, I decided to reserve a copy of Monk season one at the library. If the held item got cancelled, I probably wouldn't have cared, but I had something else in at the time and so Monk came home.

It looked interesting enough. I said I wanted to watch "this" when we could but my siblings were fairly adamant about that--Glee/How I Met Your Mother/etc. was on! For me, it was just mild curiosity about the "Obsessive Compulsive Detective" that I'd heard recommended twice before. So what if we postponed some more?

Somehow, Monk was inserted into the DVD player and the first episode began. I laughed harder than necessary, perhaps, at the funny parts, to the rest of the family would hopefully see that this was an enjoyable show--yeah, not very good logic, I know.

But halfway through, we were all hooked. We couldn't stop watching!

Unfortunately, this was a library DVD--a first season of a series as well a.k.a. the trial run a.k.a. the-one-people-shove-into-their-dvd-players-and-see-if-this-show-really-is-all-that-great-and-if-it's-not-they-won't-get-season-two-reserved--and it was scratched very badly so half of season one was unwatchable.

Fortunately, the series had eight seasons (yes, we were sad to hear the series was ending in about a month, but eight whole seasons to watch almost back-to-back! Awesome!) so I quickly started placing holds for the next seasons.

Monk is about a brilliant detective, named Adrian Monk, with obsessive compulsive disorder, and far too many fears (heights, milk, etc.). Yet, though his disorder and fears often get in the way, they help him solve cases more often. The episodes tend to put one murderer away per episode, so each episode is fast-paced and gripping. The longest murder mystery is about Trudy Monk, Adrian's wife. She was killed by a car bomb and Adrian doesn't know how/why this happened. He has an assistant (Sharona and then later Natalie, though I liked Sharona better...) who helps him deal with his phobias 24/7 while complaining about how little they're paid, and a therapist (Dr.Kroger).

One of several things I love about this show is how real it is--all of this could happen. There are no aliens, nobody has superpowers...Adrian Monk is completely believable.

I really don't want to spoil anything more, but this is a MUST SEE SHOW. This is Wo De Drawling recommended. I'm currently watching season six.

GUEST REVIEW
Danielle Case
California
Age 18