For my money, two detectives on television have been enduringly iconic and the best ever: One is Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo, and the other is Tony Shalhoub as Mr. Monk. Nearly 14 years after its original 8-year-long run, we have been given a neat gift of the return of Monk to work a final case (two homicides, actually). It's not the best installment of the series (a bit sentimental for that), but it's not bad and will probably largely satisfy the hardcore audience awaiting a reprise. Little touches, like an early shoutout to Monk's first assistant, Sharona (played by Bitty Schram, who quit the series midway through Season 3), and a lovely song, Human Kindness, provided by the great Randy Newman (who had composed Monk's original theme, "It's a Jungle Out There")
All actors portraying major characters return, including Hector Elizondo as Monk's beleagured therapist; Melora Hardin as his beloved deceased wife, Trudy; Traylor Howard as his long-time assistant, Natalie; Jason Gray-Stanford as Randy (since moved to run a small-town NJ PD); and of course, Ted Levine as Leland Stotllemeyer (also retired from the SFPD to run private security). The guest villain this time, played by Brit James Purefoy, is clearly supposed to be a version of Jeff Bezos (multibillionaire e-commerce inventor with his civilian space program, a la Blue Origin). A bit of humor: when a star-struck Randy hears Purefoy's character has "bought The Atlantic," it must be explained that it's a magazine (Bezos famously owns The Washington Post), and not the ocean the character's wife goes to swim in. My rating for this reunion is 8/10, but back in the day, the best original episodes were 9/10.
All actors portraying major characters return, including Hector Elizondo as Monk's beleagured therapist; Melora Hardin as his beloved deceased wife, Trudy; Traylor Howard as his long-time assistant, Natalie; Jason Gray-Stanford as Randy (since moved to run a small-town NJ PD); and of course, Ted Levine as Leland Stotllemeyer (also retired from the SFPD to run private security). The guest villain this time, played by Brit James Purefoy, is clearly supposed to be a version of Jeff Bezos (multibillionaire e-commerce inventor with his civilian space program, a la Blue Origin). A bit of humor: when a star-struck Randy hears Purefoy's character has "bought The Atlantic," it must be explained that it's a magazine (Bezos famously owns The Washington Post), and not the ocean the character's wife goes to swim in. My rating for this reunion is 8/10, but back in the day, the best original episodes were 9/10.