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tahnanI know no one cares, but...
The first few times I saw Monk, I kind of liked it. If you've never seen it, Tony Shalhoub plays Adrian Monk, an obsessive-compulsive detective. As in, literally obsessive-compulsive; he sees a psychologist, he straightens off-kilter pictures at a crime scene, he's immensely scared of germs, that sort of thing. It's not an utterly brilliant detective show, but what it lacks in quality of mystery, it makes up in the hapless charm of the main character, who wants so much to fit into society but can't shake hands with people without using a sanitizing wipe afterwards.
But I just watched "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine". Premise of the episode: Monk is feeling worse than usual. His psychologist takes a bottle of pills out of his drawer and says "I think you should try these." Monk takes a dose that night and, the next day, visits the captain in the hospital, takes a bite out of his half-eaten sandwich, and within a few scenes is wearing Hawaiian shirts and calling himself "the Monk". Naturally he alienates everyone, who misses the old Monk, and he eventually realizes what he's done, doesn't take his pills that night and shows up at the crime scene the next day back to normal.
I was already not entirely thrilled with the episode when the psychologist just handed him a bottle of pills and said "take these". I mean, come on. But the idea that psychoactive drugs will entirely flip your personality, literally overnight? That's not medicine, that's a cursed magic item.
I suspend a fair amount of disbelief when I watch TV. (I watched "24" for a couple of seasons, after all. I was even willing to believe that Kim was smart enough to have lived until she was 18, when the series started.) But that was over the line. And this was a show, after all, about a man who did his best to get by in society in spite of what was literally a mental illness (a somewhat endearing one, admittedly, but even so). Message of the show, perhaps: "people with mental illnesses are people too". Message of the episode: "psychoactive drugs entirely change your personality overnight". That's not a positive message about mental illness. Of course, TV is about entertainment, not social messages; except that this show had something of a social message, and this episode wasn't entertaining.
Alas, poor Monk. Maybe I'll just go watch Shalhoub in Galaxy Quest again.
The first few times I saw Monk, I kind of liked it. If you've never seen it, Tony Shalhoub plays Adrian Monk, an obsessive-compulsive detective. As in, literally obsessive-compulsive; he sees a psychologist, he straightens off-kilter pictures at a crime scene, he's immensely scared of germs, that sort of thing. It's not an utterly brilliant detective show, but what it lacks in quality of mystery, it makes up in the hapless charm of the main character, who wants so much to fit into society but can't shake hands with people without using a sanitizing wipe afterwards.
But I just watched "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine". Premise of the episode: Monk is feeling worse than usual. His psychologist takes a bottle of pills out of his drawer and says "I think you should try these." Monk takes a dose that night and, the next day, visits the captain in the hospital, takes a bite out of his half-eaten sandwich, and within a few scenes is wearing Hawaiian shirts and calling himself "the Monk". Naturally he alienates everyone, who misses the old Monk, and he eventually realizes what he's done, doesn't take his pills that night and shows up at the crime scene the next day back to normal.
I was already not entirely thrilled with the episode when the psychologist just handed him a bottle of pills and said "take these". I mean, come on. But the idea that psychoactive drugs will entirely flip your personality, literally overnight? That's not medicine, that's a cursed magic item.
I suspend a fair amount of disbelief when I watch TV. (I watched "24" for a couple of seasons, after all. I was even willing to believe that Kim was smart enough to have lived until she was 18, when the series started.) But that was over the line. And this was a show, after all, about a man who did his best to get by in society in spite of what was literally a mental illness (a somewhat endearing one, admittedly, but even so). Message of the show, perhaps: "people with mental illnesses are people too". Message of the episode: "psychoactive drugs entirely change your personality overnight". That's not a positive message about mental illness. Of course, TV is about entertainment, not social messages; except that this show had something of a social message, and this episode wasn't entertaining.
Alas, poor Monk. Maybe I'll just go watch Shalhoub in Galaxy Quest again.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-23 12:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-23 06:23 am (UTC)I still found it entertaining, though. Somehow I've been able to forgive the show's many faults. I still wish they'd ditch that Randy Newman theme song and go back to the original, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-23 01:26 pm (UTC)Ow. Ow. Ow.
There were so many things wrong with that episode, a shocking and disgusting amount for a show that usually gets so many things right about the character.
It was especially disappointing after the very first moments of the show, when it seemed like they were going to actually deal with Monk's alienation. I do wonder if there was a version in which Monk, spurred by despair and loneliness, deliberately began adapting these uncharactersistic behavior. If so, somebody thought that it'd be a better idea to drop Fred Flintstone's bowling ball on his head.
But if I were to list all of the things that angered me about this episode, I'd never get to sleep.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-25 07:15 am (UTC)Or maybe I just gave the show more credit than it deserved?