Monk

[vakkotaur]

During our Christmas travels, jmaynard read one of the Monk books, based on the TV show, and then I did. I've also been watching Monk on the USA network when on the treadmill. While reading the books I wondered how much I'd like the TV show. Would the stuff that seemed funny to hear about or be skipped over be annoying to see on TV? Last night I got the answer: Yes.

Last night I watched Monk and overall it was fairly good for a TV show. But the dwelling on Adrian Monk's foibles got to be grating to the point I used the mute button for quite a bit of the show. Some of the commercials managed to be less annoying. That particular show might have been something of an extreme case as it involved Monk having been shot and how miserable he acts and makes others afterward.

One thing did strike me while reading the books. Monk has this thing about even numbers. He takes issue with the movie The 39 Steps for not going to 40. He dislikes a baker's dozen of things as 13 is odd. Yet his favorite cleaner is Formula 409. That seems a bit strange. Perhaps that's been addressed, but I'm coming in late on things so haven't seen that.

Comments

[thepita.livejournal.com]

Monk, I like it most of the time but i do find myself getting irritated with him usually by the end of the show....I watched the one you saw just this morning...
I think they have a continuity problem with his phobias cause there are so many of them nobody can keep track...especially probably the show writers..
they are going for the overkill....
he was married at one point,wife was killed in a car bomb, and i can't imagine how sex would have been...lots of wipes involved i imagine..LOL...

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

The book, at least, explains things as Monk's OCD didn't really take hold until his wife was killed.

[viergacht.livejournal.com]

That's one of those things where I don't real OCD very amusing, I doubt I could stand a whole show about it. Similar feelings toward that "United States of Tara" shit upcoming. I don't evene believe multiple personality disorder exists, much less that it'll be funny.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that I don't often laugh while watching the show. I'm watching for the mystery aspect and to see how it is solved. I laughed a lot while reading the books as Natalie's (the books are from Monk's assistant's point of view) descriptions of things can be quite amusing - and not just what Monk goes through or puts people through.

I did wonder, reading the books, just how the show could work at all if Monk had every issue portrayed. Watching the show, the answer is that he doesn't have all those issues, or at least not all at once. It's whichever one or set that the writer thinks works in a particular show.

[viergacht.livejournal.com]

I used to watch House because of the mystery aspect, but then the show got into all this rather creepy romance and other stuff and the medical mystery aspect was tamped down and facts were twisted, which seemed a bit unfair. Why would I want to watch a medical mystery show when the actual medicine wasn't accurate?

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I think I must be watching some of the earlier seasons of House (What is it about one-word titles that are nouns for things unrelated to the show?) so far. I had a similar issue with CSI. Granted, CSI was too far into fiction to be truly believed (Fur and Loathing anyone? The question that brought up was: If they managed to get a furcon that amazingly wrong, how badly are they screwing up/over everything/one else?) even if I can recall some of the stories they try to base things on. Still, it seems when shows run out of ideas for the original concept they fall back to what Hollywood writers know or think they know, the romance. This seems to be where shows "jump the shark."

I expect that when it gets to the point I notice medical inaccuracies I'll have the same reaction. There are likely some, but so far I just haven't noticed them. I expect that time will come soon enough. Meanwhile, I have something to watch during treadmill time.

I did wonder why I was getting into the show, since the central character is, well, an arrogant self-centered jerk. It was for medical mystery, not the arrogant self-centered jerk. I think I didn't seek out the show before as there was that factor and life has enough jerks as it is. But when I happened across a medical mystery, now that is interesting.

[viergacht.livejournal.com]

The CSI furry one made me laugh so freaking hard. They clearly had no idea in hell what they were doing. Costume dept. must have cleaned out every party store in the area. And as soon as I saw that one character (Sexy Kitty?) I thought to myself, "It's going to be an unattractive, middle-aged bald guy in there." and sure enough. It's as predictable as a Noh play. I mean, I'm willing to let their DNA sequencing take place much faster than in RL for dramatic reasons, but some of the shortcuts are absurd. My favorite was a one-click photoshop button that magically made a blurry video image perfectly clear. Hah! However, I was astonished when they did an episode with a suspect who was a high functioning autistic and it was eerily correct. They get a pass for that.

House is good in the first couple of seasons. Hell, I even wrote fanfic for it. It jumped the shark pretty quickly, sad enough.

[foolscap001.livejournal.com]

That episode is an extreme case, I think.

Billie and I watch and enjoy Monk (curiously, there's a blogger named Adrian Monck). From various episodes I've seen, Monk's OCD greatly intensified after Trudy's death but was present before.