Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
October 26, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Went Looking For…
Believe it or not, I sometimes do have a predetermined playlist while browsing for movie titles. Generally, there is a week between my adding them to the playlist and actually watching them. The movies under “Went Looking For…” are typically the movies that I had slotted as “Ended up with…” the previous week.
Monk Season 1
Monk is an absolute delight for fans of old-fashioned detective stories. The premise is always a simple whodunit that starts with what appears to be in the realm of the impossible before Monk pieces it together. The narrative focuses on humor and plot development without any social commentary whatsoever that other crime series get tangled in. The characters are the key and none more prominent than the defective detective with obsessive compulsive disorder and a multitude of phobias. It is a sad existence for a person unable to compromise with his illness that is compounded by the tragic loss of the one person who understood him – his wife, Trudy. It is to creator Andy Breckman and the writers’ credit that they can bring humor out of this pathos. There is obvious inspiration from other famous fictional detectives. There is a little bit of Columbo in the way Monk acts around a crime scene – he willingly lets other people involved either ignore him or berate him (he prefers the former but is usually the latter). There is the Sherlock Holmes level of observation and deduction. He also has a more brilliant and even more eccentric brother. Like Hercule Poirot, he struggles to skip procedure or change methods while arriving at a solution and is a little self-centered socially speaking. It is almost as if he has the best characteristics of all these predecessors.
Watching it on NetFlix gives a better experience than the marathons on USA network, thanks to access through different mediums. The downside is that Monk’s tediousness becomes a bit, well, tedious. It is difficult to imagine Tony Shaloub in any other role. I guess this is a gift and a curse.
Some of my favorite cases from Season One include:
"Mr. Monk and the Candidate" is a great introduction piece. It lays the ground rules and boundaries for the lead characters. Monk (Tony Shalhoub) annoys everyone involved with his OCD-fueled antics but saves the day. Sharona (Bitty Schram), Monk’s nurse and assistant, often resorts to bullying him to do the most menial of tasks. Captain Leland Stottlemeyer has to overcome his pride before hiring Monk but can’t prevent himself from admiring his former partner’s genius.
"Mr. Monk and the Psychic" is the odd episode where the crime and the perpetrator are clearly shown at the beginning. The crime looks seemingly perfect until Monk happens. The number of seemingly perfect crimes that happen in the San Francisco bay area is eerily exciting.
"Mr. Monk and the Billionaire Mugger" is another delightful crime that would have been brilliant if Monk had not intervened and made it look downright silly. A Silicon Valley CEO is shot dead as he attempts to (of all things) mug a couple in a deserted parking lot. Why would a man for whom money is the least of his worries stoop to such a crime? Also featured in this episode is the extremely funny sequence with a "coward cop."
"Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man" is the first of two references to the old Dustin Hoffmann movie. Here, the premise is an actual marathon where Monk replays the entire run to break an alibi. The other Monk episode features a rogue dentist a la the villain from the original Marathon Man.
"Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation" is endearing due to the fact that he is the only person taking Benjy (Sharona’s son) seriously when he claims to have witnessed a murder on a vacation resort. Monk’s sharp brain and obsession over cleanliness meet their match in a motley group of maids. Polly Draper’s role as the hotel’s security chief is a great act in subtle hilarity.
Monk Season 2
Another recurring phenomenon that one notices in a continuous run of Monk episodes is how unlucky Sharona is with men. The minute she takes an interest in a man you can bet your worth that he is up to no good.
Lieutenant Randy Disher has very little involvement for most of Seasons 1 and 2. He slowly gains prominence in subsequent seasons. He feels the need to compliment the captain much more than is required in the belief that the Captain is losing self confidence when Monk solves cases with ease.
Standout episodes:
"Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" finds Monk visiting Trudy’s old school to check whether an apparent suicide is indeed one. A cocky teacher does the classic underestimating routine by taunting Monk and his disorder. Monk beats science in this classic episode that has a tender ending.
In "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico," the premise ensures that only Monk can solve the murder(s). It begins with a man sky diving to his death in the desert and is diagnosed as a case of drowning somewhere between the earth and the sky. As far as case premises go, this is one of the most intriguing.
The case of "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus" is as bohemian as the characters involved. Witnesses describe a masked gymnast shooting a man point blank but the chief suspect is someone with her leg in a cast. Sequences that invite guffaws, grimace and other extreme reactions include the clown/mime following Monk, the elephant and a melon and the whole "suck it up" tete-a-tete between Sharona and Monk.
The only case that can equal or top the mid-air drowning is the case involving "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect," where the chief suspect has been in a coma during the entire time that mail bombs are going off in the city.
In "Mr. Monk Gets Married," Sharona and Monk pretend to be a couple in a marriage counseling retreat. This is probably the first episode where Lieutenant Disher gets to share the limelight a little bit even if it is in an icky way.
Ended up with…
Whilst checking out the above shows, I invariably end up fattening my instant watch queue with some new additions. These go into my “Ended up with…” list and the plan is to watch them during the week ahead. NetFlix keeps tempting me to move each one of them to the top of the queue but I resist. These are movies that I plan to check out in the days ahead.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Can Nicolas Cage match Harvey Keitel from the original Bad Lieutenant? Maybe that isn’t the idea with this remake.
Sudden Impact
Every time a Dirty Harry movie comes up for instant watching, here I am adding it to my instant watch queue.
Monk Season 3
This is the season where the crossover from Sharona to Natalie happens.