Customer Reviews

Monk - Season Two

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A quirky comedy about a man with obsessive compulsive disorder and several phobias who is alternatively helped and hindered by his excrutiating attention to detail. In the first season, Monk loses his job as a police officer and works as a private investigator. His department continues to call him for help on the toughest cases. Here's another funny season.

1. Mr. Monk Goes Back to School: Monk becomes a substitute teacher to investigate the death of an English teacher.
2. Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico: Monk investigates a friend's sons death in Mexico.
3. Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame: While investigating the murders of a CEO and his wife, Monk befriends the Major League superstar who was having an affair with the wife.
4. Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus: Monk investigates the murder of a circus ringmaster.
5. Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man: The captain's hippie wife thinks the world's oldest man has been murdered.
6. Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater: Mr. Monk takes the place of a murdered actor on stage while investigating the murder.
7. Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect: When a woman is murdered, Monk suspects her brother who has been in a coma for four months.
8. Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy: A secretary hires Monk to discover who killed her boss.
10. Mr. Monk and the 12th Man: The Captain calls Monk for help in solving nine brutal murders.
11. Mr. Monk and the Paperboy: Monk's paperboy is murdered.
12. Mr. Monk and the Three Pies: Monk helps his estranged brother whom he has not seen in many years when he claims his neighbor murdered his wife.
13. Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star: Monk becomes convinced that a TV show's star has murdered his ex-wife.
14. Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny: An older law student asks Monk for help finding her missing grandmother. In exchange, she offers to help him get reinstated as a policeman. Michael Shalhoub, Tony's brother, plays on this episode.
15. Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife: The captain's wife is injured when her car has been stuck by a truck whose driver was killed by a sniper.
16. Mr. Monk Gets Married: To solve a murder, Sharona and Monk pose as a couple going for counseling at a clinic
17. Mr. Monk Goes to Jail: Dale the Whale calls Monk from jail with information about a murder.

Adrian Monk is back for his second season with 16 new cases to solve. Whether he's facing public speaking, umpiring, or searching for a missing grandmother, you can count on two things. The mystery will be bizarre and you'll get a laugh or two in the process.

This is the season when I started watching the show, and it hooked me from the start. It hits just the right balance of humor, mystery, and drama. We feel for Monk even as we laugh at him. And the comedy, while usually at Monk's expense, is done without mocking him. It's a fine line, but they are able to do it. All four of the leads are excellent, helping their characters stand out in what could become caricatures.

And these mysteries are top notch as well. Instead of the standard one murder and three suspects, this show usually goes for one suspect with the perfect alibi that Monk has to break. And there lies some of the best mysteries on TV today. My personal favorite puzzle from this season is "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect" in which Monk must prove the mailer of recent package bombs has been in a coma for three months.

My all time favorite episode of the show (at least so far) is also in this set. "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies" really digs into his character as we see him interact with his brother, who is even worse then he is. The mystery is well done, but it's the brothers' relationship that makes the episode stand out.

While the extras could have been better, this DVD set is great. All 16 episodes are presented in sharp widescreen with Dolby 2.0 surround. Each of the four discs has a couple minute featurette. "The Minds Behind Monk" talks about the creation of the character. There are profiles with interviews with the actors of Disher and Stottlemeyer. Finally, there's a tour of the precinct set. Nothing spectacular, but the episodes are well worth getting it for.

Fans of this show will be pleased to have it on disc to watch over and over again. And if you've managed to miss this gem, get it today. You'll be hooked in no time.

One of the more clever television creations of the new millennium, Monk combines the high-grade suspense of a traditional TV drama with the quirky humor of a big screen comedy. Originally developed for ABC, the show became an instant prime-time lynchpin for the USA network, proving itself one of the more successful shows on cable TV...

In Monk, Tony Shalhoub stars in the title role of Adrian Monk, a former San Francisco detective placed on psychiatric leave. A true legend in the community, Monk solves unsolvable crimes via his towering intellect, photographic memory, and meticulous observations. But the one case that alludes Monk is the 1997 murder of his wife Trudy, which forever altered Monk's capacity to perform his job. Suffering from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and a number of odd phobias, Monk requires a personal assistant, Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), for even his most basic daily activities. Yet Monk remains a police consultant on difficult cases, and he hopes to persuade Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) to give him his old job back. But Stottlemeyer and colleague Lt. Randall Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford), harbor doubts about Monk's mental faculties. As Monk solves cases though, those doubts dissipate and Stottlemeyer and Disher learn to appreciate Monk's special talents - despite his inability to cope with the day-to-day activities of a normal detective... Nevertheless, he remains a de facto investigator as he and Sharona aid the San Francisco police department in solving numerous high profile cases...

The Monk (Season 2) DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" in which Monk is called in to investigate the apparent suicide of a high school English teacher who fell from a clock tower. Monk quickly establishes that the teacher's suicide was a murder, but his prime suspect has the perfect alibi. Perfect, that is, until Monk unravels the mystery... Other notable episodes from Season 2 include "Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame" in which Monk investigates the murder of a wealthy CEO and his beautiful wife, and "Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star" in which Monk suspects a famous television star from Crime Lab S.F. of murdering his wife despite the man's airtight alibi...

Below is a list of episodes included on the Monk (Season 2) DVD:

Episode 14 (Mr. Monk Goes Back to School)
Episode 15 (Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico)
Episode 16 (Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame)
Episode 17 (Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus)
Episode 18 (Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man)
Episode 19 (Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater)
Episode 20 (Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect)
Episode 21 (Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy)
Episode 22 (Mr. Monk and the 12th Man)
Episode 23 (Mr. Monk and the Paperboy)
Episode 24 (Mr. Monk and the Three Pies)
Episode 25 (Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star)
Episode 26 (Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny)
Episode 27 (Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife)
Episode 28 (Mr. Monk Gets Married)
Episode 29 (Mr. Monk Goes to Jail)

The DVD Report

I decided to go against the trend of some reviewers and actually watch the discs before reviewing this set :-)

MONK Season 2 is just as fun,entertaining, and dramatic, if not more so than Season 1. Season one really gave a high benchmark for an excellent TV series.
This set of 16 shows ( which actually sees Monk Solving way more than 16 cases ) is full of excellent character development, detailed thought, which is all driven by the Key story arc , the one case that Monk cannot solve. In fact Two of the shows, 11 and 16, reveal detailed plot points that fire up the start of season three.
The emotional element of Monk is reiterated many times, and Tony Shalhoub carries this off beautifully, with Sharona( the irreplaceable Bitty Schram), in scenes like the final shots of episode one with Monk near the tree; Monk shows this in many and varied ways through the series, and the work of Sharona's character is most definitely to highten this effect.
We discover the details of Sierra Springs ( Episode 2), the fun and comedy of an offbeat clown( episode 4); the classic lines as in episode 6 where Monk describes "Speedy Dates" as "Dantes 7th circle of Hell".
The amazing care that goes into these shows is even more refined in the widescreen version of the show on disc, that not everyone can see in the TV broadcast version.

One element of the show that I enjoy immensely is the opening credits with the superb song IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE: the final shot of this sequence has Monk crossing a street from season one, and it is a beautifully crafted shot that bookmarks the summary of the season that has been edited together for the song and credits.

EXTRAS:
Disc 1 has THE MINDS BEHIND MONK; You discover the successful formula that has been applied to the series, and just why season 1 as well as 2 work so superbly well.
Disc 2 has a profile of Disher.Disc 3 has a BRILLIANT profile of Stottlemeyer, done in the skilled manner that Ted Levine can achieve with consumate ease.and Disc 4 has a Tour of the precint.
If you love Monk, then this is a must have. The audio, even though 2.1 stereo, is brilliantly done, and the time spent watching this is a pleasure. The best thing about the set, is that you can pick whatever show is your favorite and rewatch it.
Ignore the rubbish about a missing booklet ... not true... no booklet like the one in season one has been advertised
anywhere !!!

[The IMDB quotes and trivia combine quotes from season two as well as the first half of season three, at the very least. ]

ENJOY

Monk is a great series and we really enjoy Tony Shaloub and the rest of the cast solving bizarre mysteries. These shows are largely family friendly (occasional adult references), and teaches compassion to those who are considered "weird". My kids and I can enjoy this show together. Haven't had a chance to look at the extras yet, but the shows are the main attraction!

I'm a new Monk fan, and since I loved the last episodes of Season 3 so much, I just had to buy the Season 1 and 2 DVDs -- and they are, quite simply, wonderful. The writers manage to interject just the right mix of humor, mystery, drama and OCD so that none of the elements overpower one another. This makes for an honest-to-goodness well rounded show. Further, Monk is one of the few shows on television that can still be considered "family friendly" -- which is nice deviation from the majority of the "stuff" on TV.

If you like a detective mystery without all the fluff and glimmer of CSI or other shock-dramas, Monk is a perfect way to spend an evening. I highly recommend it!

Our entire family LOVES Monk! It's one of the greatest shows on television, now and for all TV up to now.

The DVDs arrived in great shape and in a timely manner. Thanks!

Having watched season 1 devoutedly and gotten most of my friends hooked on it too, Monk has become one of my favorite shows. The premise, while psychologically impossible, is marvelously played by Tony Shalhoub. You cannot help but feel sorry for the guy, and still he is the best thing that has happend to the world of police/detective shows. The laughs keep rolling, and I cannot wait to own season 3 when it comes out on DVD.

Monk is back and funnier than ever. My kids love this show. Even though most deal with a murder, it is presented in a way that focuses on the humor of Monk and the suspense of him figuring out "who did it?" rather than presenting gratuitous violence.

Our family gets laugh after laugh reminding each other of classic Monk lines, like, "I wish you could hear yourself sometimes!" and "You got to admit, it's a pretty good alibi." (referring to a guy in a coma).

Monk keeps you laughing all the way through season 2.

Love it! It is great to see this show blooming. There are 3 reasons it is so good - Talent, talent and talent! Every time you re-watch an episode, you catch new things to enjoy - the sign of an enduring series.
Watch this with someone you love, someone you hate, or someone you don't even care about, but Watch it!