3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Mr Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie

2023, Randy Zisk (Monk) -- Amazon 

We never actually watched the show during its run, but since we have become more open to light procedural in the last ten years or so, maybe a post-COVID movie about an OCD investigator with major germaphobia could be interesting.

OK, things I guess we are supposed to know as fans of the show. Apparently in the series finale he solved the case of his own wife Trudy's murder, the murder that originally sent him spiraling into his OCD/phobic personality state, that ended his career as a celebrated detective in San Francisco (years later, with some coaxing, he ends up consulting to the police force, thus the show). With her murder solved, his symptoms abated somewhat. We are not filled in on what he is doing from 2009 onward, but when the Pandemic hits in 2019 he joins the rest of the world in going off the deep end, but Monk-style (Tony Shalhoub, Men in Black II).

One of the things derailed was his book deal, memoirs of his years as a consultant. He had hoped to use the advance to fund his step-daughter Molly's wedding. Molly (Caitlin McGee, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) was Trudy's illegitimate child from an affair before they were together, assumed to have died in childbirth but in fact, had been adopted and was now an adult. This movie is 15 years further on, and Molly is basically his proxy daughter. Not being able to pay for her wedding is devastating to him, especially since the unbearable state he has been in since 2019 has him planning to take his own life.

I thought this show was a comedy? This is kind of dark....

And then Molly's fiancé dies in a bungee jump accident. But this is a crime-solving show/movie, so yeah, he was murdered and the primary suspect is a Musk-Bezos billionaire analog who was having a tell-all piece written by Molly's fiancé. At first he is not convinced it was murder, but with a little coaxing from all his friends who came for the wedding, he digs into it.

Again, kinda dark?

The movie, as I guess the show was, is pseudo-comedic, usually around just how fucking annoying Monk can be. Sure he is has a bunch of neuroses and conditions, but he's also more than a bit of a dick. I have a feeling this is why I never watched the show. I have low tolerance for asshole main characters unless they go into the parody end of the spectrum -- for example, I absolutely love The Vulture from Brooklyn 99 (OMG, I was expecting we would have at least a writeup of the final season of this show, but not, the only post is Kent's hesitant but positive viewing of season one; from a decade ago!).

There are some jarring, IMO, asides where Monk hallucinates his Dead Wife (Melora Hardin, Monk; I commented out loud while watching that I would love if the show said undisputedly he was actually seeing a ghost) as she tries to convince him to Not Kill Himself, because there are so many more people (dead people) he could continue helping. The murder mystery is not all that compelling, nor is the evidence gathering nor reveal. To the fans of the show, I am sure seeing all the old (OLD!), familiar faces was fun, and Shalhoub is always more than fun to watch, but it was a big ol meh from me.

Of note, there was a web-short from 2020 that was probably the inspiration for this post-pandemic movie. To repeat, the show ended in 2009, long before pandemics were a thing, but the idea of doing a 4 minute "in Zoom" short about how utterly panic stricken Monk is about what's going on (remember, he is supposed to have been "cured" now) was actually amusing. This movie's gimmick was a followup on that, as in The World We Live in Now, but stretched super thin in order to be a movie.