Monk: Season Two [4 Discs]

Tony Shalhoub

Overview

An ex-cop suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder solves crimes with various (and usually exasperated) sidekicks in tow in this first-rate mystery with a breakout Emmy-winning star in Tony Shalhoub. The 'defective detective' may have an abundance of phobias (heights, crowds, and even milk, among them), but he also has razor-sharp deductive skills, which he uses to help the San Francisco police with especially baffling cases.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/11/2005
UPC:	0025192523328
Original Release:	2005
Rating:	NR
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	11:11:00

Special Features

The Minds Behind Monk"; Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) character profile; Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) character profile; Precinct tours with Jason Gray-Stanford

Editorial Reviews

In the best tradition of such classic small-screen whodunits as Murder, She Wrote and Diagnosis: Murder, Monk offers complex murder mysteries in which solutions rely on perceptive analyses of seemingly unimportant clues, as well as the protagonist's command of arcane information. Season 1 introduced viewers to Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub), a brilliant detective afflicted with obsessive-compulsive disorder in the wake of his wife's still-unsolved murder. Bounced from the police force on medical grounds, he has become a private investigator who relies heavily on his assistant, Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), in order to limit his dealings with the outside world. Monk's cases generally bring him back into contact with an old nemesis, Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), who has little patience for Monk's neurotic behavior but great respect for his deductive abilities. The 16 episodes of Season 2 (2003-4) continue Monk's string of cleverly formulated and well-written episodes, though relying somewhat more on "stunt" casting to lend novelty to the formula. Andrew McCarthy is the chief suspect in the season opener, "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School," in which the eccentric investigator determines that an English teacher's apparent suicide is actually a murder, based on grammatical errors in the note she purportedly left behind. Lolita Davidovich plays a glamorous trapeze artist in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus," another outstanding episode. One of the season's highlights, "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man," introduces Glenne Headly as Stottlemeyer's wife, a documentary filmmaker convinced that one of her subjects has been murdered. Former child star Danny Bonaduce portrays himself in "Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy," which finds the detective matching wits with the publisher of a men's magazine. And John Turturro won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his debut as Monk's agoraphobic older brother, Ambrose, in "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies," another season standout. Obviously challenged to sustain Monk's quirks without letting them get overly familiar, the show's writers maintain a very high standard in Season 2, and armchair detectives will find themselves hard-pressed to keep pace with the compulsive crime-solver.