TV-Reviewed

My hat goes off to the Monk crew for creating another strong episode. Two in a row! I couldn’t help but consciously take note of how good the last two episodes have been. These haven’t been your average episodes of Monk. Everything has been done really well lately.

The episode started off with an overweight kid playing baseball. He wasn’t having any success at bat and when it came down to his last swing, he crushed the ball over the right field fence, killing an elderly woman who was power walking. I’d feel really bad about that if I were the hitter.

The case got really strange when the deceased woman’s kids stopped by to take care of a few things at her home and they found a voodoo doll with the woman’s name on it and a baseball attached to the side of her head. It indicated someone put some sort of curse on her and it worked.

Meat Loaf as Reverend Jorgenson, Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk

Before long three people were dead in related voodoo doll incidents and Natalie was absolutely freaking out the entire time because of an incident when her late husband Mitch was around. She was told by some high priestess who lived nearby that Mitch was in danger. Instead of warning him, Natalie kept the warning to herself and the next day Mitch’s plane was shot down.

I’m glad Mitch got another mention on the show, but one of the things I’d like to see is Natalie move on. Find someone to spend time with. She’s a single mom who deserves to be treated like a woman. I’d like to see the writers find her a boyfriend by the end of the series. They don’t have long to work it out.

Natalie’s fears of the voodoo dolls hit an all-time high when she was the fourth recipient. Her doll showed her literally losing her head. This made for a terrible night of sleep when all she could do is stare at the ceiling fan above her bed in fear of it cutting her head off.

There were some genuinely dramatic moments amongst some of the humorous bits. The identity of the person behind the dolls wasn’t surprising; I just didn’t figure out the why before Monk did.

If there was one big disappointment, it would have to be Meat Loaf’s role as Reverend Jorgenson. He looked much more interesting in the commercials for the episode than in the episode itself.

Rating: 8.3