More on Monk
In his obsession for order, he notices every stray bit of disorder
Sunday, December 29, 2002
They keep changing things!
Last night I was engrossed with a Sim family, a computer simulation game that some poor fool gave my daughter for Christmas, and I hardly heard her when she called out that Hack was on tv. It had not been on Friday night at its regular time. I did watch Monk this week, however - the Airplane episode.
The Airplane episode is different from other Monk episodes, in the following ways:
a. Monk's mental illness is shown as far more destructive than usual to him and others (he had a stewardess at her wits end from repeatedly summoning her by ringing the help buzzer). Usually he is in quirks mode, harmlessly touching fence posts as he passes and wiping his hands off.
b. The Lieutanant reacts to Monk's phone calls about the possibility of a woman having been murdered inthe Airport with utter seriousness instead of writing him off as a freak. He accepts Monk's idea to the extent of having freshly laid concrete dug up on no actual evidence of a crime at all. Usually he is dismissive of Monk's perceptions and it is Capt. Stottlemeyer who credits them and follows up.
c. Monk is clearly shown to be distracted from his craziness by having a mystery to solve. This is similar to the situation of Sherlock Holmes, where he was fine if his mind was racing on a puzzle to solve, but between cases needed to dose himself with cocaine in order to feel alive. I wonder if the notion that one can be distracted from madness (activity as a drug) is validated by any psychiatric literature? I suspect there could be some validity it in, and wonder if it has evern been tested.
d. One of the secondary characters, Mr. Beech the extension cord salesman, seems fully to recognize Monk's madness, yet unlike most people, is mostly not put off by it, does not fear or avoid him. He chuckles as if the madness were merely quirkiness and Monk just another human being like many he has dealt with on the road before. Mr Beech is Buddha-like in living in the moment and in his acceptance of others as they are. An admirable character; although the writer seems to have tried to draw him as a 2-dimensional cartoon character, the stereotypical single-minded salesman, Mr. Beech becomes drawn into Monk's project and willingly assists him in his research.
Friday, December 13, 2002
Psychodrama
Tonight, it's Mr Monk and the Psychic at 10:30. Kinda late, that hour -- a bit late for me, anyway.
I may invite friends over to watch Hack instead.
Hack is a disgraced cop driving a cab and doing penance and being awfully human. Read about the actor who plays Hack: David Morse
OH no!! I just read online that Hack is being preempted tonight by a Christmas thing, Robbie the Reindeer
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
[sigh]
No Monk last week ................
