Archive for Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub was in the formative stage of creating the series character who would give him a long, award-winning run when he made these two rounds of the detective series, previously available as separate sets.
Private detective and widower Adrian Monk has numerous quirks that can be attributed to obsessive-compulsive disorder, but he manages to cope with them enough to be an excellent sleuth; Bitty Schram co-stars as Sharona, Monk’s original assistant on the show. *** (Not rated: AS, P, V)
Download ‘Monk: Season One & Two’ on DVD.
Watch Promo & sneak peek videos of Monk on USA “Mr. Monk and the End Part 2” Series Finale airing Friday December 4 at 9 pm on USA.
Episode Synopsis:
Monk “Mr. Monk and the End Part 2″ Season 8 Episode 16 – After listening to Trudy’s last message, Monk finally discovers who killed his wife. Racing against time before he dies of poison, he must make a fateful decision.
Tony Shalhoub (“Big Night,” “Wings,” “Men in Black,” “Cars”) has earned three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and two SAG Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his portrayal of Adrian Monk, a brilliant detective who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. In the critically acclaimed original series “Monk,” Monk’s psychological disorder costs him his position as a legendary homicide detective on the San Francisco Police force. Due to the tragic unsolved murder of his wife, Monk has developed an abnormal fear of germs, heights, crowds and virtually everything else, which provides an unusual challenge to solving crimes … not to mention his day-to-day existence. Traylor Howard (“Two Guys and a Girl,” “Me, Myself and Irene”), Ted Levine (“Heat,” “Moby Dick”) and Jason Gray-Stanford (“Taken,” “A Beautiful Mind”) also star.
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Tony Shalhoub was interviewed about the end of Monk and it was interesting that as an actor, he waited till he filmed the end before learning Monk’s fate. He said, “I think it’s a good send-off. At the beginning of the season, the writers asked me if I wanted to know how everything [ended] and I said, if it was okay with them, I’d rather wait.”
If you would rather wait, too, don’t read below because I’m going to postulate a couple of ideas about what we saw on Friday and what might be coming. These aren’t spoilers, because I don’t know. However, if I stumble upon the right answer, I wouldn’t want to be accused of spoiling it for you.
Okay, based on what Randy told Leland, the poison in Monk’s body is lethal and it’s too late to find an antidote. If that’s true, Monk is like Edmund O’Brien in the movie D.O.A. (or Dennis Quaid in the remake of D.O.A.), and he’s going to solve the murder before he dies. In Monk’s case, he’ll solve his own murder and Trudy’s at the same time.
If Monk were to die like that, the fanciful finale could be that he and Trudy are reunited in the afterlife. Some readers think that’s wholly appropriate. Some think that the producers wouldn’t kill off Monk because they’d want to bring hm back for TV movies. Some just can’t imagine Monk being killed.
My mind keeps going back to Trudy’s tape to Monk. If Trudy knew she was in danger, if — as the tape suggests — she sent it to Adrian because she knew she was going to die, is it possible that Trudy’s not really dead? Did she want him to believe that she was dead for his own protection?
Suppose she had uncovered information that was so explosive that she had to go into Witness Protection? Suppose she had to keep the information from Adrian to save his life? Or did she determine that she couldn’t take him into Witness Protection with her because of his OCD? (By the way, if this were the case, it would be great to see Mary Shannon — actress Mary McCormack — from In Plain Sight as her WITSEC agent!)
What makes me think that Trudy’s not really dead? Well, watch her run through the parking garage from the last episode. She has the keys in her hand, but then reaches into her purse for something else. Could she have had a device to signal someone else to create the “bomb” diversion? Also they showed the six-fingered man, but there was another man’s head shown? Or it could have been the same guy, who knows?
Maybe all the evidence was manufactured to make it appear that Trudy was dead? The evidence would have to appear completely consistent with her death because not only did it have to convince Monk, it had to convince the judge who ordered her murder.
