TV-Reviewed

My expectations are exceptionally high for this, the seventh and final season of Monk. I’ve been waiting and waiting for a resolution to Trudy’s murder case and we’ve not even come close to seeing that happen. Then there was the very sad news of the passing of Stanley Kamel, the loving Dr. Charles Kroger, Adrian Monk’s therapist. How Adrian would take to a new therapist was something I’ve been looking forward to since Kamel’s passing.

The episode gets right into a problem of Adrian’s, a noisy neighbor. A young girl has been playing music on her piano and it’s bugging Adrian. While on a murder case, he ends up buying the house that the man was died in. I really couldn’t believe Randy didn’t help convince Monk not to buy it. Leland tried, but Randy just stood in the background as usual, serving very little purpose.

Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk; Ted Levine as Captain Leland Stottlemeyer; Traylor Howard as Natalie; Jason Gray-Stanford as Lt. Randall Disher

It didn’t seem like that big of a stretch for Leland to assume the deceased homeowner had something to do with a heist from a few decades ago. I didn’t think that this case was particularly hard to solve. But I guess I never quite understood how Adrian was able to make every little connection. I’m usually able to figure it all out along with him, but as I watched him, I didn’t think he had quite enough to go on.

This episode served one purpose and one purpose only, and that was to introduce Adrian’s new therapist, played by veteran actor Hector Elizondo.

The mystery wasn’t particularly great and then watching guest star Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) destroy Adrian’s new home wasn’t very fun to watch. It was actually difficult to watch, quite frankly. The only highlights were the therapist sessions. Everything else was mediocre. I hope we’ll see something better next week.

Rating: 5.8

Download Monk’s season premiere, “Mr. Monk Buys a House”.