Line #1 YMMV/Monk - TV Tropes


1	* {{Adorkable}}:
2	** In "Mr. Monk Goes To A Fashion Show" Monk is revealed to have sent a letter of praise to his favorite clothing inspector, who happens to be a mother who wants to clear her son's name, and she even happily framed and mounted the letter.
3	** Monk gets adorably gleeful in "Mr. Monk and the Badge" after it sinks in that he's been accepted back onto the force.
4	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
5	** How many of Monk's oddities stem from mental conditions, and how many are brought about as a result of past trauma? His mother is shown to be standoffish and stern in flashbacks (preferring a handshake to a hug), his father left early on, and Leland mentions Monk's fears weren't nearly as bad as now while Trudy was alive. His distrust of people is also implied multiple times to stem from the multiple betrayals and setbacks he's suffered.
6	** In "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk", Natalie apparently tries to throw her boss/friend several surprise parties before finally succeeding. However, the viewer only sees the surprise party in the opening; the others are all mentioned but never appear. How many of them were real vs. fakes to throw Monk off so he wouldn't be suspicious when she threw the ScarySurpriseParty? Her acting in the last case is considerably better than the other times, when her attempts to deflect Monk's suspicions quickly go awry.
7	* AntiClimax: Considering Trudy's death is ThatOneCase for Monk, the fact that it was [[spoiler:caused by Trudy's [[TheDogWasTheMastermind previously never mentioned or hinted at]] college professor turned judge, who was trying to save his job]] is kind of a letdown, as it means that Monk's nemesis [[ArchEnemy Dale]] [[FatBastard the Whale]] turns out to be a RedHerring, plus Monk doesn't even get a chance to bring the killer to justice as [[spoiler: he kills himself rather than go to prison.]] Then again, having it be Dale the Whale would also have been an AntiClimax in itself since he is a known criminal with means and motive to hurt Trudy.
8	* ArcFatigue: Monk had been looking for the man who killed Trudy since the series began. Every season he has only an inkling of a clue to lead him in any real direction. In this respect, much of the series can be seen as filler - entertaining filler, but filler nonetheless. The show's final season was specifically advertised with the fact that it would finally wrap up Monk's hunt for the killer, delivering on that promise in the final episode. Her murder was only solved when Monk discovered he had, in fact, possessed the clue he needed the entire time ([[spoiler:actually, a video message she recorded just before she was killed, spelling out who she thought was coming after her and why, left in the form of her Christmas present to him he did not want to open]]).
9	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
10	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cml6-InI2-U The show's second opening theme tune and first closing theme tune]][[note]]it wasn't, as often stated, the first theme tune; see the second subpoint below to see why[[/note]] composed by Jeff Beal, which was only heard in the opening credits for Season 1 episodes.
11	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmFdghtq3_0 It's a Jungle Out There]]", the iconic theme song by Music/RandyNewman which played for the rest of the series (and in episodes 1 and 2, because the fandom originally didn't like it).
12	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8u6uUsodmI There's also the cover version]] by Music/SnoopDogg, from the episode "Mr. Monk and the Rapper".
13	** Both themes have such a case for this trope that ''Monk'' is the only show to ever win the Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme twice, one for each theme in consecutive years.
14	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Alice Cooper's cameo in "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike." Monk, driven to near insanity by the filth all over the streets, comes up with a crazy idea that Alice Cooper killed the VictimOfTheWeek because he wanted the man's chair, complete with flashbacks on how he did it.
15	* BrokenBase: There are two main issues which the show's fandom will debate over endlessly. The first is whether Sharona or Natalie was the better character, and the second is whether the Season 1 theme tune or "It's a Jungle Out There" better suits the series.
16	* CompleteMonster:
17	** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Dale J. Biederbeck III]], aka [[FatBastard Dale "the Whale"]], is an overweight, wealthy sociopath who serves as Adrian Monk's [[ArchEnemy most personal, recurring foe]]. So rich that he sacrifices millions in exchange for ruining the lives of others just for spite and fun, Dale's [[Recap/MonkS1E3MrMonkMeetsDaleTheWhale first appearance]] sees him orchestrate the murder of a judge who crossed him in the past by having her beaten to death with a baseball bat. Though put in prison for this crime, Dale [[Recap/MonkS6E15MrMonkIsOnTheRun later]] kills one of his own partners and frames Monk for it, then schemes to bomb a parade and kill the Governor of California so as to facilitate his release, uncaring of the innocents who will die in the bombing. Dale returns one final time in the novel ''Literature/MrMonkGetsEven'', where Dale uses an [[MonsterFangirl acolyte fangirl]] to cause a horrific traffic accident that kills four people and leaves dozens in critical condition before having her kill herself in his name, all as part of an elaborate attempt to escape custody. Dale never passes on a chance to psychologically torture and sadistically mock anyone who is in a vulnerable state, and happily embraces being called an "odious, gluttonous, putrid freak of nature."
18	** "[[Recap/MonkS4E2MrMonkGoesHomeAgain Mr. Monk Goes Home Again]]": Paul Gilstrap is a lab technician seeking to [[TilMurderDoUsPart poison his wife]]. Knowing she enjoys Neptune Bars before bed, Gilstrap not only [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink poisons one]], but poisons multiple other candy bars and distributes them throughout a store to kill many other people in order to make it look like she [[SerialKillingsSpecificTarget was the victim of a serial killer]]. Caught putting the poison at work back, Gilstrap tries to take the bars before seeing one man had eaten one and murdering him with a gun to deflect suspicion from the poison in the autopsy.
19	** "[[Recap/MonkS4E7MrMonkGoesToAWedding Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding]]": "Theresa Scott" is a woman trying to marry into Natalie's family via her brother Jonathan. In truth, Theresa has a habit of [[BlackWidow marrying wealthy men, murdering them, and vanishing, with at least three prior victims]]. When a photographer notices something awry, Theresa knocks him over the head and leaves him to drown in a mudbath before trying to kill a private eye who was working a previous husband's case. Finally caught, she tries to hold a knife to Jonathan's throat to make good on her escape.
20	** ''Literature/MrMonkAndTheTwoAssistants'': [[MadArtist Ian Ludlow]] is a {{narcissist}}ic crime novelist who gets "inspiration" for his books by befriending his fans, murdering them and then participating in the ensuing investigations so as to [[FrameUp frame]] "the least likely suspect" for the crimes. Ludlow has killed at least five people over the years, always pinning the murders on total innocents and getting them locked away, and continues his spree in the present as he kills another fan by bashing her skull in. After murdering another man by ripping him apart while drowning him, Ludlow tries to frame Monk's closest friends and assistants, Sharona and Natalie, as the killers just to torment Monk and make a more interesting "twist" for the book he plans to write.
21	** ''Literature/MrMonkOnTheRoad'': [[SiblingsInCrime The Zarkin sisters]], Bessie, Gertie, and Mabel, are a trio of life-loving, quirky [[EvilOldFolks old women]] who have been traveling along the United States. In reality, the Zarkin sisters [[ThrillSeeker have as much zeal for death as life]], having murdered people across the country for years while Bessie [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether uses her son as a proxy]] to regularly commit hit-and-runs states away. The Zarkin sisters have the highest body count of any killer Adrian has ever put away, with dozens of [[CreepySouvenir knickknacks]] seen in their trailer, each a trophy from an individual victim.
22	** ''Literature/MrMonkOnTheCouch'': Rico Ramirez is [[AxCrazy a savage thug]] responsible for a series of violent assaults years ago to get away with a couch full of diamonds. Released on bail from his initial imprisonment, Ramirez goes on a rampage to track the diamonds down, unnecessarily and brutally murdering two people who had bought the couch. Ramirez then tracks down his old girlfriend and tortures her to death, working at her with a knife and cigarettes before finally asphyxiating her. Ramirez is finally caught during an attempted fourth murder.
23	* CrossesTheLineTwice:
24	** Monk being compelled to wash his hands for a long time due to mysophobia and OCD in "Monk in Quarantine"? A little sad because he starts crying. Monk washing his hands while singing "100 bottles of beer on the wall" and getting all the way to 35 bottles before sobbing? Hilarious.
25	** "Mr Monk and the Actor" is about someone [[ShowWithinAShow making a movie dramatizing an earlier case]]. When the actor portraying Adrian has a mental breakdown attempting to portray Adrian via method acting he decides to drop the film and take a role where he can play a character that is "less dark and depressing"...and he goes into theatre to play ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
26	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: While Adrian Monk does have several symptoms of OCD (germaphobia, compulsive behaviors), he also exhibits symptoms of other mental and behavioral disorders, like autism, that don't necessarily fit with OCD, particularly the socially clueless behaviors that were already present before his severe trauma. When Natalie explains Monk's odd behavior to others, she occasionally describes him as "persnickity".
27	* FanonDiscontinuity: Many fans of the tie-in novels angrily disregard the final four books, which a different author wrote. The humor is far weaker (something even the author admits), the mysteries are less challenging (several have {{Recycled Plot}}s from the author's previous mystery stories), and StatusQuoIsGod gets evoked, undoing a lot of well-received elements from previous novels (like Monk's SecondLove).
28	* GeniusBonus:
29	** Some of the trivia questions on ''Treasure Chest'' in "Mr. Monk and the Game Show" count. For example, Monk's question at the Bonus Round is, "Who was the first president to win a Nobel Peace Prize?" The answer, if Monk had not been trying to nail Roddy Lankman for a cheating scandal, would have been Theodore Roosevelt.
30	** In "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees," there are several sports jerseys on the walls in Rob Sherman's living room. These includes a #21 San Antonio Spurs jersey that was that of Tim Duncan, and there is a #3 Denver Nuggets jersey that is that of Allen Iverson. Both Iverson and Duncan were League [=MVP=]s. The presence of these jerseys implies that Sherman may or may not have been their agent.
31	* HarsherInHindsight:
32	** The series establishes that Monk had better control over his OCD when he married Trudy, but he suffered a breakdown after she died. Season two reveals that his little brother Ambrose suffered a similar regression; as he confesses to Adrian, the reason why he didn't call for seven years is that Trudy was getting cough medicine for him, and he says that if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't have been in the garage where she died. Monk's expression changes from anger to JerkassRealization that his brother was in the same boat, and reassures him it wasn't his fault. [[spoiler:It especially becomes the case when Monk and the audience learn in the SeriesFinale that Trudy went to the garage to meet an old flame, meaning neither he nor Ambrose was responsible for her death indirectly]].
33	** In the Season 2 finale Tim Curry plays Dale the Whale, who's effectively paralyzed by his weight. He was rendered paraplegic by a stroke in 2012.
34	** Monk prevents Kevin Dorfman from being killed in "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy" but [[spoiler:his effort turns out to be in vain when Kevin is later murdered in "Mr. Monk and the Magician"]].
35	** "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink" is about Dr. Kroger taking a temporary hiatus from his practice after his cleaning lady is killed in his office by what seems to be one of his patients. This was a season and a half before Creator/StanleyKamel (and Dr. Kroger along with him) died of a heart attack.
36	* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Natalie meets Monk when he's trying to put out a fire; he expresses concern that she could have gotten hurt by not following the instructions on the fire extinguisher, so he's going to write to the company. He also saves Julie's fish in the same episode. By the end of the series, Monk has saved Natalie's life several times and protected Julie from a suspected serial killer.
37	* HilariousInHindsight:
38	** In "Mr. Monk and the Game Show", the killer game show host is played by Creator/JohnMichaelHiggins. Fast forward to 2018 and he is hosting a game show on the Game Show Network called "America Says".
39	** In the novel ''Literature/MrMonkIsMiserable'', published in early December 2008, Monk finds a skull in the Paris catacombs belonging to a recently deceased man. The skull is identified by dental records as Nathan Chalmers, a man who committed a pyramid scheme in America, and who faked his death to avoid prosecution. Barely a week after the book was released in hardback, Bernard Madoff was exposed and arrested for one of the largest Ponzi schemes in recent history. Madoff was identical to the descriptions of Nathan Chalmers: the architect of a massive pyramid scheme whose victims included several of California's wealthiest and most sophisticated persons.
40	** In ''Mr. Monk is Cleaned Out'', Lee Goldberg has FunWithPalindromes in Bob Sebes, an Expy of the original Bernard Madoff.
41	** In the episode "Mr. Monk Goes Home Again" Leo Howard played a [[Series/KickinIt karate kid]].
42	*** The same episode features Mary Mouser, who starred in a [[Series/CobraKai different]] franchise about Film/TheKarateKid.
43	** The combined DVD boxsets for a show about a guy with OCD have [[https://i.imgur.com/q76GLjc.jpg one with a different design from the others.]] Probably intentional, as people who have the same OCD as Monk himself will either laugh or cry.
44	** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show" Monk tries to bluff his way into Julian Hodge's show by saying his name is "Puff Daddy". He tells the guard there are "Two Puff Daddies". The guard suggests that Monk changes his name. Monk fires back that the "other" Puff Daddy should change '''his''' name. By the time the episode had aired (but not when it was filmed) Puff Daddy had already changed his name to Diddy.
45	** "Mr. Monk and the Big Game" features Jim O'Heir as a park ranger. This was three years before he would play a much less respected parks official on ''Series/ParksAndRecreation''.
46	** In "Mr. Monk and Little Monk", the camera zooms in on Monk's junior high school photo; the episode goes on to show that Monk developed his abilities as a detective at an early age. The name of his next classmate in alphabetical order? "Robert Mueller."
47	** On the show itself, Monk's germophobia is tolerated, with Natalie getting wipes for him and disliking the one time he got sick. During a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4W2xmqjvx4 2020 reunion video for Peacock]], titled "Monk in Quarantine," Stottlemeyer admits that Monk had the right idea because he was cleaning his hands and sterilizing everything long before the pandemic. To add to the icing on the cake, Monk asks Natalie for a wipe and she points out that she's at home and can't give him one; Monk also reveals he has seven cases of hand sanitizer that he stored before COVID.
48	* HollywoodHomely:
49	** When discussing the possibility that the younger man who married Randy's mother could really love her Randy pulls out a picture and the other characters' reactions imply that she must be hideous (Randy even suggests he loves his mother but doesn't know how anyone else could). When the character later turns up (in the same episode, so this is not a case of a retcon) she looks like a perfectly normal woman.
50	** In-universe, in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show" fashion mogul Julian Hodge (played by Creator/MalcolmMcDowell) denigrates Natalie's appearance and style, despite her being quite attractive (even in-universe, as she later is recruited to be the new California "lotto girl" in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever") and the only regular character who routinely displays any degree of fashion sense. Curiously, he does seem to think both Randy and Julie have what it takes to be models, however. On the other hand, he was also recruiting her daughter so he may have been petty.
51	* MagnificentBitch ("[[Recap/MonkS1E11MrMonkAndTheRedHeadedStranger Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger]]"): Wendy Mass is a friendly, seemingly blind woman and the true murderer of Sonny Cross. Having lost her parents and vision in a car crash caused by Cross decades ago, upon having her vision partially restored, Mass sought revenge. Tricking Cross into meeting her in an alleyway, Mass [[DisabilityAlibi shoots him in a way that's impossible for a blind person]]. When country singer Music/WillieNelson unexpectedly arrives, Mass quickly frames him for the murder by acting as a witness, continuing to fake her blindness to ensure nobody suspects her. When Monk reveals the truth behind the case, [[GracefulLoser Mass thanks him for uncovering it]], having been wrought with guilt for framing an innocent man. When Stottlemeyer suggests making a deal with the District Attorney, Mass asks that her only leniency be a window in her cell so that she can make the most of her newly regained sight.
52	* {{Narm}}:
53	** Some of the deaths count as this, such as "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School", "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month", and "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", as well as the attempted death in the opening scene from "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife".
54	** The car chase from season 3's "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic". While clearly intended to be dramatic, the cars are clearly going ''very'' slow.
55	* OlderThanTheyThink: The cleaning-a-vacuum-with-a-small-handheld-vacuum gag (repeatedly used in promotional spots) was done first by fellow NeatFreak Monica Geller in a late episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}''.
56	* {{Padding}}: Some episodes will focus on Monk taking his time that you will be sure the reason for it is to pad out the run time.
57	* RetroactiveRecognition:
58	** Creator/JeffreyDonovan, who went on to star in ''Series/BurnNotice'' on the same network, appeared a year earlier as a test pilot and astronaut in "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut."
59	** Creator/RainnWilson played the killer in the episode "Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame," nearly two years before ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' premiered.
60	** Creator/MichaelHogan appears in the pilot episode as a mayoral candidate who appears to be the target of an assassination attempt before he became famous as one of the main characters on ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''.
61	** [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Barry Kripke]] appears in "Mr Monk Joins a Cult".
62	** Creator/JenniferLawrence plays the Cougars mascot girl in "Mr. Monk and the Big Game". This was actually her first SAG credited role. She said in an interview that she thought that she was going to be one of the girls on the team, and was kind of disappointed that she was going to be in the mascot suit for most of her scenes. They didn't even give her character a name, so Natalie just called her Jen in the locker room scene.
63	** Creator/NickOfferman, several years prior to ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', appears as a campaign volunteer in "Mr. Monk and the Election."
64	** Creator/ArielWinter, WAY before Series/ModernFamily, plays an uncredited bit part as the daughter of the neighbor who stole the victim's packages in "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut".
65	*** On the opposite end, her co-star Creator/EricStonestreet appears in "Mr. Monk And The UFO" as Boom Boom the mechanic, a mere ''month'' before the show's premiere.
66	** Creator/MishaCollins plays a drug lord in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage" well before the debut of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.
67	** Creator/KiernanShipka plays a little girl in a toy store in "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink" years before achieving fame on ''Series/MadMen'' and ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina''.
68	** Creator/RayPorter, the third actor for Dale the Whale, went on to voice Darkseid in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague''.
69	** Creator/BillyGardell plays a brain-injured handyman in "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man" years before starring in ''Series/MikeAndMolly''.
70	** A pre-''Series/CornerGas'' Creator/FredEwanuick appears in the pilot as campaign volunteer [[spoiler: and murder victim]] Jake.
71	** Creator/EvanPeters, who would go on to stardom through his various roles in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'', plays a teen chess prodigy in "Mr. Monk and the Genius."
72	** In one of the most ironic examples on this list, Kurt Fuller plays the killer in "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man" -- 6 years before he would make his debut as the medical examiner on ''Series/{{Psych}}''.
73	* SpiritualSuccessor: Monk is essentially what Franchise/HerculePoirot would be in the 21st century.
74	* StrawmanHasAPoint: Agent Derek Thorpe in "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy" is supposed to come across like an unreasonable, insensitive jerk who is dismissive of Monk's skills and overly reliant on technology. However, Thorpe's anger over Monk's botching the case because he doesn't understand the FBI's technology is very understandable, especially when at one point Monk causes the authorities to accidentally raid a slumber party.
75	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: In ''Mr. Monk Takes the Stand'', they make it seem like Monk is going to take on Harrison Powell by recognizing his "curveball", making a nice MeaningfulEcho to Dr. Bell's story about learning from failure earlier in the episode. Which does happen...[[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome offscreen]].
76	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
77	** In "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger," it's revealed that the blind woman Mrs. Mass killed Jason "Sonny" Cross and falsely implicated Willie Nelson for the crime. It's also established that her motive was getting even with Sonny because he killed her parents in a DUI crash in the 1980s and got a light sentence for it. Where the trope comes into play is that Mrs. Mass's actions were worse than anything Sonny Cross did. It is clear that Cross's actions were stupid, irresponsible and criminal, and the outcome of his actions was a tragedy, but he didn't intentionally go out and murder anyone. He wasn't even in his right mind, and we don't know anything about the trial. He may have pleaded guilty or no contest to two counts of vehicular manslaughter. Mrs. Mass, on the other hand, committed premeditated murder and then allowed an innocent man to be blamed (and perhaps even would have allowed him to be convicted) for her crime. She wasn't proclaiming Willie Nelson's innocence. She claimed that she "heard" Willie Nelson's voice during the murder of Jason Cross. That's not justice. That's a crime in its own right. In fact, she should have gotten ''more time'' for giving false evidence and trying to convict an innocent man of murder instead of the "extenuating circumstances" that Stottlemeyer was talking about. However, this is arguably mitigated by the heavy implication that Sonny Cross didn't regret his actions one bit (especially since he was also a career embezzler), not to mention that the only "leniency" she requests is simply to serve her sentence in a private, windowed cell (though trying to frame Nelson was still a jerk move).
78	** Monk, OCD notwithstanding, can occasionally cross the line. Monk's more unsympathetic moments also generally tend to come during a particularly trying period of psychological strain for him, thus offering at least some mitigation.
79	* TheWoobie:
80	** Monk's cringing and general pitifulness when being confronted with one of his phobias generate an instant oh-the-poor-thing factor and tend to put one in mind of a small child or bewildered dog; on top of that, cruel minor characters unacquainted with Monk are always around to mock him, stare at him, or try to forcibly make him "get over" his fears. It's almost painful to watch, even when played for laughs as it usually is. ([[PoorCommunicationKills For some reason]], neither Monk nor Natalie/Sharona ever bother to explain Monk's OCD, instead describing him as being "particular" or something similarly vague; thus, the other characters are rarely sympathetic to or accommodating of his problems.)
81	** Could be justified. If they did explain, people might react to Monk the way they often do to other, more visible, disabilities, such as treating Monk as if he is an anomaly or is helpless. Or maybe it's just because his particular manifestation of OCD would take too long to explain.
82	** And of course, there's Adrian Monk's depressing backstory. He grew up with uncaring parents ([[DisappearedDad his own father ran off]] [[ParentalAbandonment and abandoned the family]]); was a [[NoSocialSkills social outcast with]] [[FriendlessBackground very few friends]] throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood; and finally he's unable to cope with the unsolved murder of his beloved wife. It's no wonder why Monk is such an [[NervousWreck anxious, depressed, and paranoid mess of a person]].

Context YMMV / Monk