More on Monk
In his obsession for order, he notices every stray bit of disorder
Monday, July 14, 2003
Hy Conrad
I have figured out what it is about Hy Conrad's episodes that troubles me. He's too facile. Take a plot - any plot-- and plop into it the stock characters from Monk. Add a couple of Monkish mannerisms -- make them extreme so the less subtle in the audience can't fail to notice -- and stir. What do you get?
Mysteries dumbed down for kids. Check out this list of credits for Mr. Conrad (he of Minute Mystery fame)
It looks as if the producers have decided this is going to be a kids show. Over at Mystery.net, on the kids/young adults page, you see a list of Puzzles, games and mystery stories for kids and teenagers to pit their wits as they figure out whodunit, including a link to Detective Club Puzzlers by Hy Conrad .
On the same page is a big USA network ad for the Monk series.
It's too bad they have to dumb it down. If their research showed that a lot of kids were watching it, why not suppose the kids in the audience are as bright as the adults?
Well, I'm going to wander on over to the USANetwork bulletin board discussion and see what the original fans of this show think of th changes. I alread kknow they dont like Randy Newman's theme song, and yearn for the Season I title them by Jeff Beal
Saturday, July 12, 2003
New episodes
Here's what's coming up this week:
Mon, Jul 14 8:00 PM MR. MONK GOES TO THE BALLGAME
Thu, Jul 17 9:00 PM 12 MONKEYS
The Ballgame episode also aired Friday at 10 p.m., so I have watched it already. I may watch it again Monday, as there are a couple of points I want tosatisfy myself about before making any comments.
In a recent entry, I wondered aloud why it took them so long to come up with new episodes. I guess the reason is that they couldnt get good writers. Now we have the one-minute mystery man, Hy Conrad popping out plots as fast as a cat pops kittens.
The 1-minute mystery has been done before. See Ellery Queen
Hy Conrad is all over the net posting his mystery plots. See Mystery.net (loosely based on the PBS series "Mystery!")
