CORRIDOR of MYSTERY

Ron Miller's  DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 4, No. 21

DONNA J. PLESH  The Talented Mr. Monk "MONK" plays Fridays from 10-11 p.m. on the USA netework

Tony Shaloub as Mr. Monk, wrestles with his latest phobic crisis while Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) seeks to comfort and reassure him all will be all right.

A detective who's fussier
than Hercule Poirot? Egad!

By DONNA J. PLESH
of TheColumnists.com

The hands were the first thing I noticed about him. He often looks as if he doesn't know what to do with them--other than to keep them from contact with another human being or anything that might get them dirty...or, even worse, expose him to germs. He keeps rubbing those hands together, fidgeting with his fingers. Then there are his eyes. Darting, downcast, soulful. Not wanting to make eye contact with you--at least for not more than a split second. This is Adrian Monk--a former cop, now a consultant to the San Francisco Police Department, as portrayed by Tony Shalhoub, who's back on the case for a second season of USA Network's Friday night series. "Monk." Light years away from the forensic snoops on the "CSI" programs or the by-the-book boys of the "Law & Order" franchises, Adrian Monk helps solve crimes despite his personal hangups--which are many. He's obsessive-compulsive, a man who cannot live without moist towelettes at the ready because, after all, there are germs everywhere. Moreover, he can't handle heights and prefers to stay as close to home as possible. In short, he's a quirky mess. Monk's not the first quirky fictional detective out there. Another one with an aversion to dirt, germs and the rest is Agatha Christie's Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot  He was always impeccably turned out, be it in central London or central Egypt. Remember, in Poirot's era, men and women wore gloves as fashion accessories. In the era before moist towelettes, gloves also served to keep dirt away from the vain and appearance-conscious Poirot.  In the cases Monk handles, it's not the crimes themselves that are the story, but how Monk solves them, in spite of all his neuroses. In the season premiere--USA splits the "Monk" season into two parts, with new episodes running first in summer, then again in winter--a married science teacher is having an affair with a fellow teacher. When she pushes him to leave his wife, something he has no intention of doing, he decides to do away with her in an ingenious way: She falls to her death from a campus bell tower, an apparent suicide, to all but Monk. Why, he asks, were her shoes placed here, instead of there, and why was her suicide note printed, not handwritten (as they usually are)? And wouldn't an English teacher use better grammar in her final letter? The science teacher was in a classroom, monitoring a test, so he couldn't be a suspect, could he?  Still, it doesn't take Monk long to conclude the science teacher is the murderer. But to prove how he did it, Monk has to work within his own limitations, facing up to germs, crowds and heights.  Adrian Monk is often seen covering his face to keep from inhaling germs.   Monk is the way he is because of the trauma he suffered after his beloved wife, Trudy, was killed in an unexplained car bombing. At the time, Monk was a brilliant police detective, but his wife¹s death threw him into a mental tailspin, leaving him as the phobia-doninated man we see today.  He wants to regain his job on the force--despite his numerous hangups--and hopefully find his wife's murderer--the only culprit who has, so far, eluded him. Monk's right hand woman in crime-solving is his nurse/assistant Sharona Fleming (played by Bitty Schram). She's always there with a moist towelette when he needs one--and a little mouthy muscle when someone decides to pick on poor Monk. One of the more interesting things about "Monk" is that it  got on the air at all. ABC had the show in development for several years, finally giving up on it. USA picked it up--and last summer it became a cult hit. That's when ABC re-entered the picture, running repeats of the episodes after they aired on the USA cable network. Tony Shaloub is best remembered for his long-running supporting role (1991-97) as cab driver Antonio Scarpacci on the NBC sitcom "Wings." This is his first leading role in a weekly series. "Monk" is one of those shows you just have to watch to fully appreciate.  It's not a regular cop show. It's not a comedy either, but some of the things that happen certainly are funny (Example: Monk compulsively levelling off the coffee in two carafes. The fact that one is decaf and the other regular makes no difference to him). Yes, Monk has habits that are strange--the germ thing, avoiding cracks when walking on a sidewalk, and so on. Just reading about it, it might not sound like a show you want to watch. But try it. Just once. And I bet you get hooked. ©2003 by Donna J. Plesh. The photos from "Monk" are courtesy of the USA cable network.

DONNA J. PLESH is a veteran television critic, formerly on the staff of the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, California. She specializes in mystery programs and is now a regular contributor to Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS.

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