TV-Reviewed

After taking a week off, Monk returned with an all-new episode this Friday and I have to say that I loved it. It was one of my favorite episodes in the entire eight season series. Not only did the writers include a lot of comedy, but there was an important breakthrough for Adrian Monk.

The episode started with a bit of a bombshell: Adrian’s HMO was putting a cap on the number of private therapy sessions he is able to attend before they stop paying. With merely one ‘free’ therapy session left, Adrian dropped the news on Dr. Bell and proceeded to freak out. He made a list of several phobias he needed to get over in this one session, putting Dr. Bell in an uncomfortable position. Therapy takes time and there was no way Adrian was going to have a series of major breakthroughs in a single session.

Monk reluctantly agrees to join therapy after finding out how much Dr. Bell would charge him for single sessions. During the session, Adrian meets Rhonda and Augie, but is then disappointed to realize that his nemesis, Harold Crenshaw, is there as well.

Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, Hector Elizondo as Dr. Neven Bell, Tim Bagley as Harold Krenshaw

I love the history between Adrian and Harold. They can both be so petty sometimes! Adrian’s first group meeting doesn’t go so well because of the tension between he and Harold.

As time passes, we find out that Augie and a fourth member of the group wind up dead, Adrian realizes someone is killing off his therapy group. He kind of gets a kick out of that idea because he knows Harold will be dead eventually. This is a sick side of Adrian, but I couldn’t help but laugh at it at the same time.

The person behind the killings wasn’t a surprise. It was obvious that Xavier Danko, one of the therapy group’s former members, was behind the murders. Even though I knew who the guy was and why, I still enjoyed the rest of the episode. This is admittedly rare for me because figuring out ‘who’ and ‘why’ early on, I find myself being disappointed with the whole setup.

Not this time. The writers were very smart when they paired up Adrian and Harold in the end. They were both captured by Xavier and were forced to confront their fears of enclosed spaces. Under diress, Adrian realized he and Harold were looking at this from the wrong point of view. Instead of being afraid, they should be happy because the door (or trunk in this case) is keeping them safe from the other things that scare them… spiders, germs, dirt, etc.

I just loved the pairing up of Adrian and Harold. They can do a lot of good together as friends. I’m hoping Harold will make a few more appearances before the show wraps up later this season.

Rating: 9.3