Monk -- 2 part series finale (spoilers).

[Thrifty]

Anyone else seen it?  Part one aired last Friday.  It definitely had a darker turn with Monk being fatally poisoned.  Since it's a slow acting poison, we don't know if he'll survive yet.  Hopefully, the doctor will realize the source of the poison,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

contact poison through Monk's hand wipes

, which was pretty much broadcast

Awesome scene with Stottelmyer (sp?) at the train station.  They don't often set the characters up against hardcore, trained criminals.

Kinda miffed that Monk has been obsessing over Trudy's unsolved murder, and had it ruin his life, for 12 years, while he's had this huge clue (whatever the video tape reveals) right in his lap.

Well, next week the show ends.  We already know who killed Trudy.  Next week, we find out why.  I await it with bated breath.

[FordPrefect]

I'm a big fan of the show, so I'm looking forward to the last episode as well. Unfortunately I probably won't get to watch it till Sunday, due to my work schedule. 

[Bob]

Since we are doing spoilers...... who did kill his wife?

[Thrifty]

Since we are doing spoilers...... who did kill his wife?

This spoiler tag may seem redundant in a thread marked spoilers in the subject title, but what the heck?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was a judge played by Craig T. Nelson.  This judge is familiar to Monk, Stottlemyer, and Disher.  Early in the episode, the three are shown asking him to sign a search warrant for a seemingly unrelated case.

[Bob]

Thanks!   

I used to watch Monk all the time, then the cases got kind of silly a couple of seasons ago, and I quit watching.   Hopefully they have a really good final episode.

[Rattrap007]

Anyone else seen it?  Part one aired last Friday.  It definitely had a darker turn with Monk being fatally poisoned.  Since it's a slow acting poison, we don't know if he'll survive yet.  Hopefully, the doctor will realize the source of the poison,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

contact poison through Monk's hand wipes

, which was pretty much broadcast

Awesome scene with Stottelmyer (sp?) at the train station.  They don't often set the characters up against hardcore, trained criminals.

Kinda miffed that Monk has been obsessing over Trudy's unsolved murder, and had it ruin his life, for 12 years, while he's had this huge clue (whatever the video tape reveals) right in his lap.

Well, next week the show ends.  We already know who killed Trudy.  Next week, we find out why.  I await it with bated breath.

i think you are right on the source of the poison. But if you are going to kill someone, why on earth would you use the slowest acting poison you can?

[Thrifty]

Anyone else seen it?  Part one aired last Friday.  It definitely had a darker turn with Monk being fatally poisoned.  Since it's a slow acting poison, we don't know if he'll survive yet.  Hopefully, the doctor will realize the source of the poison,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

contact poison through Monk's hand wipes

, which was pretty much broadcast

Awesome scene with Stottelmyer (sp?) at the train station.  They don't often set the characters up against hardcore, trained criminals.

Kinda miffed that Monk has been obsessing over Trudy's unsolved murder, and had it ruin his life, for 12 years, while he's had this huge clue (whatever the video tape reveals) right in his lap.

Well, next week the show ends.  We already know who killed Trudy.  Next week, we find out why.  I await it with bated breath.

i think you are right on the source of the poison. But if you are going to kill someone, why on earth would you use the slowest acting poison you can?

That's a good question.  Best I can figure is that he needed to plant the poison, but he knew it wouldn't reach Monk for several hours.  Or it wasn't strong enough to be administered in one dose.  Poisons of that stripe might not be powerful enough to kill quickly.

[Moleman]

I love Monk.  Can't wait till Friday.

With ANY other show I would have been calling bull about him

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

somehow having the package THE WHOLE 12 YEARS and never opening it

but with how Monk is and his disorders its actually very believable.  Kind of like how he literally didn't let go of Stotlemeyer's ring the entire time it was intrusted to him even when taking a shower and sleeping.  Or how in one of the early Natalie ones he actually tells her to light his hands on fire.  Or hell just in this episode

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

how he wants to die before he vomits

.  His commitment to Trudy is what caused all these phobias so naturally something she said before she died he would hold above everything else and keep his word.  No matter how irrational it was to wait so long.

The episode that had the impostor Trudy definitely seemed to suggest she was involved with something secretive so

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

the audio tape with the message

isn't that hard to buy either.

I've never liked how stupid they always made Randy but that part in the train station has me rolling on the ground.

[Kete]

I wish they had built up to the resolutions with Trudy the whole season instead of just the last two episodes.

[Thrifty]

I wish they had built up to the resolutions with Trudy the whole season instead of just the last two episodes.

I'm with you.  I think the series as a whole would have been more satisfying if it had been structured a little closer to The X-Files.  That is to say, I would have liked to have seen the Trudy situation visited more often, at least once per season, but with the normal "case of the week" shows being predominant.

Monk holding on to Trudy's gift for 12 years is definitely palatable.  It makes sense given the character, but it still added this whole "oh damnit I had my keys in my purse the whole time while you were screwing around with that coat hanger for an hour" flavor to the whole series, retroactively.

[Rattrap007]

On the whole holding the gift for 12 years... There were more presents under the tree. What about those? Did he open the other ones and keep this one special?

[Thrifty]

Part two starts in 17 minutes

[Moleman]

Unless you're on the west coast and have to wait another 2 hours and 36 minutes.

[Thrifty]

Well, that was neat. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A little schmaltzy.  I like a happy ending as much as the next guy, but I thought everything seemed just a little too perfect.  I really can't buy this conclusion of Randy being a police chief.  The guy's a decent cop, but he's a doofus. 

There's something about the pacing that just didn't feel right.  A series finale has to have time to wrap up the series for all the major players.  It also had to wrap up the story of the episode itself.  The first forty minutes went to the current story, the last 20 went to series wrap up.  The latter felt weird.  It felt sort of like they were both cramming too much in, while at the same time stretching too much.  I think I would have been more satisfied if Trudy's daughter hadn't been added, and the wrap-up for Monk had just been about adjusting to a life after solving Trudy's murder.  Molly seemed way too tacked on.

The first half was nice and gritty, real thrilling police drama, and executed very well, IMO. 

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I think it was a great wrap up.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There's something about the pacing that just didn't feel right.  A series finale has to have time to wrap up the series for all the major players.  It also had to wrap up the story of the episode itself.  The first forty minutes went to the current story, the last 20 went to series wrap up.  The latter felt weird.  It felt sort of like they were both cramming too much in, while at the same time stretching too much.  I think I would have been more satisfied if Trudy's daughter hadn't been added, and the wrap-up for Monk had just been about adjusting to a life after solving Trudy's murder.  Molly seemed way too tacked on.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I didn't think Molly was tacked on, Monk needed that mystery of the judges last words to move him past solving Trudy's murder, and I thought it was a great device to get him back working on cases.  And kind of nice to have a bit of Trudy back in his life.

Really liked the stove bit at the end.