Mr. Monk's Last Case is more like the Hallmark movie of Mr. Monk
Adrian Monk has always been consistent. He's never been a fan of germs, heights, loud noises, crowds, elevators, milk, or a host of other things. But he knows how to solve a murder. MonkThe 2000s USA Network procedural, which centered on the fictional detective played by Tony Shalhoub, wasn't as consistent; after a few seasons, the show seemed to reverse engineer its mysteries from the most awkward situations they could put Monk in for an episode. The quality of the show suffered, but Shalhoub's compassion and meticulous care always tied the show to something.
Mr. Monk's Last Case: a monk moviethe new Peacock special that brings back Shalhoub, Monk and most of the show's characters throws away what little consistency Monk to maintain. It's been over a decade since he finally solved his wife Trudy's murder, and post-COVID life hasn't been kind to him. With his memoir canceled, Monk cannot afford to pay for his stepdaughter Molly's (Caitlin McGee) wedding, leaving him feeling depressed and contemplating suicide. He postpones his plans when he has to solve one last case on Molly's behalf, but Monk feels broken throughout the film, so much so that the ghost of Trudy (Melora Hardin) has to intervene several times to talk him through difficult moments .
Unfortunately, what Mr. Monk's latest case what has been built upon – the grief underlying Monk's entire situation – falters because it doesn't feel true. And worse, the direct-to-streaming movie revival is a blatant imitation of what Monk did better elsewhere.
The special suffers from many of the traditional problems that come with these types of reunions. The central mystery is that he's here to solve sprawl in a way the show couldn't, a victim of an extended runtime without any real backbone to reinforce it. It's caught somewhere between closing Monk's story (it's his). Last case) and restart (he was retired for one last case!). Your mileage may vary depending on what things in the movie play on the nostalgia such reboots are built on: Randy (Jason Gray-Stanford) is still a goober, and true fans still remember his music project. Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) is still brassy and questions Monk's logic. “It's a gift. And a curse.”
Photo: Steve Wilkie/Peacock
But such nostalgia seems to simply retread Monk's primary arc from the show. Interestingly, this is not the first time Monk has seen Trudy's ghost. In season 3 of “Mr. Monk takes his medicine,” Monk is particularly despondent about his limitations and takes Trudy's old pillow from a plastic bag in the closet and she appears, ethereal and brightly lit. The conversation they have is a speedrun of everything Mr. Monk's latest case tries to build his emotional foundation on: his fear of change (and his fear of “not changing”), how much he misses her, how afraid he is that his life will always feel so hopeless.
Over the course of that episode, he tries medication — which eases his fears, but also turns him into a jerk and a bad detective — and decides to keep muddling through the treatment plan. These can be recurring problems for someone like Monk, and Shalhoub's performance does indeed have a graceful, endless weariness to it. But Mr. Monk's latest case feels trite compared to what a 42-minute episode could already encompass.
In that third season episode, Trudy's heavenly presence feels much more true; Monk did not bring in the real Trudy from the spectral plane, but rather Monk's imagination of what Trudy could have been there to say to him. Combined with Shalhoub's cracking voice and deep despair, the moment between them is heartbreakingly serious and speaks to his connection and conviction better than any cuts in the film. By the end of the special, it's more like he walked in Mr. Monk's Hallmark Movie then an episode of Monk. This is especially true when it clumsily attempts to connect his considerations of Trudy to the case at hand: he laments the never-ending crime statistics, but Monk was never driven by his impact or his legacy, and certainly not by ' ending murder'. ” He was good at puzzles, a damn good detective, and as rigid when it came to justice as he was when it came to cleanliness.
Apart from the obvious comfort of revisiting the Monk crew, Mr. Monk's latest case feels fully built to provide him closure and a future. But that's something the last episode of the series already offered him. While “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine” was about ultimately maintaining the status quo so that the series could continue The series finale introduces him to Mollywhich pushes him to finally decide to live his life, and not just endure it. Mr. Monk's latest case throws that out the window for a post-COVID world, but it doesn't offer anything new, insightful, or even reassuring to Monk or the viewer.
There was always a tragic undertone to Monk's whole schtick, plunky jazz soundtrack. The central cliché of Monk's life – a brilliant detective who could solve everything except the murder of his own wife – was both a plot and a trap, crystallizing his growth and (as he would repeatedly admit) keeping him from believing that he would ever do. be truly happy or free from his OCD symptoms again. Driving Monk to the edge, only to be stopped by the ghost of his wife, isn't the solution the specialty thinks it is.
Mr. Monk's latest case now streaming on Peacock.