We finally got around to watching this week’s new episode last night (which was the last repeat showing of the week) – didn’t get a chance to tape it Friday night, and had storms and thus a bad satellite signal the other times. Like a moron I didn’t toss a tape in while we watched it, as usual. So of course the phone rang right as Monk figured out how they were cheating, and like another moron I answered the phone. By the time I got my friend off the line, we had missed it.
Mr. S thought it was something with the blinking applause light, but the Monk web site says it was something about the question cards. I didn’t notice any funny business, and I don’t have a tape to go back to. Have mercy on me, please!
(Yeah, the plots have been getting flimsy, but they were always straight out of Encyclopedia Brown to begin with. We just like the characters and we’re big Tony Shalhoub fans. )
It took me a while to figure out what was going on with that, too. The applause light would flash on and off when the audience was supposed to clap, and Monk would only clap while it was lit (just for those few seconds) because of his OCD. He didn’t pick up on the holding-the-cards-by-the-corners thing while in the audience because he was so distracted by the blinking light.
I only came in when the show was half-over: Who was the character played by Bob Gunton (the show producer, I think) supposed to be–Monk’s former father-in-law?
While we’re on the subject, I missed the first few minutes of the opening segment. What was on the videotape that the assistant was threatening to turn over? I assumed it had to do with the cheating, but the cheating didn’t start until after the assistant was killed. Was there something else going on too?
I saw the opening segment, and I still didn’t get it. I assumed he was cheating with the same guy, until the end of the show, when it was explained that the guy cooked up the scheme after the assistant’s death. Hope somebody can explain that.
And apropos of nothing, is anyone else tired of the old “cut the brake line” murder plot? Why don’t cars on t.v. ever have emergency brakes? Besides, the FIRST thing the police would have done was to figure out the cause of the accident. They would have seen a cut brake-line, figured out where the car had been parked and who had been there at the time, found the wire-cutters, taken prints off them, and nabbed the guy right then and there. Monk makes a comment about how they “wouldn’t have investigated it as a murder”, but they still would have investigated the cause of the accident. Hmmm…brake pedal goes to floor - clean cut on brake line…
Yeah, I found that very confusing, too. My assumption is that he had been cheating with another contestant for money, the assistant found out and was going to whistle-blow, he killed her, but then the other guy discovered it and blackmailed him into being another winning contestant on the show. However, that’s all supposition, I don’t think they explained it.
You are correct, his assistant caught him cheating and revealed it to the guy who found her. That guy then blackmailed the game show host to help him defraud the show. :eek:
But then why would the second cheater have to get together with the game show host to work out a system? (They made a big deal about how the host had left his pencil at the cheater’s home, and Monk guessed that they had gotten together to devise a system.) If the host had previously been cheating with someone else, he presumably would have figured out a system already. I’m guessing the writers just didn’t think that part was crucial to the plot, so they just didn’t bother much with it.
I just started watching Monk, and wondered if the plot lines are sometimes a bit loose.
The episode where his assistant/therapist was being stalked by the bloody guy was hard to believe. How did the bloody guy know she was going to be in those places? Especially when he was hanging in that bathroom. Even if he knew she was going to be in that building, there’s no way he’d have time to set up and leave so quickly, without being seen.
My 2 cents - love the show, but man this has to be the show with the shortest seasons in tv history. What…8 episodes and they call it a day? Now we wait another year for another 8 episodes?
Gee…must be rough to work two months out of the year…
I hope it’s not too much of a hijack to say that the season finale looks pretty funny - entitled Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine, which must mean his shrink is trying to treat him with prozac or another similar drug. The trailers looked like a crackup.
I think there is a problem with the method used to cheat. The host has to pick up the card in order to send the signal. But how does he know the question and correct answer before he picks up the card? DId he look them all over before the show? (unlikly) Or did he pick up the card , determine the answer and then move his hand to the correct answer to give the signal? (not what was depicted)
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