History Monk / TropesKToR

* OnceMoreWithClarity: Often the reconstruction of the event in Monk's summation contains a clue or slip up that is easy to miss on a first-time viewing or provides pretext to TheTeaser at the beginning of the episode.

* LaserGuidedKarma: In "Mr. Monk Helps Himself," Monk buys a limousine company using the reward money from a previous case that was suppose to go to Natalie’s bonus without telling her. At the end of the novel, Natalie uses the reward money from the insurance company to fund Monk and Teeger, Consulting Detectives, with the other half going to Ellen Morse.

'''Monk''': Snakes trump heights. It goes, "germs, needles, milk, death, snakes, heights, crowds, mushrooms, elevators..."\\

%%* NecroCam: Subverted on the intro of "Mr. Monk and the Critic".

* PlayingGertrude:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man," the 115 year old Miles Holling was played by Creator/PatrickCranshaw. The actor playing his octogenarian son Hiram Holling was Bill Erwin, who was actually ''older'' than Cranshaw by a few years.
** Dan Hedaya, who plays Monk's father Jack Monk Sr. in "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad," is only 13 years older than Creator/TonyShalhoub.

* PutOnABusToHell: [[spoiler:Monk's first therapist, Dr. Kroger, is written out of the show by having a heart attack.]]

* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: In "Mr. Monk and the Leper", Stottlemeyer and Disher are searching a missing pianist's apartment. Randy sees a piano and starts doodling on it.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' What are you doing?\\

** Even funnier - Randy is doodling out the original theme used in the season 1 version of the opening credits sequence.

*** Natalie is better at avoid this. In ''Mr. Monk on the Couch'', she is careful after dating a man that Monk has revealed to be a killer.

*** According to one of the special events listed in the ''Beyond Earth'' fan convention guide, the statement: '''''"When will Trekkies and Trekkers finally give Earthies and Earthers the respect we deserve?"''''' suggests that in the established story of the novel, a certain degree of viewer competition exists between ''Star Trek'' and ''Beyond Earth'' fans.

-->''People think I'm crazy, 'cause I worry all the time\\

Or this world you love so much might just kill you''
* ProtagonistTitle

* PutOnABus: Sharona remarries her ex-husband and moves back to New Jersey midway through season 3. Monk is shown in denial in "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring". After this, no mention is made until Season 8. Her image is even removed and never shown in any subsequent intro (actually, she does appear partially in an opening credit shot taken from "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School").

* QuipToBlack
** Disher keeps trying to spout one off in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", with minimal success. It sure looks like her number came up now, didn't it?

** Stottlemeyer's fiancee T.K. Jensen, played by Virginia Madsen

* RevealingCoverup: So many layers of it in the series finale. [[spoiler:Monk finally figures out Rickover killed Trudy because the judge ordered the murder of a doctor who was blackmailing him with proof of his involvement in two murders, including Trudy's. Plus, he killed Trudy in the first place because she linked him to the first victim, the midwife who delivered their illegitimate daughter. And he killed the midwife to stop her from revealing the truth about said daughter.]]

* RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts: Like clockwork.

* KentBrockmanNews: Brandy Barber in "[[Recap/MonkS6E10MrMonkAndTheManWhoShotSantaClaus Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa]]" definitely qualifies. For one thing, most of her reports are emotionally charged rather than done rationally, and often has her skewing the story to humiliate the interviewee. Her story about Monk's shooting of a BadSanta with his own weapon in self-defense is rigged such that it portrays the incident as deliberate. As a result, Monk and Natalie get harassed everywhere they go, but the city takes a HeelFaceTurn once Monk stops the diamond heist said BadSanta was trying to commit. It seems that pretty much everyone - except the police officers in the San Francisco Police Department - believes Barber's reports.

* LimitedWardrobe: A rare non-animated version; Monk likes consistency in every aspect of his life, and this extends to wearing nearly-identical suits at almost all times, with most exceptions being when a different style is required (i.e. his old police uniform when trying to get his badge back). The season one opening credits even show the inside of Monk's closet, and it's filled with nearly-identical gray suits.
** In contrast, Natalie has the reverse, a seemingly UnlimitedWardrobe. Her general outfits tend to change from season to season.

* LostInCharacter: "Mr. Monk and the Actor" has David Ruskin succumb to this trope

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: The nature of a lot of murders

** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", Monk, Natalie and Kendra Frank share one when they realize that [[spoiler:Kris Kedder]] has taken an envelope that has all of their incrimating evidence:
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Oh my God! He just took that envelope!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Can't prove anything without that envelope! ''[He, Natalie and Kendra run out of the trailer]''

-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Handcuffed?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Handcuffed to one wrist and tied to seventy-feet of rope.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Ugh, God!
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' [[WhatADrag And then he was dragged west seven-tenths of a mile.]] I just saw the body. [[{{Squick}} Or what’s left of it.]]
-->'''Sharona Fleming:''' Oh, God.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' The M.E. said he’s never seen anything like it. There’s no end to it.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' What do you mean?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' I mean, this is number ''nine''. Nine bizarre murders in the past two weeks. [[BrownNote Every time my beeper goes off, my heart skips a beat]].
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Are they connected?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' No. No connection at all. I mean, four have been men, five women, all different ages. Latino, white, black.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' And the M.O.’s?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' All different. There’s been a couple of shootings, different weapons, a hit-and-run, a drowning, an electrocution. I mean, it’s, it’s like a full moon every night!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' And you’re sure that the cases have absolutely nothing in common?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Well, they have one thing in common, Monk: We can’t solve them. I swear, there’s something in the water.

** "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert": when Stork Murray is going to Kris Kedder's trailer, he walks across the stage, asks another guy for directions, makes his way down a flight of stairs, walks across the grounds to Kedder's trailer, pounds on the door, then sees Kedder approaching. This was filmed from a crane with one long continuous tracking shot.

-->'''Adrian Monk:''' All I'm trying to say is...it's ''not'' the same Natalie! If you knew her you wouldn't know her! Last night after the show, she got somebody fired!
-->'''Dr. Neven Bell:''' Really?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' One of the crew, sound guy! There were some wires on the floor, and she was just like ''[leans back in his chairs and imitates a toddler throwing a temper tantrum]'' you know, complaining.

* PaintingTheMedium

* PetTheDog: A literal example occurs in the final season.

-->'''Adrian Monk:''' ''[in "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink"]'' I know that rock!

* PillowPregnancy

** A variant in the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'': When Monk and Natalie go shopping at a department store, Monk, being Monk, can't go five minutes without stumbling on a crime or a mystery. In this case, he inadvertently busts a shoplifting ring. One of the participants is a woman faking a pregnancy by wearing a tummy pack around her chest, which bursts open when Natalie tackles her to the ground, revealing that said pack is used to sneak stolen merchandise out of the store, including a blouse Natalie wanted to buy for Julie. Monk tells Natalie that he figured it out because the woman walked like a normal person instead of waddling, and she bent over at the waist to pick up her purse -- which she could not have done if she actually was pregnant.
*** [[TruthInTelevision A number of shoplifters have actually been busted smuggling stuff out of stores in similar methods]].

* PlayedForLaughs: Monk's debilitating mental illness.

** In "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man," the 115 year old Miles Holling was played by Creator/PatrickCranshaw. The actor playing his octogenerian son Hiram Holling was Bill Erwin, who was actually ''older'' than Cranshaw by only a few years.

##What Gitomer does not know is that Kitty Malone, the ferris wheel operator, is also Stokes's girlfriend. As soon as Kirk gets off and has his back turned to her, Kitty runs up and fatally stabs Gitomer.

* ProperlyParanoid

* LaserGuidedKarma: In ''Mr. Monk Helps Himself,'' Monk buys a limousine company using the reward money from a previous case that was suppose to go to Natalie’s bonus without telling her. At the end of the novel, Natalie uses the reward money from the insurance company to fund Monk and Teeger, Consulting Detectives, with the other half going to Ellen Morse.

--->''Here's something odd I've noticed about cops: They drive around all day in black-and-white and unmarked Crown Victorias, the standard vehicle used by law enforcement agencies nationwide[[note]]Well, it was when the book was published in 2007. The Ford Crown Victoria was ditched with the Ford Taurus becoming the new 'standard' Ford police car model in 2011[[/note]]. So you'd think that when they bought their own cars, they'd want something entirely different, something less big, boxy, and official. But no. They don't feel comfortable in "civilian" cars. They want to be cops at home, too. Which may be why divorce rates among cops are so high. Perhaps if they ditched their Crown Vics, they would less likely be ditched themselves.''

** In "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," we see Monk at the hypnotist Dr. Lawrence Climan's office. The camera cuts to the plants outside the office window, and pans across the bushes, dissolving and moving to Stottlemeyer and Disher organizing a search party at Sally Larkin's house.

* MementoMacGuffin: [[spoiler:The christmas present from Trudy that Monk refused to open. Its actually a video message telling him exactly who would've killed her.]]

** The best examples, by far, are in "Mr. Monk and the End". Here's one: Dr. Matthew Shuler informs Monk he's going to die. He'll feel better, then there'll be vomiting, followed by death. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Monk, however, wants death to happen before the vomiting]].

* NecroCam: Subverted on the intro of "Mr. Monk and the Critic".

* NeverOneMurder: Especially in the later seasons.
** Outright lampshaded in "Mr. Monk and the Actor", where David Ruskin inquires if the person who killed Michelle Cullman will strike again. Stottlemeyer replies that the murder was a crime of passion, and that the killer will probably never put another toe out of line again. Cuts to Jack Leverett breaking into a pawn shop and accidentally shooting the owner with his own revolver while attempting to destroy evidence linking him to the first murder.

-->'''John Wurster:''' This is the Monkey Room. Funny story about how it got its name.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' What is it?
-->'''John Wurster:''' We don't know. We just know there's a funny story.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Monk and Natalie show up at the police station looking for Stottlemeyer. Natalie produces for him a dry cleaning bill for clothes Monk ruined on a previous case, and insists on getting reimbursed for such expenses. Said previous case apparently involved a kidnapping and somehow involved Monk running through a poultry farm to recover missing ransom money, ruining a shirt and a jacket.
*** In that same episode, Natalie mentions having studied the Spanish Inquisition when Monk likens a port-a-potty to a medieval torture device.

-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Maybe she had a jetpack, like in those ''Film/JamesBond'' movies.
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' There's no such thing as a working jetpack. Don't ask me how I know.

** In "Mr. Monk Is Someone Else," one of the first things Lola says to Monk (who is impersonating her real (and six feet under) boyfriend Frank [=DePalma=]) is an apology for what happened in Barcelona. It's implied that she and the real [=DePalma=] may have had a fight, or Frankie botched an assassination, but beyond that, we don't get many details.

* NoOSHACompliance: The hot dog vendors in "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall" violate common sense health regulations, like picking up hot dogs dropped on the floor, picking up said food and handling it with their bare hands instead of gloves and tongs, smoking in such a workplace environment, and also may be operating without a license. It's no wonder that in the scene prior to this, when the main characters are talking to Paul Crawford on the parking garage roof, Natalie mentions that she can no longer eat a hot dog after reading Crawford's expose about the unsanitary conditions of the hot dog vending stands. Also, it's mentioned that the missing-and-later-found-murdered councilwoman Eileen Hill wants to regulate the vendors by, among other things, making them wear gloves, and change the water in their pans every other day.

** For example, in "Mr. Monk and the Leper," Dr. Aaron Polanski has a name that would imply him to be an American, but Creator/PaulBlackthorne uses his native British accent rather than adapating an American accent.

-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' You broke into her room? Is that legal?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' You don't need a search warrant to go into a hotel room if it's after checkout.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Is that true?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' I don't know.

-->'''Kris Kedder:''' ''[singing to some women]'' "Peggy's gone to Memphis / Daddy's all alone..." ''[Monk, Natalie and Kendra come up. Kedder stops]''
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Excuse me. This is Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger. They're with the cops.
-->'''Roadie in Hawaiian Shirt:''' Cops?
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Yeah, they're looking into what happened to Stork.
-->'''Kris Kedder:''' What's the big mystery? He's been chasing that dragon for years. I tried to help him.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' ''[disgusted]'' When did ''you'' try to help him?! ''[to Monk]'' See now that he's dead, everyone's his best friend! ''[to Kedder]'' Where were you when he was sinking?
-->'''Kris Kedder:''' Where were you?

** In "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall", Harold Krenshaw asks Monk for the name of his new therapist, and Monk gives the pathetic name "Dr. Door". Harold pulls him up on it and asks if he saw a fire alarm, would he say "Doctor Bell"? This is followed by a marvellous SpitTake from Natalie.

** Monk himself is one since while he actually does have OCD and it can make him look somewhat naive, he's actually a straight-up genius.

** In "Mr. Monk and the Rapper", Monk is inclined to go along with the police theory that rapper Murderuss (real name Russell Kroy) killed his rival Extra Large with a car bomb: the use of a white gold pocket watch as the timer (a signature trademark of Murderuss's), lyrics from a suggestive song by Murderuss called "[[FunnyAneurysmMoment Car Bomb]]", a blasting cap stolen from a construction site near Murderuss's house, and footprints of a shoe brand that he wears at the scene of the limo driver's murder, after he's killed by the real attacker to keep from talking to the police. But Monk only does so because he blacked out when Murderuss asked him to clear his name. On the other hand, Natalie thinks that all of this evidence suggests someone is trying ''really'' hard to make Murderuss take the fall for the murder: she reasons that if Murderuss were responsible, he wouldn't be dropping so many obvious clues behind that pointed to himself: he would have probably used a generic pocket watch instead of his trademark type; stolen the blasting cap from somewhere away from his house; not worn his trademark shoe brand when he killed the driver; nor written the song "Car Bomb". Furthermore, she suspects Denny Hodges, a producer who claimed to see Murderuss in a certain parking garage at a certain time when the limo was parked there.

** In "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man," the 115 year old Miles Holling was played by Patrick Cranshaw. The actor playing his octogenerian son Hiram Holling was Bill Erwin, who was actually ''older'' than Cranshaw by only a few years.

* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp:
** This is where Julie Teeger is suspected to be in a number of episodes. It supplies the page quote.
** Stottlemeyer and Disher actually become subjected to this trope in a couple of episodes.
*** Stottlemeyer is absent from "[[Recap/MonkS2E15MrMonkGetsMarried Mr. Monk Gets Married]]," allowing Randy to get a bit more focus.
*** In "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service," they only appear in two scenes, and both are scenes in Stottlemeyer's office at the police station.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Bully," Stottlemeyer and Disher don't even show up until 21 minutes through the episode, and they only have three scenes on-camera (the crime scene investigation, questioning Roderick Brody at the police station, and arresting Marilyn's evil twin). By contrast, in that same episode, Natalie is in every scene that Monk is in except for two (Monk in Dr. Bell's office, and when Monk talks to Roderick Brody in the interrogation room). This makes you wonder if they are compensating for Natalie's lack of screentime in "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs," the previous episode.
*** Stottlemeyer and Disher also get a lot less screen time in "Mr. Monk and the Magician."
*** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House," Stottlemeyer and Disher are in the first ten minutes, then go off-screen while Monk buys Joseph Moody's house, sees Dr. Bell, and hires Honest Jake to "repair" the damage, and don't get involved in the plot again until after Cassie Drake is killed.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper," Stottlemeyer only has two scenes in the entire episode, though this gives Randy a moment of awesome by stopping Mandy Bronson by himself.
** Natalie has been subjected to this trope as well:
*** In "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs," her subplot (going to the police station to find Randy trying to watch the game on a big-screen plasma TV wedged in the stairwell) has little impact on the main murder investigation.
*** In "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm," this trope was justified: Traylor Howard was pregnant during production of season 5.5, and most of the episode takes place in outdoor environments where it would be hard for the producers to [[HideYourPregnancy hide Traylor's belly bump]] convincingly, which is why Monk goes up to Randy's farm by himself.
*** In "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink," Natalie gets a backseat, not really contributing much to the plot.
** Obviously, the novels focus primarily on Monk and Natalie's working relationship, as the novels are narrated by Natalie. But this means the stories have subjected this trope to Stottlemeyer and Disher at times.
*** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', Stottlemeyer and Disher only appear at the very beginning, and also show up to arrest Dylan Swift at the end, but aside from a phone call from Stottlemeyer to Natalie, that's the only times they appear. The rest of the time, Monk and Natalie are in Hawaii working with Lt. Ben Kealoha.
*** In ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'', while Stottlemeyer and Disher do have a heavy presence in the part of the investigation that happens in San Francisco, they are off-camera while Monk, Natalie and Sharona investigate the murder Trevor was framed for in Los Angeles.

[[Series/{{Monk}} Main Page]] | '''Monk/TropesAToE''' | Monk/TropesFToJ | '''Tropes K To R''' | Monk/TropesSToZ

** Lee Goldberg seems to have set many of his novel series in one universe. Lieutenant Ben Keoloha and the Grand Kiahuna Poipu resort in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'' had appeared in one of the ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' novels.

* OneSteveLimit: Played straight with the main characters. Averted with supporting characters.
** For instance, after Natalie's daughter Julie comes into the series, there are no other one-time characters named Julie except in "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies." However, beforehand, Rachel Dratch played Julie Parlo in "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny", and Jane Lynch was Dr. Julie Waterford in "Mr. Monk Gets Married".
** Lindas are another aversion: in addition to Linda Fusco (Stottlemeyer's girlfriend in season 5 and the first episodes of season 6), there is also Linda Riggs (Jeanette Hudson's sister in "Mr. Monk Is On The Air") and Linda Kloster (murder victim in "Mr. Monk and the Genius").
** Variants of the first name "Roderick" count: there's Roddy Lankman ("Mr. Monk and the Game Show") and there's Roderick Brody ("Mr. Monk and the Bully").
** The novel ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'' had an interesting aversion as it has two people with the first name of 'Charles': Monk's shrink Dr. Charles Kroger, and a serial killer named Charles Herrin.
** Monk's late wife and Stottlemeyer's third wife are both named Trudy. When Stottlemeyer asks Monk if he's okay with that coincidence, Monk assures his friend, "Every man should have a Trudy in his life."
* TheOner: Several occasions.
** "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert": when Stork Murray is going to Kris Kedder's trailer, he walks across the stage, asks another guy for directions, makes his way down a flight of stairs, walks across the grounds to Kedder's trailer, pounds on the door, then sees Kedder approaching. This was filmed from a crane with one long continuous tracking shot.
** "Mr. Monk and the Critic": We see the murder through Hannigan's POV, resulting in one very long one-take shot.
** "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever": The scene where Monk and Natalie are walking down a city street and Monk is constantly stopping Natalie from slipping into lottery mode. The camera is positioned in front of them and stays in front of them for the length of a block, with no angle changes, even pausing movement when Monk and Natalie stop.
** "Mr. Monk's 100th Case": The SWAT team raid on Douglas Thurman's photography studio is done in one take with a single camera shot, ostensibly done through one of the SWAT officers' helmet cams.
** The initial crime scene investigation at the Parlo house in "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny" is one continuous 89 second long tracking shot that follows Stottlemeyer as he and Randy look at the lightning bolt spray painted on the wall, converse with the CSI phone tech who has set up the recorders, and converse with Julie Parlo as they walk through the house.
** The continuous OrbitalShot in "Mr. Monk and the Earthquake" at the police station where Monk pleads for Captain Stottlemeyer to spare a detective to investigate Christine Rutherford's murder of her husband Henry, while Stottlemeyer frantically tries to handle the post-earthquake chaos across the city.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** Monk has severe OCD and a host of other phobias, such that he frequently needs sanitary wipes. During "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," he's so disturbed by the trash bags piled around that he is unable to function as a detective. By the climax of the story, he's driving a garbage truck around, ''picking up the garbage himself'', and fingering Music/AliceCooper for the crime(!) in a summation that's more implausible than usual. Stottlemeyer gets him to a clean room, and he gets back to normal. Relatively speaking.
** There's "Mr. Monk Is On The Air": Monk suspects shock jock Max Hudson of murdering his wife, so he appears on his show to interview him. The story of Trudy's death comes up, and Max's sidekick J.J. offers his condolences. But Max starts making tasteless jokes. You ''know'' Monk is pissed when the normally mild-mannered detective who abstains from physical contact ''jumps across the table to tackle Max.'' Made worse by the fact Natalie is locked out of the booth and is unable to intervene when even she realizes what is going to happen.
** The two episodes where Monk tries alternative methods of treatment, "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" and "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," other characters do take alarm when Monk starts acting unusually. In the former, it starts because he polishes off Stottlemeyer's hospital meal tray, [[TheSnackIsMoreInteresting and is more interested in the food]] than in Randy's news about the drive-by shooting that Stottlemeyer got shot in, and actually hugs Stottlemeyer. In the latter, it's when Monk decides to adopt a frog named Hoppy from Sally Larkin's backyard.
*** Related: in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', when Natalie discovers Monk on the same plane as her on the way to Hawaii, she is noticeably alarmed by his strange behaviors as she is unaware that he is on Dioxynl (the medicine from "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine").
** And Natalie is not immune either in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever." Normally, she's very accepting of Monk's OCD behaviors and has a bubbly personality, but when she becomes a lottery hostess, Monk observes her becoming a full-tilt diva, more devoted to the lottery than to him. He grows increasingly irritated by this shift, eventually to the point that he openly mocks her in public while she's signing autographs for her fans. And at one show, she gets incredibly pissed when she trips over some sound wires, going full DramaQueen in an argument with sound engineer Billy Logan, which culminates in the station manager Stan Lawrence trying to intervene, and Billy being fired and removed by security because he's got a hot streak. Monk even says he's observed it when he talks to Dr. Bell:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' All I'm trying to say is...it's ''not'' the same Natalie! If you knew her you wouldn't know her! Last night after the show, she got somebody fired!
-->'''Dr. Neven Bell:''' Really?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' One of the crew, sound guy! There were some wires on the floor, and she was just like ''[leans back in his chairs and imitates a toddler throwing a temper tantrum]'' you know, complaining.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper", we see that Monk is disturbed to see Natalie drinking a bottle of mouthwash after learning that Dr. Polanski, whom she was making out with the previous night, is a leper, given that she was the one teaching him about compassion and tolerance when it comes to lepers. Monk calls her out on this.
** In "[[Recap/MonkS4E16MrMonkGetsJuryDuty Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty]]", Natalie ends up getting clued in to the fact that something is wrong when she sees that the blinds in the window of the deliberation room that Monk and the other jurors are in are crooked. Knowing full well that Monk would have ''immediately'' straightened up the crooked blinds once he saw them, Natalie runs inside the courthouse to see what's going on. Sure enough, [[spoiler: she finds Monk and the other jurors tied to their chairs and an unconscious security guard after one of the jurors (actually the accomplice to/fiance of the crook of the week) [[RogueJuror went rogue]].]]
** Also, when someone Monk cares about is in danger (for instance, in "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies"[[note]]his desire to speed up in traffic to get to Ambrose when he realizes the shell casing incriminating Pat van Ranken in his wife's death is in Ambrose's house[[/note]], "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic"[[note]]when Ray Galardi [[AccidentalKidnapping accidentally kidnaps]] Natalie in his dump truck[[/note]], "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion"[[note]]when Monk realizes Kyle Brooks is planning to kill his wife Dianne[[/note]]), he tends to set aside his persnicketiness and [[LetsGetDangerous get dangerous]].
** Ellen Morse, Monk's love interest in a few novels, also has OCD but with far greater control than Monk, in part thanks to self-help guru Miranda Bigley. After Bigley is murdered, Ellen shows evidence of a relapse. While still nowhere near Monk's level of compulsiveness, she is caught vigorously cleaning her store and she becomes far less tolerant of Monk's antics.