I couldn't be the only one excited to see this, could I?
I thought it was extremely well done. Even though it was fairly obvious from last week's episode that Trudy's killer was the Judge, they still kept enough surprises to make it interesting. And while it ended up being a bit sappier than I typically like, they've put Monk through enough after these 8 seasons that he deserves a happy ending.
It's a great show, and I am sorry to see it go. But I'm not sure they could have done any better.
I would tend to agree. I was also looking forward to it and was struck during the opening that I'd never hear that song and see the montage for a new episode ever again. While I liked the episode, what irked me was that they spent all day leading up to the finale showing episodes that revolved around Monk finding Trudy's killer from past seasons, yet neither part one nor part two of the finale seemed to have anything to do with any previous episode (i.e. Dale The Whale, the dying guy Monk went to NYC to see, etc).
Originally posted by geemoneyI would tend to agree. I was also looking forward to it and was struck during the opening that I'd never hear that song and see the montage for a new episode ever again. While I liked the episode, what irked me was that they spent all day leading up to the finale showing episodes that revolved around Monk finding Trudy's killer from past seasons, yet neither part one nor part two of the finale seemed to have anything to do with any previous episode (i.e. Dale The Whale, the dying guy Monk went to NYC to see, etc).
Yes, and all of those previous episodes dealing with Trudy were different seasons. I was a little disappointed that this season didn't have more clues leading up to figuring out who killed Trudy. It seemed like they just threw it together at the last minute. I was pretty happy with the happy ending though, but Disher as a police chief somewhere is scary.
Originally posted by geemoneyI would tend to agree. I was also looking forward to it and was struck during the opening that I'd never hear that song and see the montage for a new episode ever again. While I liked the episode, what irked me was that they spent all day leading up to the finale showing episodes that revolved around Monk finding Trudy's killer from past seasons, yet neither part one nor part two of the finale seemed to have anything to do with any previous episode (i.e. Dale The Whale, the dying guy Monk went to NYC to see, etc).
Yes, and all of those previous episodes dealing with Trudy were different seasons. I was a little disappointed that this season didn't have more clues leading up to figuring out who killed Trudy. It seemed like they just threw it together at the last minute. I was pretty happy with the happy ending though, but Disher as a police chief somewhere is scary.
Before the season started, I thought I read where this whole season would be leading up to the finale of Monk solving the murder, i.e. clues would be peppered throughout various episodes. But it didn't happen.
Was the unopened Christmas present introduced before? It would've been a very annoying cheat if they just mentioned it now so it could be the answer, but I feel like it was in a Christmas episode before or something.
The finale itself was okay, but felt like it had 90 minutes of stories with a lot of extra padded on stuff to make two hours. It was better than some episodes this season. And I'm glad it's over, because it felt as if they ran out of stories two years ago - you were left with either even more preposterous incidents or moments where Monk appeared to have some sort of emotional growth that'd be completely ignored by next Friday. (On that note, there were some nice touches to show solving the murder had made Monk a bit more sane.)
There's something to say for this show's place in television history. It's gotten some credit this past week for starting the trend of cable channels centering their identities around their own original programming (scripted and not), instead of reruns of network programming or even what the network is actually called. USA became the channel of Monk and a whole of programming using that model for different genres. AMC is the channel of Mad Men more than it is American Movie Classics, FX has drawn it's identity from the Shield and Rescue Me - everyone's realized that you can do good business getting a 2.0 rating for an hour, and thinking they can create their own show to do it.
I'm not really sure if it Monk was first or it was just riding a wave (obviously Soprano's is more important for pay cable, this is a slightly different model), but it's definitely a different TV world than it was when Monk started. Comcast got NBC as part of their deal with GE, but they made the deal for the USA and the other cable channels in the NBCU portfolio.
Originally posted by thecubsfanWas the unopened Christmas present introduced before? It would've been a very annoying cheat if they just mentioned it now so it could be the answer, but I feel like it was in a Christmas episode before or something.
In one of the scenes in the flashback montage, they showed a scene with Monk holding a similar box - wrapping and all. But I don't remember the episode, so I don't know.
It was a very good show but it had run its course. This last season was okay but I thought the series finale was 90 minutes stretched over two 60 minute episodes over two weeks. But the cast was very good and the characters were memorable.
And the way they left it, I assume movies or specials are a possibility.
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Man that was a weird Freudian slip. I left the theatre convinced that I saw Gruner's name in the credits. I even looked on imdb to get Haysbert's name right. D'oh! Wait! You hated this trailer: http://youtu.be/ZjJnKjkwEKw But, but, but.