Monk was a Detective Drama that aired on USA Network from 2002 to 2009. The show was about Adrian Monk, a former San Francisco police inspector who suffered a nervous breakdown after the murder of his wife, Trudy. He is a lifelong sufferer of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and has many phobias, and those obsessions became crippling after his breakdown, forcing his retirement; he recovers throughout the series, though he is never fully "cured". His OCD is also the reason Monk was such a successful policeman; one of his compulsions is paying amazing attention to details.Thanks to his breakdown, Monk left his job as a police officer behind, but is frequently called in to consult on cases which baffle the police, often some kind of Locked Room Mystery, by his friend and former commander Captain Stottlemeyer. His disorders are part and parcel of his unique mind; without them, he wouldn't be able to solve these cases. Of course, the one case Monk's been trying to solve since his breakdown is Trudy's murder, and each season of the show brings him a little closer to finally solving the mystery behind her death (with the show's final season bringing the case to a close for good).Monk is notable for subverting pretty much every Perp Sweating convention; due to Monk's disorder and the invariable intelligent cockiness of the bad guy, he's always the one in any round of questioning who's uncomfortable and making mistakes.Many of the comedic situations in the series would not exist if Monk or one of his friends would explain his issues to others.So they don't. However, despite the occasional perpetual comedy at his expense, he is largely portrayed sympathetically. Viewers come to believe that his condition is, as Monk himself puts it, "a gift...and a curse".This show was a turning point for the USA Network. USA was previously a channel with a lineup consisting mainly of reruns and game shows (and, of course, Duckman). Monk was the first major hit show for the network, launching what has become a string of popular, critically-acclaimed series.Monk is notable for putting Tony Shalhoub in the limelight after a career filled with supporting roles.
Tropes associated with this series include:
20% More Awesome: "Mr. Monk and the Big Game" uses the standard "give 110%" cliche (Although Monk tries to settle with 100% as he claims that 110% is "mathematically impossible").
Absence of Evidence: They mention a case that looked like suicide until Monk pointed out that there was no water for the overly-large pills on which the victim had OD'd.
Accidental Aiming Skills: On at least two occasions, Monk hits something by accident. In the first season, he fires a shot in the dark and heavily injures someone threatening Sharona (to be fair, however, he was trying to aim for the killer, so this is probably more closer to Improbable Aiming Skills). In the fifth season he quickly jerks the gun off to the side to fire off a warning shot and, despite not having bothered to aim at anything, kills a bird.
In the episode where Monk flies in a plane, Sharona makes a reference to Series/Wings. Monk replies that he never watched it.
Adult Child: Monk becomes one through hypnosis. He gets better, though. Its also hinted that even during this state, he still innately could find clues about the actual murderer.
Air Hugging: Though this is less Monk being uncomfortable with men (specifically, his brother) and more his being uncomfortable with touching.
Always Someone Better: Mr. Monk and the Other Detective involves Monk accusing a detective of cheating. He is.
And Now For Something Completely Different: Although most of the episodes deal with a murder, there are two episodes that stand out to not have murder involved at all, the first being Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny (although it does have attempted murder) and the second being Mr. Monk and the Kid. Coincidentially, both episodes involve a kidnapping.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Sort of: The animals don't actually speak english, but a few episodes relating to animals seem to depict the the animals with an almost human understanding. In Mr. Monk and the Dog, A dog Monk has to raise after its owner ends up missing (who is also pregnant) seems to be genuinely sorrowful upon learning that her owner died, and her reaction when giving birth is similar to a human. Likewise, in the episode where Monk goes on a camping trip, the method in which Monk manages to calm a bear down was telling it the murder, and the bear's reactions indicated that it understood fully well what was going on in the story and reacting accordingly.
Art Shift: One episode was broadcast in Film Noir black-and-white, and again in color. Noticeably, The Summation in the former was done in color rather than the usual B&W.
In Mr. Monk's Favorite Show, Monk delivers the summation in his dream while knocked out, which is presented in the style of a sitcom TV show.
Artifact Title: Inverted; every episode title begins with "Mr. Monk," which nobody referred to him as until Natalie came along.
Asshole Victim / Sympathetic Murderer: It doesn't happen quite as often as many other crime shows of the time, but there are still a couple;
One episode involves a woman who lost her parents and her sight following a car accident caused by a drunk driver. She slowly regained her sight after many many years, but she pretended she was still blind, believing that to put her in the perfect position to find and kill the man who destroyed her life.
In another episode, the "victim" turns out to be a brutal warlord who was hiding out incognito as a cab driver. One of his fares turned out to be a former citizen of the country he terrorized. Guess what happens next...
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Monk solves impossible cases regularly once per episode, but he often solves cases in under a minute when he's barely paying attention, since he's already distracted by another case. Often he solves four or five cases within fifteen minutes like this, or cases so obscure that nobody actually cares about them. He once determined while working on another case in a museum that the body on display was actually hit in the skull rather than dying from the cause declared by the museum, effectively solving a 30,000 year-old case. Stottlemeyer actually exploits this, calling out the facts of various cases while he's distracted.
The closer a case comes to his own life, the more trouble he has solving it. For example, there was one case ("Mr Monk and the Garbage Strike") that involved his pet peeve, cleanliness, that literally drove him insane trying to solve, and took three tries and actually going into a computer cleanroom before he did it. Likewise, he had problems to a lesser degree in a case that involved the son of "Inspector Number 8" of his shirts. The ultimate example of course being the case of his wife, Trudy, and her car bombing.
Author Appeal: Majority of the cases involve murdered wives.
Badass Mustache: Stottlemeyer wears one with such pride that Monk has trouble recognizing him when he shaves it off. When Leland is out of action, Disher grows one in response; Leland makes him get rid of it afterwards.
Bad Bad Acting: In an episode where an actor is murdered on stage Monk ends up taking the dead man's place... it goes as well as you'd expect.
Also averted in that he did manage to act out the events quite well... When the stage was empty. In fact, literally the only reason he was not acting well was due to stage fright.
Don't forget where he acts like Sharona's wife, and does such a bad job of it that the couple's therapist is relieved to hear they aren't married.
Batman Gambit: The chessmaster in "Mr. Monk and the Genius" uses one of these to kill his wife.
In "Mr. Monk is Someone Else", Monk adopts the persona of a dead hit man in order to save the life of his target. He ends up playing his role way too well.
Also, in "Mr. Monk and the Actor," method actor David Ruskin is hired to portray Monk in a movie. In the course of developing the Monk 'character' he acquires many of Monk's various psychoses, eventually suffering a breakdown of his own and halting production of the movie.
Though this time it wasn't Monk's fault, as said actor already had a history of Becoming the Mask multiple times in the past.
There was also another time where Monk went undercover as the head butler, and seems to enjoy it more than solving crimes.
In episodes related to Trudy's death, Monk can take on some Knight Templar traits.
In one episode with a thief dressing as Santa, Monk was in an emotionally bad state and ended up beating the crap out of the perp after the perp tried to kill him.
Monk shows throughout the series that he is quite capable of defending himself when the situation demands, to the point of completely ignoring his phobias — including shooting and severely wounding a murderer in self-defence while temporarily blind, overpowering a deranged man with a gun, or fending off a perp with dirty bags when being ill.
In "Mr. Monk and the Badge" Monk fights off a murderer on an unstable window-washing platform and stabs the man in the leg with said badge.
Berserk Button: For Adrian, it could be anything, really, but his true Berserk Button is Trudy's death. Anything that threatens his memory of her, or implies anything about what happened, causes Adrian to snap, leading to Beware the Nice Ones, as above.
That particular Berserk Button caused Monk to protest the demolition of the parking garage where Trudy was murdered in the Season Seven finale, "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall"; the structure was being demolished to make way for a children's playground, and Monk was worried that the demolition could destroy any remaining potential evidence. However, the councilwoman who helps bring the matter before the city council is killed, leaving Monk to solve her murder and reveal that her vote would keep the parking garage standing; unfortunately, Monk insults the councilwoman's replacement during The Summation, which causes the replacement to change the deciding vote out of spite. A sign shown after Monk leaves the structure for the last time shows that the playground replacing the parking garage will be named in Trudy's honor.
Can't forget the memorable moment where a Dirty Talkshow Host made cruel jokes about Trudy's death (to the point his heckling yes men were disturbed by it), Natalie even tried to warn and stop it before Monk simply jumped over the table and beat him up.
In the series finale, when Monk confronts Trudy's killer, the killer claims that Trudy was unstable and crazy, prompting Monk to beat the crap out of him. Mind you, at this point, Monk was poisoned and dying. The cool bit was that the Judge wanted to make him look crazy. When he tries to get Monk killed by the cops using the same method at the end of the episode, Monk doesn't fall for it.
Stottlemeyer, while he was still married to Karen, also had a severe berserk button when it came to his wife either being hurt or someone managing to see his wife. The first instance of this was in Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife, where he started losing his sanity when his wife was put into the hospital for severe injuries relating to a car crash caused by the truck driver in front of her being sniped and even ended up coming very close to losing his badge just to do so. The second time was in Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage when a fellow police officer makes comments that implies that Karen was cheating on Stottlemeyer by dating him. That one ends very badly in regards to the Captain's marriage, resulting in their divorce.
Disher has a berserk button relating to people not taking him seriously especially when he actually did witness a murder, resulting in him quitting his job in Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist. Similarly, he doesn't like it when people diss his music, or being called "Cracker."
Bluffing The Murderer: Inverted in Mr. Monk Meets The Godfather, where Monk actually did intend to have the FBI catch his confession on tape, but it backfired because they got static (Monk washed the tie containing the bug in the washing machine due to spilling it with food earlier, and since the bug wasn't waterproof...)
Boring, but Practical: It is implied that while Disher lacks Monk's ability to solve impossible cases, he is very efficient when it comes to managing ordinary homicides.
Bottle Episode: The season 1 finale Mr. Monk and the Airplane. It's so well-written most people don't even notice.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the second season (Mr Monk and the TV Star) there is a girl who becomes a fan of Monk's work. At the end of the episode, she says something about how he's such a great detective "one day you'll get your own TV show." And then she ask him "if you ever do get your own TV show, don't change the opening song." When the credits roll, rather than the 2nd season song, they're playing the first season theme.
Brick Joke: In Part 2 of the Final Episode: Near the very end of the episode, just before he and Natalie leave his house to go to the crime scene, Monk checks his stove to make sure its off. Rewind 8 seasons ago to the first episode, and Mr. Monk is in the middle of a crime scene and suddenly remembers that he might not have turned the stove off.
There's another one. In "Mr Monk and the Game Show" he talks to Trudy's mother about how she dealt with her grief, she says, "I was buried alive." Three episodes later, in "Mr Monk vs. the Cobra," he literally isburied alive.
And yet another one (though it may not qualify, as it's in-episode), "Mr Monk Gets Drunk" a guy sits at his table, and the guests say that he reeks of aqua velva, and it's like he's been swimming in it. Later in the episode, Natalie remarks about how the alcohol tastes funny. The reason Natalie's wine tasted funny was because the man's dead body was hidden in the wine cask.
Broken Pedestal: When a former child actress writes a tell-all book about Monk's favorite TV show - the only thing that made him happy as a child - there isn't enough Brain Bleach in the world to help him.
If the rest of the book was bad, I wonder what was on page 73, the page Natalie ate.
California Doubling (for itself): Culver City doubles for San Francisco (the orange bus with "Culver" written in giant cursive letters doesn't help). Averted in the Big Apple Sauce episode.
The Metrolink in one episode didn't help either. San Francisco has BART; Metrolink runs throughout San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Ventura, and LA counties.
One episode rather explicitly showed Union Station, a landmark any Los Angeles native would recognize.
Cannot Tell a Joke: Monk. Supposedly he tells two jokes during the entire series, both times shocking everyone around him; this doesn't stop him from snarking, especially early in the series.
The Character Died with Him: After Dr. Kroger's actor died of a sudden heart attack between seasons, the same thing was done to the character and Monk had to spend part of an episode finding a new therapist.
Chekhov's Gun / Irony: At the end of "Mr Monk and The End (Part 1)", Monk finally opens Trudy's final Christmas present. It's a powerful moment, since it means, as pointed out earlier, that he's finally accepting her death. (He's also coming to terms with the possibility that he himself may be dead within a couple of days.) It turns out to be an "If I Do Not Return" video made by Trudy, and it contains all the information Monk ever needed to find her killer. Yes, that's right: the Gun has been sitting, loaded, on the mantle for 12 years and 8 seasons, and has been regularly pointed out by the characters.
Claustrophobia: One of Monk's phobias. In one episode, he is trapped in a coffin, and memories of Trudy keep him from completely freaking out. In another episode, he's caught in a submarine (he was convinced he's only be in there for a few minutes but they went under while he was on board).
And in season 8, he gets over the fear trapped in a trunk. With Harold, no less.
On one occasion he attempts to bribe a doorman with four dollars. Then Sharona gives him forty. Then Monk asks for his four dollars back. Then says "We have four dollars in credit for future information!" as Sharona drags him away.
In season seven he tries to bribe a barman with a picture of General Washington (a dollar). Then he ups the bribe with another General Washington (a quarter).
Conviction by Contradiction: Monk can often figure out the crime this way before he has any solid evidence and spends the rest of the episode obtaining said evidence. Lampshaded once, when someone questions the validity of how he phrased a sentence as evidence.
To be fair, it was cheese as part of a sandwich, and the TV series has made that mistake once or twice.
Crapsack World: At first it seems this is just Monk's opinion, but think about it: he discovers murders almost everywhere, half the time when not on a case, and he's never wrong.Guess it really isa jungle out there.
Credits Gag: In the season six episode centered on rap, the credits are redubbed as a rap song.
Criminal Doppelganger: Adrian happened to be a dead ringer for a mob hit-man. Inverted, in that the police didn't mix him up, but instead recruited him to make the other criminals think he was the hit-man.
Despite his phobias and neuroses, Monk can and will take physical action if necessary, disarming criminals holding him at gunpoint, shooting at least two suspects (one while blind), and knocking a hit man unconscious with a bottle (while drunk). Despite being visibly terrified, he does things like standing in front of an F-22 fighter jet about to take off. In the finale he beats up the judge who murdered Trudy.
There was also the time when Monk, undergoing severe trauma from getting lost in New York, ended up being "converted" by a street preacher attempting to warn everyone about the apocalypse and preaching about "cleaning" the city of it's sin.
Monk, to the street preacher: "Don't listen to her, Jor-El! I know her—she's a fornicator!"
Deadpan Snarker: Captain Stottlemeyer. Monk himself has his moments as well.
Death In The Clouds: Played with. The actual murder occurred in the airport, but Monk was on the plane with the murderer and only had as long as the flight lasted to solve the crime.
Played straight, the murderer poisons a man on the plane too.
Deconstruction: One of the primary points of the ending was that murder is often carried out for banal and petty reasons. Rickover murdered two innocent people not because of some grand conspiracy but to keep his job safe. Monk even lampshades this.
Department of Redundancy Department: Monk's brother (an agoraphobia sufferer) comes up with a classic example when talking about the police.
Ambrose: They no longer respond to my complaints because I call them more often than I should. I'd like to complain to them about it, but they no longer respondto my complaints.
And from Monk: "She was a sex prostitute."
Designated Driver: Inverted. As mentioned in the Wild Teen Party section below, because Stottlemeyer let Monk plan his bachelor party, Monk supplied what amounted to 144 oz. of beer (12 partygoers times 12 oz bottles of beer), which Stottlemeyer noted that they only had enough to make each party member become slightly sleepy (and certainly not enough to require a designated driver), or give it all to one of the partygoers to make him extremely polluted and make him the "designated drunk." The majority chose the latter option, with Randy Disher volunteering to become the designated drunk.
Did Not Do the Research: In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", the titular astronaut comments that a mission was almost aborted because he got lost driving to the launch site. Real-world astronauts have to be in a quarantine before launching on the shuttle.
Done in-universe at least once: In Mr. Monk and the Actor, Monk is on the set of a CSI-style show where they utilized a device to locate stain residue from a particular drug, and state that it came from a Bolivian drug cartel, only for Monk, after the shot is done, to point out that the drug cartel referenced was actually stationed in Greece, not Bolivia.
Drinking On Duty: Disher drank on duty once in the beginning of "Mr. Monk gets Married". Justified, however, when it became apparent that Disher doesn't usually do this, and had a pretty justifiable excuse for doing so, as he was shocked that his mother had not only dated, and married, a guy who is significantly younger than her, and she isn't even rich, but they are spending their honeymoon at a marriage counseling place. It was bizzare enough to hire Monk and Sharona to investigate and eventually get a fake marriage in order to do some sleuthing at the mansion. Stottlemeyer does this, although in his case, he really does actually need the alcohol in regards to solving a case.
Stottlemeyer and Disher share a drink on duty during the finale's darkest hour.
Drives Like Crazy: Sharona. Natalie and Adrian also did this on one occasion each (The last bit when under the influence of a drug that's meant to relieve himself of his phobias).
Stottlemeyer also did the same in the final episode. Justified, as they were trying to locate Monk before he ends up doing something bad to Ethan Rickover in revenge for murdering Trudy Monk as well as a nurse. The fact that it was stormy outside, and Disher ended up selling his siren in a garage sale shortly beforehand didn't help matters, either.
Drunken Master: Stottlemeyer, when completely drunk, can actually solve cases on par with Monk, if not rival Monk in case solving ability.
In "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk" Monk accidentally got and was able to subdue a hitman, and solve a conspiracy involving everyone in a hotel covering up a mans death so they can keep his money.
Dude, Not Funny!: The reaction that many OCD sufferers and their loved ones have to the show.
In-Universe, when a shock jock starts making tasteless jokes about Trudy. Some of his colleagues try to get him to stop.
Dysfunctional Family: It is heavily implied in the series starting with Mr. Monk and the Three Pies, that Adrian Monk's family was dysfunctional, and contributed to most of Monk's quirks.
Easy Amnesia: Monk gets hit on the head and loses his memory, but not his quirks.
Egocentric Team Naming: Randy Disher's garage rock band was called "The Randy Disher Project."
Embarrassing Slide: During the Class Reunion, Stottlemeyer, who was present because a nurse who worked at Berkeley was murdered by someone who has a connection to the Class Reunion, tried to get help in helping identify her murderer during the last few hours of the reunion, but then some slides of the No Nukes Rally at Berkeley during the seventies come up, more specifically slides where Stottlemeyer was involved as one of the riot cops sent out to stop the protest due to the protest permit expiring by then, and is promptly booed offstage (as well as pelted with one box)
Expanded Universe: The Lee Goldberg novels, although some novels would be considered non-canon such as "Mr. Monk and the Two Assistant" and "Mr. Monk Goes to Germany". The novel "Mr. Monk on the Road" and later novels explores what could happen after the series finale.
By and large, the novels don't fit with the TV series canon, primarily because many storylines from the novels were later adapted into TV episodes. (To wit, one episode essentially took the "Firehouse" novel's story and added a plot thread about Monk going blind; the "Blue Flu" novel contributed two major plot points to the episode where Monk rejoins the force; and both the novels and the TV show had episodes about Sharona returning.)
His assistant who's background is in medicine instead of law enforcement, but whom none-the-less proves invaluable in solving crime
A smug police officer who makes the actual arrest, often being quick to bring the obvious suspect into the interrogation room. (After the first season Stottlemeyer begins to move away from this, generally trusting Monk's intuition, and showing genuine detective skills.)
A brother who is even smarter who rarely puts it towards solving crime because of crippling shyness
An Arch-Enemy who makes only sporadic appearances, usually preferring to stay in the background
Failed Audition Plot: Monk's continued attempts to get reinstated despite being continually rejected.
Faking the Dead: Happens in the Season Six finale, "Mr. Monk Is On The Run".
Foreshadowing: In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan", Linda Fusco asks Stottlemeyer "What does a girl have to do to get your attention, kill someone?" Sure enough, three episodes later Monk exposes her as a murderer.
Fright Deathtrap: The Scared Stiff variant is attempted in "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man".
"Funny Aneurysm" Moment: In-universe, in the episode "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", when asked about whether he knew two women who were believed to have worked at the restaurant, the restaurant manager tries to act in-character (it was horror-themed restaurant) as a Vampire, but then is horrified at what he said, especially on-camera, when he learns the women in question were actually murdered a few days before.
Fun With Palindromes: After Monk's psychiatrist passes away, he has difficulty finding a new one. Then comes Dr. Neven Bell. His first name is the same forwards as it is backwards, thus, Monk approves.
Gas Lighting: Sharona was a victim of this, where her writing professor attempted to discredit her sanity by having her adulturer pose as a dying man with a knife in the chest and a screwdriver coming out of his head stating that "Douglas is worried about her.", and then have him disappear when she tries to show them: Thrice. Turns out, she was doing this because earlier, Sharona wrote a paper that detailed a former case that Monk was in involving someone murdering their spouse with a toxin that can emulate a heart attack, and the writing professor and the lover decided to repeat history on her husband, and thus cover themselves in case Sharona gets suspicious.
Gender Flip: Randy's equivalent in the tv show in "Mr Monk in the Actor." Played for Laughs as the show version of Randy and Stottlemeyer are acting out the episode "Mr Monk and the Astronaut" and they start kissing before Natalie comes in. Stottlemeyer says "thatnever happened."
Girlfriend in Canada: Subverted in "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month"; Randy's girlfriend appears to be one of these - the picture he shows Sharona is the one that came with his wallet ("She's a wallet model!") and he gives what appears to be a Line-of-Sight Name - except that at the end of the episode, we actually see her waving to him from a taxi.
Grand Finale: The show's two-part series finale, "Mr. Monk and the End":
Part One - Monk happens upon the handprint of a hired killer at the murder of someone connected to Trudy's past, and the man behind Trudy's murder tells the killer to poison Monk. Discovering he has only days to live and with the hired killer dead by the end of the episode, Monk is in a race against time to put the pieces together to find out who was ultimately behind Trudy's murder. He finally opens Trudy's last Christmas gift to him, and it ends up being an "If I Do Not Return" message to him that may ultimately give him the clues he needs to finally solve the mystery of her murder.
Part Two - Trudy's message reveals who she was going to meet the day she was murdered - her old law professor and her killer, Judge Rickover - and it also reveals that she had a child by the same man, a daughter, whom she believed died. Monk puts all the pieces together and escapes from the hospital to confront Rickover, revealing that he also killed the missing midwife and buried her in his backyard. Natalie is poisoned, and the source of the poison affecting Monk is found (his wipes), allowing an antidote to be made. After Rickover confesses to the crimes, he kills himself, and his last words ("Take care of her") lead Monk to find out that Trudy's daughter is still alive.
There's a simpler solution: Just throw all the trash into the bay, "one bag at a time. One truck at a time! One bag at a time."
Grilling Pyrotechnics: The murderer of the week in "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs" attempts to invoke this trope by rigging a fan's charcoal grill to explode by adding in gasoline that he siphoned out of his own car to silence this particular fan (Long story short, the murderer was afraid that the fan in question had either witnessed his murder of the backup star quarterback or was privy to the out-of-order playbook because he was in close proximity to the quarterback shortly before he was murdered.). Although he certainly succeeded in having the grill blow up, actually having the fan killed by the explosion wasn't nearly as successful, as the only real damage he did to the fan was burn his right hand. Also, unlike most uses of this trope, it wasn't Played for Laughs.
Handy Cuffs: "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty". When the SFPD hands off a "most wanted" fugitive to the feds, they considerately cuff him with his hands in front of him, making his escape attempt easier to accomplish.
Heel Face Turn: Harold Krenshaw, after years as Monk's nemesis Harold realizes (after being lock in a car trunk with Monk by the bad guy of the week) that the two are a lot alike and becomes his friend, then he makes a un-Krenshaw gesture and joins a new group therapy to allow Monk to have Dr.Bell to himself (though his insurance required him to only be in group therapy. The other members were murdered by the bad guy leaving only Harold and Monk so Harold leaving left Monk as the only member left).
Heroic BSOD: It is heavily implied that, although Trudy's murder via Car Bomb didn't cause Monk's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, it certainly made it a lot worse than before, suffering a mental breakdown that forced him into early retirement from the force before the start of the series, and necessitated therapy as well as finding Trudy's killer, not to mention learning that the car bomb was intended for Trudy all along and not a backfired assassination attempt on him that he ever gets better. He also has relatively minor episodes within the main Heroic BSOD, namely pertained to whether he can get his old job back or not (such as when he was not only removed from the case, but also had his detective's license revoked by the Commissioner simply because he accidentially deleted 20 years worth of forensic files while attempting to eliminate crumbs from the keyboard, or when a four-year hiring freeze threatened his chances of reinstatement).
Stottlemeyer also suffered through it a few times. A notable example is when, after his wife Karen Stottlemeyer was hospitalized for a car crash that left her in a coma and necessitated surgery to her brain, Stottlemeyer began to have an unhealthy obsession of bringing the person responsible to justice, even to the point of dismissing basic logic, such as immediately pinning the blame on a picket union against Scab Drivers because the truck drivers killed were scabs, despite the fact that the assailant responsible for sniping the first one wasn't even wearing shoes when he did it, and also assaulted the head Union Boss's second in command that most certainly would have gotten Stottlemeyer into trouble had the Union Boss not covered it up. Also, when the real killer was exposed, and after it was learned that the killer in question did it first to recover incriminating evidence in a repossessed car that linked him to a Savings and Loan robbery in Delmare that resulted in the death of a clerk, and the second to keep them off the wrong trail, he actually throws the killer onto the hood of a police car and deeply considers beating him up badly in retribution to what he nearly did with his wife. He only barely stops himself when Sharona and Disher remind him that if he does this, he'll lose his badge, and it really isn't worth it. A prior instance of this is where he has a cold case about a valedictorian student being killed by a drunk driver, and this combined with Monk's greater skill as a detective, left him frequently depressed. The fact that he was having marital problems stemming from not watching a documentary (which turned out to be a Chekhov's Gun to finding out the murderer for both their current case and his cold case) that forced him to stay with Monk didn't help matters much.
Honest Jake's Repairman: Played with: In the episode "Mr. Monk Buys A House", Monk, as the title states, bought a house belonging to a recently murdered senior citizen (who is later revealed to have been an inside man for a savings and loan job during the 1960s, and was murdered because, as a result of his dementia, he babbled about the heist to his nurse). While Monk is getting supplies, he finds a repairman who talks and acts like an Honest John-type character, and even (allegedly) calls himself "'Honest' John." He is later hired by Monk to help fix the house, only to essentially demolish the house even further. Turns out he had ulterior motives in trying to help "repair" the house: He was trying to locate the stash of money stolen from the bank by the previous occupant, and was also the nurse's lover.
Honor Before Reason: When Monk becomes Stottelmeyer's best man, he takes his duty of keeping the wedding ring safe seriously - by holding it clenched in his fist for nine days straight.
Hurricane of Puns: When Monk participates in the interrogation of the guy who bullied him in middle school (imagine Monk's horror over getting a swirly). Monk unleashes a slew of toilet/swirly-related puns.
Hypocritical Humor: Randy cites his astrological sign as a reason he isn't superstitious.
I Ate What?: In one episode, Natalie is afraid of a voodoo curse and Monk takes her to a shaman to help her "get rid" of it. He initiates a complicated ritual with a potion made of... questionable ingredients. She hurries to drink it, but the man, horrified, tells her it was supposed to be applied to the skin. Cue rush to the hospital with attempted homicide included.
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode has "Mr. Monk" in the title, usually at the beginning of the title (the only episode where it isn't at the beginning is "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk").
Idiot Ball: Disher was born with one melded to his hands.
I Got Better: Subverted on "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized."
Irony: In the episode Mr. Monk's 100TH Case, Monk manages to deduce that the host of the TV magazine news show In Focus was the true murderer of one of the victims. Ironically, the host in question had just done an episode relating to Monk's 100th case since coming out of retirement.
I Never Said It Was Poison: Played with a lot, especially in the episode "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" where Monk, under the influence of medication that makes him go loopy, actually forgets that the suspect was indeed told the details of the investigation.
Monk: He's completely obsessed - and not in a good way, like me.
I Think You Broke Him: In one episode, Sharona's kid and his friend dump a puzzle on the floor for Monk to sort, which ends up leading the detective to a Eureka Moment, holding up two pieces and staring at them. One of the kids comments, "Uh oh. I think we broke him."
Jerkass: Monk. Probably to make him less pathetic, but the way he treated the people around him in the last few seasons, especially Natalie, makes one want to smack him. Also, 90-odd percent of perps fit this trope.
Perhaps a case of different writers?
Monk's usual level of jerkiness is nothing compared to the way he behaves in "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine," due to the side effects of his anti-OCD medication.
Regarding Jerkass villains, special mention must go to Max Hudson in "Mr. Monk Is On The Air". Truly one of the most hateful bastards the show has ever produced.
To put it in perspective, the actor who played Hudson, who formerly worked with Tony Shaloub in Wings, after reading what his character does to Monk in regards to Trudy's car bomb accident, actually begged the producers of Monk not to have him do that scene.
Jossed: The plot of at least one of the books (about a Sharona+ Natalie crossover) cannot happen thanks to the final season featuring a Sharona+ Natalie crossover.
Just Plane Wrong: Almost everything to do with the F-22 also qualifies. Such as Natalie thinking a Sidewinder missile might be a nuke, or the warheads just being left out like that. Or... anything else in the entire sequence. Also, if you look closely, one of the Military Police officers has an AK-pattern rifle, painted black. This might be due to production problems, like the relative availability of AK-pattern prop guns.
Karma Houdini: The guy who bullied Monk in High School is rich, successful, having a hot wife, and believes all the cruel things he did to him where nothing more than dumb jokes on his part. And worse of all, he wasn't the killer.
Lampshade Hanging: The 100th episode might as well have been called Ode To Lampshades.
"Mr. Monk's Biggest Fan" did its fair share of hanging as well.
Laughing Mad: Monk briefly underwent this trope in "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike" when, after being driven insane by the continuing piling of garbage as well as his earlier failure to find the one responsible for the murder of the Garbage Worker Union's leader due to being wrong the first time around, hijacks a Garbage truck, is taking every trash, and is planning to dump it into the San Francisco Bay, and implies to do the same with every Garbage Truck available until the city is clean, as well as coming up with an even less credible theory that Alice Cooper killed the union leader due to envy over his owning a chair (In case you're wondering how it's less credible, the first theory was only wrong in that the Mayor killed the union leader, and everything else was spot on, even the Mayor visiting the union leader the night of his death. The second theory, however missed out on a lot of the evidences observed by Monk earlier, and was simply too ludicrous to be true.).
Limited Wardrobe: A rare non-animated version; Mr 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.)
Line-of-Sight Name: 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 spit-take from Natalie.
Until he loses it trying to frame Monk when he attempted to assassinate the Governor of California
Lying Creator: "Mr Monk and The End" opens with a flashback to Trudy's death. We see that Monk and Stottlemeyer had just started a case about a missing nurse when they found out about Trudy's death. Said murder had been advertised for years as "the only case Monk never solved."Except that it turns out that the missing nurse was killed by the same guy who killed Trudy, for the same reason.
Madness Mantra: When Monk breaks down during the garbage strike and tries to get rid of the trash himself by driving it into the sea, he keeps muttering "One bag at a time, one truck at a time" to himself.
The Man Behind the Man: Warrick Tennyson was hired by Frank Nunn, who worked for the Judge.
Mauve Shirt: Kevin Dorfman. He dies in a filler episode.
Make The Dog Testify: Lampshaded/Averted. Captain Stottlemeyer tells Randy that there is a law prohibiting animals from testifying.
Randy responds that it could easily be changed, as it is California.
Meaningful Foreground Event: Monk is obsessing over the fact that Harold Krenshaw has, apparently, lost his phobias and become a daredevil. While he and Stottlemeyer are engaged in a contest of bladders, Monk's coffee table is perfectly aligned. In an earlier season we saw that Monk always keeps it cock-eyed. That he doesn't care about that shows that he's more obsessed with this.
Mistaken for Badass: Quite a bit. One good example is when Monk, disguised as a strangely identical hit man, straightens a mobster's tie.
Mistaken for Racist: In one episode, Monk is meeting with a group of people, and has a wipe ready to wipe his hands after all handshakes are complete. The last person to shake his hand is a black man, and Monk wipes his hands right after. This trope is played straight, racism is implied and accused. Afterwards, everyone there regards him with contempt.
Mood Whiplash: The show is fearless about switching between drama and comedy. The best examples, by far, are in "Mr Monk and The End", such as the doctor informing Monk he's going to die. He'll feel better, then there'll be vomiting, followed by death. Of course, Monk focuses on the "vomiting" part.
Outright lampshaded in "Mr. Monk and the Actor", where an actor inquires if the killer of the week 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. Cue the killer breaking into a pawn shop and accidentally shooting the owner while attempting to destroy evidence linking him to the first murder.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Natalie helps a boy who flipped his bicycle get up and then fixes the chain. And complimented him on his bolt-cutters. Yeah.
Noir Episode: "Mr. Monk and the Leper," broadcast in both color and black-and-white.
Not So Fake Prop Weapon: The weapon was switched after the victim had already collapsed, due to peanut oil on the apple he had eaten. The actress accused of murder rightly points out that she would have been able to feel the difference in weight and balance between the prop knife and the real one.
Obfuscating Disability: In the pilot, Monk realizes that the primary suspect in an assassination case is not really a cripple because his shoes are heavily scuffed, something that would not happen to a man who had to use a wheelchair all the time. This revelation does not come in time and the assassin manages to get away.
In "Mr. Monk and The Red Headed Stranger", Mr. Monk realizes that the blind "witness" to the murder of Sonny Cross wasn't really blind when he remembers that she instinctively avoided shaking Sottelmeyer's injured hand, even though no one had mentioned that he was injured. In all fairness, she had actually been blind once.
Overly-Long Gag: Monk trying to say "I guess I don't have a choice" to Stottlemeyer but being repeatedly interrupted by a jackhammer in one episode, lasting for literally a minute and a more.
Oh, the Humanity!: Monk yells this whenever he encounters something really nasty.
Painting the Fourth Wall: In the season 4 episode, Monk is finally put on retainer by the police. He's guaranteed 16 homicides a year for the next two years.
Pet the Dog: A literal example occurs in the final season.
Photographic Memory: Monk has incredible memory. He can even recognize a man's ear.
Monk: I know that rock
That's nothing. In the episode Mr. Monk and the Naked Man his fear of naked people is revealed to have come from Remembering his own birth
Playing Sick: Stottlemeyer implies in the episode Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist that the reason Disher doesn't want to go to the dentist in spite of a genuine toothache is because he wants to save his sick days on days where he isn't actually sick. This is later confirmed in Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert, where Randy Disher is revealed midway in the episode to have faked an illness so he'd go to a rock festival.
The Picture Came With The Frame: Randy Disher claims that he has a girlfriend, and shows the picture of a beautiful woman. Natalie points out that the photo came with the wallet. Randy explains that his girlfriend is a famous "wallet photo model". It is true.
Playing Drunk: The killer in one episode picks a fight while pretending to be drunk so as to attract paparazzi attention, which then gives him an alibi for the murder he's going to commit.
Product Placement: Pretty blatant during some seasons, when the camera would linger on the labels of Monk's favorite cleaning products. Then they started giving Natalie a new car to drive every new season; now they give her a new car to drive every episode.
"Mr. Monk and the UFO" was a painfully unsubtle 60-minute commercial for Sleep Inn.
Properly Paranoid: In the beginning of one episode, some bums mock their friends' seeming paranoia about someone trying to kill him. The next day, they learn he was actually right that someone was trying to kill him, and had succeeded.
Monk himself often is in this trope: In Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist, he has a crippling fear of Dentists due to a bad experience, a fear so severe, in fact, that he was completely unwilling to go beyond the waiting room while Disher and Natalie investigate a murder that seemingly happened while Disher was getting his appointment regarding a seeming kidnapping of "Barry Bonds," and later had to be pried off when he was literally frozen in fear in his seat during the wait (presumably from hearing a drill whirring in the background). Turns out he was very much justified in this fear, as he ends up being abducted and then tortured by the same dentists in regards to potential clients for the bearer bonds and whether the Police had them monitored (an incident that also resulted in his fear of them being heightened as a result to the extent that he refuses to go to a dentist even after one of his teeth was chipped). Later on, Monk uncovered evidence that suggested that Stottlemeyer's girlfriend murdered her former business partner, but Stottlemeyer refused to believe him until after Monk found the impounded trailer and exposed it to the police chief.
Randy Disher was also in this trope in the same episode (the Dentist one), as during the dental procedure for a legitimate toothache, and while being placed in novacane, he ends up witnessing a brutal confrontation between the dentists and a bald man demanding for "Barry Bonds" and that "he was worth $13 billion," and tried to report it to his co-workers, only to be laughed at and/or met with disbelief (the fact that he was currently being doped up on novacane when it was happening did not help matters much on his end, either), eventually being fed up at not being believed and quitting the force. It later turned out that Randy was actually quite correct in what he saw (barring the "Barry Bonds" thing, as that was actually "bearer bonds").
Put on a Bus: Sharona remarries her ex-husband and moves back to New Jersey midway through season 3.
And how. Mr. 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.
Quip to Black: Disher keeps trying to spout one off in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", with minimal success.
Captain Stottlemeyer pulls off the occasional line that would be one if he did it with dramatic flair instead of perfect deadpan, such as referring to a dead hotel guest as having "checked out early."
Stottlemeyer also tries a few in "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk". Natalie promptly chews him out for being insensitive.
Monk unintentionally also makes Captain Stottlemeyer feel bad about them by decribing how horrible the victims death must have been. It involved hooks ripping him apart and then being compacted in the world's deadliest trash compactor.
Monk: He must have been screaming for mercy the whole time.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Captain Stottlemeyer is rarely skeptical of Monk's intuitive leaps, having seen him in action for so long, and often makes accommodations for Monk's OCD on the crime scene.
Reckless Gun Usage: After fighting a suspect for a gun, Natalie turns around, gun in hand. She tells Monk, who had already been shot in the leg earlier in the episode and was trying climb down some stairs to assist Natalie, that she was okay...and accidentally shot Monk in his uninjured leg.
Replaced the Theme Tune: From the instrumental classical guitar piece to "It's a Jungle Out There".
The Reveal: The identity of the man who masterminded Trudy's murder, revealed in the series finale: Judge Rickover, Trudy's old law professor with whom she had an affair. Trudy had his child and believed the baby died after birth, but Monk discovers that the child lived and eventually meets her.
Revealing Coverup: So many layers of it in the series finale. 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.
Reverse Whodunnit: Monk often figures out who the murderer is by the second act, or the killer's identity is revealed in the first scene, or both; the kicker is proving HOW they did it.
Sassy Black Woman: In the ep where Sharona thought she was going insane, she gets a friend from her writing class who fits basically the role of Ethnic Scrappy. She was very painful to watch.
One episode had the police surrounding and almost arresting a guy brandishing a hermonica, based on predictions made by state of the art computer system.
Another episode had a guy exonerated based on DNA evidence. The DNA came from an accomplice, so the guy was still guilty of murder.
Scream Discretion Shot: In the "circus" episode, an elephant trainer demonstrates how the elephant can gently place its foot upon his head, on a stump. Unfortunately, the murderess has duct-taped a walkie-talkie to the elephant and gives the command for the elephant to put the foot down. A hideous SPLUTCH is heard. Viewers don't actually get to see his head get squished.
Series Continuity Error: Various details relating to Trudy's death and how Monk got the news. See the Monk Wiki entry for "Mr. Monk and the End" and the IMDb Goofs entry.
She's Dead Monk: In the series finale, Monk finally accepts Trudy's death in two different ways. The first is when he opens Trudy's Christmas present, and the second is when he sleeps in the middle of the bed (rather than sleeping on one side as if to save room for Trudy).
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Averted - Despite being constantly held at gunpoint, buried alive on a few occasions, frequently seeing the aftermath of a brutal homicide, Mr. Monk is afraid of milk, handshakes, and germs, and has traumatic memories of birth.
Ship Tease: In "Mr. Monk and the Genius" Natalie and Monk are on a stakeout. When their cover is threatened, Natalie briefly and inexplicably blurts out that they should kiss, and immediately wonders aloud why she said it.
And of course the numerous shout outs to Sherlock Holmes. Jack read Sherlock Holmes to Monk as a child. Monk has on numerous occasions identified cigarettes and cigars from their ashes, like Sherlock does in A Study In Scarlet, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, and other stories. Amusingly, Disher's original last name in the pilot was Deacon, so the first two letters of their first and last names put together spells "Lestrade" (Leiland Stottlemeyer and Randy Deacon). See Expy above to see how the characters are based on Doyle's.
Show, Don't Tell: In the entirety of the show's run, Monk was explicitly described as having OCD maybe twice, not counting promos.
This is made especially jarring on the multiple occasions where Monk gets in trouble for grossly inappropriate behavior and Natalie tries to explain to an authority figure that Monk suffers from a condition; the best she's ever able to come up with is "he's... persnickity".
Snub by Omission: In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", the eponymous astronaut pointedly leaves Monk out when saying anyone could be a hero.
Sock It To Them: In one episode, a guy does this to himself. He ties the sock weapon to a ceiling fan so as to give himself contusions and frame another man.
Someone to Remember Him By: Inverted. In the final episode, Monk finds out that Trudy, some years before they met, had had an affair and a child by her old law professor. Trudy was led to believe that the child died at birth, but after her murder was solved, Monk found out that her daughter, Molly, lived after all and had been adopted. He sought her out and began a friendship with her.
The final season has him working though some of his problems.
An episode at the beginning of the final season had him make a friend who's wife died in the cold open and was not evil or manipulating. However, he wasn't from around there, so...
This friend was literally put on a bus at the end, too.
In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Office", his coworkers at the office he was working at while undercover liked him and seemed to be forming a friendship, but of course after the crime was solved he had to go back to his regular job. Making it worse, Monk had ruined his relationship with them due to not wearing proper shoes at a bowling game.
One episode lampshaded it by having him convinced that the elderly woman who had become a mother figure to him had to have been in on the murder, because everyone else who had become his friend in the past ended up betraying him. Things got awkward when he found out that she really was innocent, right after cruelly berating her.
In "Mr. Monk and the Badge", Monk quits the force after having been back on it for only a few days, finding consulting to be more of his thing.
Monk had sparked a possible romance with a woman who is arrested for murdering an escaped war criminal. She had taken the rap for the real killer, her mother.
Strange Minds Think Alike: In one episode, nearly everyone independently comes up with the idea that Monk is an alien.
Subverted in "Mr. Monk and the Earthquake", wherein the episode goes through all the usual bells and whistles of the summation formula (black and white flashbacks, dramatic camera shots, etc), as if totally oblivious to the fact that the voiceover supplied by an unusually-addled Monk is pure gibberish.
Played with in "Mr. Monk And The Garbage Strike", where a sleep-deprived Monk has been driven crazy by the titular garbage strike and becomes convinced that the crime in question was actually committed by Alice Cooper because he wanted the victim's antique chair for himself (complete with Alice Cooper himselfgunning down the victim and leering evilly over the chair during the summation).
Subverted in "Mr. Monk gets Hypnotized". In the episode, Monk was hypnotized into thinking he was a 6-year-old again. When he went to the crime scene, the victim was naked, and Monk began his summation. He started the whole thing totally seriously, and then claimed that the man died of embarrassment.
When attempting to give the summation to Stottlemeyer in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", he has a very hard time attempting to do so and be heard because Novillero is currently playing "The Laissez Faire System" at max volume.
One episode had Monk and Disher giving simultaneous summations about two different topics while they were being shot at.
Played for laughs in the episode where Sharona returns when she impatiently forces him into the suspect's closet to give the summation. Unfortunately, the killer hears every word.
Played rather awesomely in "Mr. Monk and The Rapper": Monk declares that music producer Denny Hodges is a murderer, but since he's doing this at Denny's party, the partygoers won't let him finish the summation, so Snoop Dogg gets up on stage and raps the summmation.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Out goes Sharona, in comes Natalie. The fandom has long been locked in a battle over which one is better.
Also, Héctor Elizondo replaced Stanley Kamel (Dr. Kroger) after his death.
But it works better here because things like Natalie being similar to Sharona down to having a kid the same age can be explained by Monk trying to make things stay the same when life changes around him.
Several international police officers in different countries (such as Mexico and France in the TV series) that have a murder solved by Monk have a duo who acts very similarly to Stottlemeyer and Disher.
The Butler Did It: Inverted! The butler gets killed in "Mr. Monk is at Your Service."
The So-Called Coward: Monk is terrified of 312 specifically named, listed, and ordered things. In spite of constantly encountering them, he always gets his man. And he never gets over his fear.
Truth in Television: In "Mr Monk Meets The Red Headed Stranger" Monk is invited into Willie Nelson's tour bus and immediately asks "Do you smell that?" Willie answers "No, and neither do you." alluding to his well known fondness for pot. In 2006 and again in 2010 marijuana had been found and confiscated off his bus.
Unusual Euphemism: "BM" for "shit" and "haul bottom" for "haul ass".
Very Special Episode: Parodied in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man", but arguably does a better job of preaching tolerance than serious uses of the trope.
Also in the episode "Mr. Monk makes a friend" about Friendship. A guy who makes friends with Monk and puts up with all his quirks and phobias. He also points out while Monk considers Natalie, Stoddlemeyer and Disher friends, the guy tells them off in a "You Suck" speech to the three of them about how they just use Monk in a one sided manner. Turns out he was the murderer they suspected earlier and Monk desperatly wants him not to be the killer even when he threatens to kill Monk. Natalie, Stoddlemeyer and Disher save the day and Monk learns they really are his friends.
Viewers Are Morons: In "Mr. Monk Takes The Stand", the villain brags about how he can't be tried again because he was found not guilty. With no prompting, Stottlemeyer says it's right and says it's called double jeopardy. The only people for him to be talking to are an ex-police detective and his assistant (who, if she didn't know, would have come up many seasons ago the first time the bad guy is acquitted on one murder and found guilty on another). This bit can only be explained as the writers of that episode being unable to count on their audience to know about it before hand. Likely for the benefit of non-US audiences
Wanting Is Better Than Having: Getting back on the police force was one of Monk's goals since the start of the show. When he finally accomplished it late in the final season, he discovered that he actually preferred the independence of being an outside consultant.
We Want Our OCD Detective Back: In the episode "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine", Monk ends up taking a type of medication where all of his regular quirks are being suppressed and he can live a (relatively) normal life after an incident where he was forced to let a criminal get away due to his hands being soiled. It works too well, and he ends up becoming similar to one of those jerkish college frat-boys, with Sharona and the SFPD wanting the Monk they know to be there. Eventually, Monk manages to give up on that medication when it became apparent that he'd have to choose between the medicine and his memories of Trudy.
Lee Goldberg brings the drug back in some of the novels, as the only way Monk can manage to make an airline flight. In MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY, at one point Natalie observes that this will keep him from solving the murder. He replies that he has already solved it, and just needs to find the evidence— indeed, it turns out that in his normal state he would not have been ABLE to handle the evidence.
Wild Teen Party: In the episode "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert." Monk, Natalie, and Captain Stottlemeyer go over to a Rock Festival to locate Max Stottlemeyer after he skipped school, and the only reason why Monk went along is because he mistook "Rock Festival" to mean a Geology exhibit. While waiting outside due to being horrified at learning what he actually agreed to go to, two couples were making out on Stottlemeyer's car, with Monk attempting to tell them to stop, ending in failure.
Inverted with the episode "Mr. Monk is the Best Man.", Because Stottlemeyer let Monk plan his bachelor party (which proved to be a very big mistake), it was barely even a party, and most certainly wasn't wild (for starters, Monk placed a portapotty within the bathroom, Monk ordered pizza with literally nothing on it, not even cheese or sauce, he only got 12 ounce beers for each partygoer [12 party members, amounting to 144 oz of alcohol total], Monk told some jokes that just didn't go well, and he showed them Bachelor Party as their movie, of which the movie was implied to not be a popular choice among the cops. The closest it ever got to being a wild teen party was when the Captain's car was on fire, and it wasn't even the partygoers responsible for it, but the criminal of the week).
Will They or Won't They?: Randy Disher and Sharona Fleming. Teased throughout all of Bitty Schram's run with the show, seemingly dropped after she left, then confirmed that they will as of the series finale.
Who Would Want to Watch Us?: "Mr. Monk and the TV Star," where the perp is the star of a detective show; his Loony Fan Marci subsequently defects to Monk:
Marci: You are the greatest detective in the world! You are the greatest detective in the universe! You should have your own show!
This is made even greater by the fact that she immediately announces he should "never change his theme song" (a complaint she used against the previous actor she was obsessed with). Monk had just changed its theme song to one that fans didn't quite like as much and they played the old theme song over the end credits as a shout-out.
Writers Cannot Do Math: The timeline of certain past events revealed in the finale makes no sense and contradicts facts established previously in the series.
You Can't Go Home Again: In Mr. Monk and the Badge Monk realizes his goal of being reinstated in the SFPD, only to find that nothing about policing was familiar to him anymore and the episode end with him retiring from the force.
"You Never Did That For Me": In the episode where Sharona and Natalie meet, Natalie finds out that Monk paid Sharona a lot more than he paid her. Thus she complains that Monk never paid her that much.
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