Hoovering up Emmys and Screen Actor’s Guild awards in the US, as well as setting records as ‘most watched scripted show on cable TV’, Monk has been a consistently strong drama since it launched in 2002 and deserves more fans over here in the UK. So this release of The Complete Collection is the perfect time to get acquainted with the ‘defective detective’.
Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) is a private detective suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and a catalogued 321 fears – including puppies, milk, and ‘fear itself’. With his assistant Natalie (Traylor Howard), he uses his brilliant but afflicted mind to solve crimes the police – Capt. Stottlemeyer and Lt. Disher – can’t solve. It seems like the kind of well-worn set-up that we’ve seen hundreds of times, from Sherlock Holmes to Jonathan Creek to The Mentalist, but Monk manages to set itself apart from similar detective shows with warm and witty scripting and a standout performance from its lead.
As Monk, Shalhoub has created a character we find annoying, brilliant, funny and utterly sympathetic, with every facial tic and every movement of his hands showing us a deeply flawed genius at odds with everything in the world. The accompanying main cast is a strong ensemble, particularly Ted Levine’s exasperated Stottlemeyer, who shares some wonderfully scripted interplay with Jason Gray-Stanford’s naïve Lt. Randy Disher and Adrian Monk himself.
Extras: With strong humour, a slew of guest stars (everyone from Stanley Tucci to Snoop Dogg), and impossibly imaginative crimes, Monk is a refreshingly different police procedural drama, so it’s a shame the extras accompanying this mammoth 34-disc set are rather procedural. DVD releases of Monk have often been light on special features and it’s disappointing that after 8 seasons and 125 episodes there aren’t more goodies to reward fans.
Most noticeable is a complete absence of outtakes and deleted scenes, which for a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously is surprising. However what is present is good enough to satisfy fans, as interviews and videos like ‘Goodbye Mr. Monk’, which records the emotional last day of filming, emphasise a grand farewell to the show and clearly demonstrate the cast and crew’s fondness for their work and each other.
The bulk of the extras are taken up with a series of short video commentary interviews with the writers and producers talking about individual episodes from the final season. They’re full of interesting trivia insights into the scripting and making of the show, and at between 5 and 10 mins are long enough to be interesting without dragging on. The separate interviews with the cast recounting their favourite moments are fun, although Ted Levine is noticeable by his absence, which is rather a shame as he’s such a strong component of the show.
Sneaking behind the scenes, the ‘Set Tours’ aren’t the most dynamic videos to watch, but in taking you through the stages of production they capture the effort and fun that is poured into making every episode. It’s nothing you wouldn’t get from a ‘behind the scenes’ feature on any other show but we suspect devotees will enjoy the forensic level of detail that goes into creating Monk’s apartment.
‘Anatomy of an Episode’ is a more in-depth look at the episode ‘Mr Monk Makes the Playoffs’ and the work required to create a large outdoor scene. It’s a rather short bit of something and nothing really, a mish-mash of glimpsed interviews and anecdotes from people as they work, and as a result it’s by far the least interesting feature on the disc.
Probably the stand-out extra is the in-depth commentary on the emotional final episode ‘Mr. Monk and the End’, featuring Tony Shalhoub, head writer Andy Breckman, and producer Randy Zisk. Given the space of a 2-part episode to talk they’re allowed to cover everything from past episodes to story development to fascinating stories and trivia. It makes for a fitting analysis and send-off for a show that has been consistently strong for nearly a decade. Just a few more extras of similar quality would have made Monk‘s send-off extra special.
Released on DVD on Monday 29th August 2011 by Universal Playback.