I love Monk, but it seems a little incoherent for me that after all this time, Stottlemeyer sometimes (the most of times) doesn’t give a penny for his advisor’s deductions and/or predictions. I see an exaggeration here.
In the early years, that incredulity would have been ok, but for God’s sake, now having stated by capt. himself: “there is only one Adrian Monk”, it’s time to believe every word Monk said, no matter how weird and improbably it sounds!
Aren’t writers abusing of their own dramatization?
I don’t think so. It’s not just the weirdness that Monk notices, it’s how he notices them and how something as simple as, I dunno, some messed up curtains can bring down a criminal mastermind. Monk is also a pain in the ass to work with, if you haven’t noticed, so that grates on Stottlemeyer’s nerves. The case is usually laid out so that the conclusion the regular detectives draw is sensible, easy, and doesn’t require doing all kinds of ridiculous things to placate Monk’s problems.
Yes, but Capt. Stottlemeyer (inside the Monk universe) may be a little jealous of Monk’s ability to solve cases. That may primarily be his disbelief. Perhaps he’s secretly longing to solve cases as his pain in the ass (and of course, longing for Monk’s failure). No, not perhaps. In the Time Capsule episode, Stottlemeyer reveal this desire. Closer, but Monk is still Monk. Sharona can’t stand Monk either, but evidently she loves him. And she always tends to believe him, too.
So I think the Stottlemeyer’s jealousy thing can save the writers to be exaggerating, outside the Monk universe.
From the episodes I’ve seen, Monk comes up with the obvious and blinding (to him) realization that only so-and-so could have committed the crime. The way the plots have been set up, so-and-so has what should be an air-tight alibi (he was in a coma, she had her foot crushed by an elephant, etc.)
Stottlemeyer, being a by-the-book sort, knows that he can’t go to the prosecutors with nothing more than Monk’s insight. Can you imagine Monk on the witness stand without any corroborating evidence? He doesn’t so much dismiss Monk as demand further evidence. That leaves the second half of the program for Monk to back track and find the fatal flaw in the alibi.
I can remember at least two epsiodes where Stottlemeyer put his credibility on the line by backing Monk, while he could only explain to others that “we’re still working on that.”
I don’t think it’s cheap, exploitative writing. Columbo did the same thing for years and was hailed as a masterfully plotted detective show. Only difference was, Columbo didn’t need Stottlemeyer to remind him that the case had to hold up in court.
I don’t think Sharonna loves Monk, although she does feel protective toward him (remember, she was called in to nurse him after his wife died). I think Sharonna is highly intelligent, but has never had a chance to use it. Over the two seasons, I think she’s gradually discovered her own smarts by watching Monk and realizes that despite his being a pain in the ass, she’ll never have another job that is this intellectually stimulating.
Well, considering he used to keep women captive in his basement then harvest their skin in order to wear it, it’s no wonder he has some issues with crimefighting…
(Ted Levine (Stottlemeyer) played the killer, Buffalo Bill, in Silence of the Lambs)
I think it’s a little more complicated. Stottlemeyer does believe Monk’s hunches, usually. And in this last season, he’s been seen to go out of his way to if nothing else humor Monk (most notably by staying at his place so he “didn’t hurt Monk’s feelings” in the time capsule episode). But, as kunilou says, Stottlemeyer won’t or can’t accept Monk’s hunches without proof.
The better question is “Why doesn’t Stottlemeyer try harder to prove Monk right, if he thinks Monk is onto something?” Of course, the writers know that it’s more interesting to watch Monk bumbling around trying to solve a case. But it also wouldn’t make sense for Stottlemeyer to be able to make the same leaps of logic that Monk does–otherwise, Monk’s character loses some of its uniqueness.
As for the relationship between Sharona and Monk, Bitty Schram said in an interview a while back that Sharona puts up with Monk because the alternative taking care of patients in an institution. Also, remember how, during the first season, Monk was often saving Sharona from the “bad date-of-the-week club”? There have to be some advantages to being around someone as perceptive as Monk, sort of like that one crazy friend everybody’s got.
Similarly, every police captain is a mere obstructionist to the caring but unconventional detective in his squad who plays by his own rules and always gets his man.
I would like to live in the Monk universe. A world in which an anal-retentive nebbish with no fashion sense and no apparent income (do we have any indication that he charges for his services?) is able to hire a smart and bootylicious babe to be his constant companion is aces with me.
Re Stottlemeyer, I like the character. I think he’s more complex than he needs to be, given the purely functional role he serves in the storylines. He has faith in Monk, but he still has a job to do; sometimes he comes down on one side of the line, sometimes on the other. Works for me.
I was bitterly disappointed in the episode where Monk wound up umpiring her son’s baseball game that somewhere in there Bitty didn’t get the chance to yell “There’s no crying in baseball!”
Yes, Sharona is in charge of the payment that Monk charges the Police Dept. He is a consultant. In one episode she actually tried to get a raise for his consultant work, but much hilarity ensued as Monk and the Police were unavailable for her tactics. Plus Monk used to be a detective and he is currently on disability leave (remember all the times he tries to get hired back as a detective) so I assume he has a disability pension.
deb “The Monk Fan watches it every week seen most episodes at least once but probably twice” 2world
Certainly, I like Stottlemeyer character, too (I never said to hate him). On the other hand, I did hated J. J. Jameson.
Btw, kunilou, I do think Sharona and Monk have a very subtle, unconfessed, romantic relationship. Or at least a mutual atraction, being so opposite. The episode of the Psychic gave a clue at the end, and the Circus one showed a legitimate lover’s fight. In that aspect, writers are doing it very cleverly.
Warning: I haven’t seen all episodes in season two (only four of them), so please don’t spoil it or use spoiler tags instead. I live in Mexico and there’s delay of several weeks in airing.