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Last Friday, the current seventh season of USA Network’s Monk resumed, to the immense excitement of loyal fans everywhere. In celebration of the show’s return, Comedy Centric is hosting another giveaway with some pretty cool prizes for one lucky winner.
Up for grabs are: (1) Monk Season Six on DVD, (2) a Monk Book, (3) a Monk Commuter Mug, (4) a Monk Hat, and (5) a Monk Key Chain.
All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite Monk episode of all time. That’s it!
Well, I also need entrants to include a valid email address in the appropriate box when submitting the comment so I can reach the ultimate winner quickly (no need to leave it in the body of the comment, though). Just one entry per person is allowed, and also keep in mind that the prize package will only be shipped to an address in the United States.
Otherwise, everyone has until 11:59pm EST on Friday, February 6, to enter the giveaway, so have it.
Good Luck!
Watch Monk every Friday night at 9pm EST on USA Network. Visit the official website at monk.usanetwork.com and join other fans on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Monk/7524752958.
590 days ago
My favorite Monk episode of all time is when he’s called for jury duty :) *Thanks* for the giveaway!
589 days ago
My favorite episode is “Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico.” He can’t find any Sierra Springs water, so he doesn’t drink the entire case. The mexican town has their own Stottlemeyer and Disher. Its a fabulous episode.
584 days ago
[...] cool Monk stuffand Psychstuff at the two contests going on at Comedy [...]
582 days ago
My favorite is Mr. Monk and the Gameshow. It has it all. It’s a Trudy episode. It has one of the funniest sequences of the series (Mr. Monk cleaning the buzzer on his podium). You even get to meet Trudy’s parents, and Mr. Monk even has a few brief moments of happiness.
The only thing that would have made it better would have been another clue about Trudy’s murder.
578 days ago
I have not finished catching up on old episodes, but so far my favorite episode is Mr. Monk and the Three Pies.
This episode succeeds on several levels. Plot wise, the mystery was one of the most challenging. I often solve the case before Monk does, but I had no clue about the significance of the pies and didn’t consider the flour bag until Monk and Ambrose did. (As an aside, the choreography of the moment of discovery was very well executed, seamlessly moving from the villain to Ambrose to Monk and Sharona and back again.)
The plot line is also made more interesting by returning Monk and Stottlemeyer to a semi-adversarial stance such as seen in the early episodes of Season 1. Unlike usual, Stottlemeyer does not want Monk’s involvement in this case and attributes Monk’s theories about it to a bizarre sibling rivalry with Monk’s brother Ambrose. This conflict is further heightened by Monk making a rare mistake: he misjudges where a key piece of evidence is hidden, throwing doubts on his credibility. This dramatic moment is coupled with a metacomical aside by Lieutenant Disher: “Usually when he sums everything up, the case is over and we can go home.”
More important even than the main plot is the emotional arc of this episode. A subplot revolves around Monk’s troubled relationship with his brother Ambrose. The two have not spoken since Trudy’s funeral, which Ambrose didn’t attend or acknowledge. This situation is further complicated by the fact that Ambrose is even more disabled than Monk; he is terrified of leaving his house, and considers his brother to be the brave one of the family.
Monk struggles with his feelings about Ambrose throughout the episode, which are intensified by the fact that Ambrose shares his deductive abilities and even shows Monk up at one point in the investigation.
In the climactic sequence, Ambrose cries on his brother’s shoulder about his own guilt regarding Trudy’s death: she was running an errand for him when she was murdered. Shortly afterwards, Ambrose nearly dies in a fire, as he refuses to leave the house, and is saved by Monk telling him to “do it for Trudy’s sake.” Both of these scenes caused me to cry.
Despite the heavy drama of this episode, Mr. Monk and the Three Pies is not without comic moments. The humor comes mainly from outsiders’ perspectives of the two brothers’ shared mental illness. The funniest line comes from Captain Stottlemeyer after visiting the Monks at Ambrose’s home. “You answered a lot of questions,” he says, “and raised about 100 others.”
All in all, this episode succeeds in both entertainment and catharsis. We even get a glimpse into Trudy’s character by how her existence–and death–affected both of the Monk brothers.
The only disappointment is a lack of Dr. Kroger’s involvement in Monk’s struggle with his feelings about Ambrose. A flashback with Trudy would have been nice as well, but her ghost is all over both of the Monk brothers throughout the episode, so her absence is forgiveable.