Monk



I love Monk. Ever since I first heard of the show from a friend's mother who heard about my love for Agatha Christie and detective fiction, I began watching the show online and through DVDs from the public library (See? Who said libraries are a waste?). I grew to love the tough, New Jersey-bred nurse, Sharona, who could put up with the obsessive compulsive detective known as Adrian Monk. However, after season three, Natalie, the daughter of a wealthy California family and a widow raising a daughter, replaces Sharona. The writers did not do a great job trying to give a convincing exit to Sharona, who is said to have returned to NJ to try to make things work with her ex. Over time, as the show eventually progressed (and a slightly disappointing, though heart-warming conclusion), I grew to tolerate Natalie, who became the new "Watson" as well as casual love jokes about her and Lt. Disher carried over from the Sharona days. Perhaps the writers wanted a character who, though not a nurse, had suffered the loss of a spouse and could relate to Monk in that way. Nevertheless, the spunky New Jersey, working-class Sharona offered tough love to Monk and her character was more believable than Natalie, who doesn't use her parents money at all and seems to also be an example of television catering to Eurocentric, unrealistic standards of beauty with a thin, blond-haired actress. That said, Monk remains one of my favorite shows of the last ten years, and her character does take the show in a different direction with her ability to empathize with Monk in ways that Sharona couldn't.