‘Monk’ Is Back: See Fans’ Favorite 10 Episodes Before the Peacock Movie
As it turns out, the two-part finale of the USA Network series Monk — titled “Mr. Monk and the End” — was not the end of the story. Tony Shalhoub’s phobia-prone police consultant is returning to TV for Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie.
In the TV movie, which starts streaming on Peacock on Friday, December 8, Adrian Monk reemerges to solve a very personal case involving stepdaughter Molly (Caitlin McGee) as she prepares for her wedding.
“We’re so delighted to have made a movie version of Monk, and we are thrilled that every one of our stars were so enthusiastic about coming back,” creator Andy Breckman, executive producer David Hoberman, and director Randy Zisk said in a statement. “But in coming back, we wanted to do a film that was worthy of our legacy. Mr. Monk’s Last Case is a story that is powerful, emotional, funny, heartwarming, and has something to say about the human condition. And it will be both familiar and surprising.”
The episodes below, meanwhile, are familiar to longtime fans and surprising to first-time viewers. Here are the Monk installments that are currently top-rated on IMDb:
10. Season 6, Episode 16: “Mr. Monk Is on the Run: Part 2”
In the second part of the Season 6 finale, Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) helps Monk fake his death as he works to clear the consultant’s name. On IMDb, one fan reviewer likened the episode to The Fugitive. “We’re all rooting for Monk to get justice and survive being on the run and managing with his [OCD] and not getting his favorite food,” that fan wrote.
9. Season 4, Episode 2: “Mr. Monk Goes Home Again”
As Monk investigates the shooting of an armored car driver on Halloween night, he gets a call from his brother, Ambrose, saying that their long-absent father is coming over. “It was a real treat to see John Turturro as Adrian Monk’s brother,” an IMDb user wrote. “They play beautifully off each other.”
8. Season 6, Episode 15: “Mr. Monk Is on the Run: Part 1”
When the man who killed Monk’s wife, Trudy (Melora Hardin), is murdered himself, the authorities’ suspicions land on our hero. “It is very much a different episode, having more of a crime thriller feel, which gives the episode a darker and more serious vibe … appropriate and perfect for the story,” one fan observed.
7. Season 5, Episode 2: “Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike”
A citywide sanitation strike throws the germ-phobic Monk off his game, which is perhaps why he ID’d rock singer Alice Cooper (guest-starring as himself) as a suspect. “Monk’s reactions to the garbage surrounding him are just uproariously funny time and again,” a fan declared. “One of my favorite episodes. Highly entertaining.”
6. Season 2, Episode 11: “Mr. Monk and the Three Pies”
In an episode that earned Turturro an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, Ambrose offers Monk clues after a woman is killed over a cherry pie won at a town raffle. One IMDb user hailed Turturro’s “powerful, masterful, and, ultimately, heart-breaking, bravura performance.”
5. Season 4, Episode 16: “Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty”
Criminal cases collide when the hand-off of a Colombian drug trafficker happens at the same place where Monk is reluctantly doing his jury duty. “[Monk] ends up being the odd man in the jury room [in] a parody [of] 12 Angry Men,” a viewer wrote on IMDb. “It is wonderful to watch him invade the psyches of the other eleven jurors.”
4. Season 6, Episode 9: “Mr. Monk Is Up All Night”
When Monk is haunted by run-ins with a mysterious woman, he spends one sleepless night wandering the city streets and witnesses a murder that his colleagues aren’t sure actually happened. “Really good, witty, light-hearted episode,” a fan raved. “Classic Monk at its best.”
3. Season 3, Episode 16: “Mr. Monk and the Kid”
In the Season 3 finale, a missing toddler reappears clutching a severed finger, and it’s up to Monk to solve the digit-al crime based on the information the 2-year-old provides. “The way the kid … came into Monk’s life was unexpected and really opened up Monk and his humane side,” an IMDb user wrote. “This episode deserved an Emmy big time”
2. Season 8, Episode 15: “Mr. Monk and the End: Part 1”
In the first part of the series finale, Monk arrives at a crime scene where he first learned about Trudy’s death and — after surviving a poisoning — finds a videotaped confession from his late wife. “I have no clue what’s going to happen next, but I cannot wait for the finale on Friday,” a fan reviewer wrote. “It’s so suspenseful… I literally yelled ‘NO!’ when it said ‘To Be Continued.’”
1. Season 8, Episode 16: “Mr. Monk and the End: Part 2”
At the very end of Monk’s original run, Monk solves his wife’s murder and learns from her videotaped message that she once had a daughter who died after childbirth — and then he learns the daughter is still alive. “We saw a Monk rediscover a reason to live,” said an IMDb user. “So, when the last frame aired, we knew that, although we would not be spectators to new mysteries, we knew that his adventures would continue, and his life would be good.”
Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie, Premiere, Friday, December 8, Peacock
