The new Monk movie is more like Mr. Monk’s Hallmark movie

Adrian Monk has all the time been constant. He’s by no means been a fan of germs, heights, loud noises, crowds, elevators, milk, or loads of different issues. But he is aware of tips on how to resolve a homicide. Monk, the 2000s USA Network procedural centered across the fictional detective performed by Tony Shalhoub, was not as constant; after just a few seasons, the present appeared to reverse-engineer its mysteries from probably the most uncomfortable conditions they may put Monk in for an episode. The high quality of the present suffered for it, however Shalhoub’s compassion and meticulous care all the time tethered the present to one thing.

Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie, the new Peacock particular bringing again Shalhoub, Monk, and a lot of the present’s forged of characters, throws away what little consistency Monk maintained. It’s a decade-plus since he lastly solved his spouse Trudy’s homicide, and post-COVID residing has not been variety to him. With his memoir canceled, Monk can’t afford to pay for his step-daughter Molly’s (Caitlin McGee) marriage ceremony, prompting him to really feel depressed and considering suicide. He delays his plans when he will get roped into fixing one ultimate case on Molly’s behalf, however all through the movie Monk feels damaged, a lot in order that the ghost of Trudy (Melora Hardin) has to step in quite a few occasions to speak him by means of low moments.

Unfortunately, what Mr. Monk’s Last Case is constructed on — the disappointment underpinning Monk’s complete scenario — falters as a result of it doesn’t really feel true. And worse but: The straight-to-streaming movie revival is a obvious imitation of what Monk did higher elsewhere.

The particular suffers from plenty of the normal issues that include this sort of reunion. The central thriller he’s right here to unravel sprawls in a manner the present couldn’t, a casualty of an extended run time and not using a actual spine to bolster it. It’s trapped someplace between concluding Monk’s story (it’s his Last Case) and rebooting it (he bought pulled again in for one final case!). Your mileage might range on the stuff within the movie that performs on the nostalgia such reboots are constructed on: Randy (Jason Gray-Stanford) is nonetheless a goober, and actual followers nonetheless bear in mind his music “project.” Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) is nonetheless brassy and uncertain of Monk’s logic. “It’s a gift. And a curse.”

Photo: Steve Wilkie/Peacock

Image: NBC Universal

But such nostalgia appears to easily retread Monk’s major arc from the present. Notably, this isn’t the primary time Monk has seen Trudy’s ghost. In season 3’s “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine,” Monk is significantly despondent about his limitations and pulls Trudy’s previous pillow out of a plastic bag within the closet and he or she seems, ethereal and brightly lit. The dialog they’ve is a speedrun of every thing Mr. Monk’s Last Case is making an attempt to construct its emotional throughline on: His concern of change (and his concern of “not changing”), how a lot he misses her, how he’s afraid that his life is all the time going to really feel this hopeless.

Over the course of that episode, he tries remedy — which alleviates his anxieties, but in addition turns him into an asshole and a foul detective — and resolves to maintain muddling by means of the remedy plan he was on. These may very well be recurring issues for somebody like Monk, and certainly Shalhoub’s portrayal has a swish, infinite weariness to it. But Mr. Monk’s Last Case feels trite compared to what a 42-minute episode was capable of embody already.

In that third season episode, Trudy’s heavenly presence simply feels a lot more true; Monk wasn’t bringing the actual Trudy in off the spectral airplane, however quite Monk’s creativeness of what Trudy might’ve been there to say to him. Coupled with Shalhoub’s cracking voice and bone-deep despair, the second between them is heartbreakingly earnest and speaks to his connection and conviction higher than any minimize corners within the movie. By the top of the particular, it’s more like he’s wandered into Mr. Monk’s Hallmark Movie than an episode of Monk. This is significantly true when it hamfistedly tries to tie his reflections with Trudy into the case at hand: He bemoans the unending crime statistics, however Monk was by no means pushed by his impression, or his legacy, and definitely not by “ending murder.” He was good at puzzles, a rattling good detective, and simply as inflexible when it got here to righteousness as he was with cleanliness.

Aside from the apparent consolation of revisiting the Monk crew, Mr. Monk’s Last Case feels wholly constructed on offering him with closure and a future. But that’s one thing the ultimate episode of the sequence already provided him. While “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine” was about finally sustaining the established order for the sequence to proceed, the sequence finale introduces him to Molly, which prompts him to lastly resolve to reside his life, not merely climate it. Mr. Monk’s Last Case throws that out the window for a post-COVID world, however it has nothing new, insightful, and even comforting to supply Monk or the viewer.

There was all the time a tragic undercurrent to Monk’s complete schtick, plunky jazz soundtrack apart. The central cliche of Monk’s life — a superb detective who might resolve every thing besides his personal spouse’s homicide — was as a lot a plot gadget because it was a entice, crystallizing his development and holding him (as he would repeatedly admit) from believing he would ever be actually blissful or free from his OCD signs once more. Driving Monk to the brink, solely to be held again by the ghost of his spouse, isn’t the resolve the particular thinks it is.

Mr. Monk’s Last Case is now streaming on Peacock.