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Browsing through NetFlix’s online streaming collection is not unlike those late Friday nights spent browsing through the movie maze in your local video store. The search for that perfect movie is often tricky. Sometimes you have to deal with a fuming partner and/or a melting tub of ice-cream in the car. The pressure is compounded by a listless, unhelpful store clerk in some cases. This column aims to be that clerk for NetFlix Instant Watch – maybe just a little less listless and little more helpful. This is what I waded through recently – at NetFlix.

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 3

I sometimes wonder why Monk is set in San Francisco. It certainly adds to the quirkiness. Season 3 is when the crossover from Sharona to Natalie happens. While Sharona is a bit of a motor mouth and bullies Monk from time to time, Natalie is a much softer, even submissive assistant to a demanding boss.

"Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan" finds Monk and his entourage making that rare trip outside the San Francisco bay area. This is a follow up to the clue revealed in the last episode of the previous season pertaining to the car bombing of Monk’s wife, Trudy. Apparently NY is a lot crazier than SF, as Monk is seemingly more disoriented in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. The central mystery for this episode involves a foreign diplomat but Monk reveals the motives to be quite domestic.





"Mr. Monk Gets Fired" finds Monk struggling to retain his detective license as the Police Commissioner (the fast talking Saverio Guerra (Bob from "Becker") takes a particular disliking to him. Monk has to solve a murder while staying away from the Commissioner’s line of vision. The verbal abuse from the Commissioner extends to Stottlemeyer. The funniest part of this episode is when Sharona takes matters into"her own hands" and helps solve the case.

"Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf" works better as a comedy than a murder mystery thanks to a guest appearance from "Reno 911" star Niecy Nash. Nash is a substitute nurse/assistant as Sharona takes some time off to deal with stress related hallucinations.

In "Mr. Monk and the Game Show," a little bit of Trudy-related melodrama is thrown in as Monk helps his former father-in-law solve a work-related puzzle. A game show that Monk’s father-in-law produces is getting rigged but nobody knows how. Monk steps in as a participant and figures it all out in a buzzer round that puts everyone on edge.

"Mr. Monk and the Election" is one of the early episodes with Natalie. The plot and the eventual solution are a credit to the writers and is a tribute to old Agatha Christie novels in the way they deceive the audience.

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