Mr Monk and the Candidate

Season 1

Episodes 1 & 2: Mr Monk and the Candidate 

Who is Adrian Monk? Well he is a former homicide detective with the San Francisco Police Department who suffers from a severe form of OCD. Following the murder of his beloved wife Trudy his OCD and his various phobias escalate leading to his suspension from the police force. When we first meet Monk he's working as a private consultant for the police with the aid of his assistant Sharona Fleming. His main role is to help his former comrade Captain Leland Stottlemeyer and his young Lieutenant Randy Disher. Now you know the setup let's take a look at the feature length pilot.

Mr. Monk and the Candidate starts with a murder which in my opinion is a great way to kick off a detective show. The local police think that Nicole Vasques was murdered in a robbery gone wrong but in between worrying about having left the stove on Monk is able to prove that is was cold blooded murder. Elsewhere an assassin tries to kill mayoral candidate Warren St. Claire but accidentally killing a body guard instead. Monk's called into help investigate the case and he manages to prove that the attempted murder of Warren St. Claire and the murder of Nicole Vasques are connected.

"He's the Guy":

This week's murderer is assistant organiser Gavin Lloyd with the assistance of wheel chair fake Ian Sykes. The motive? Naughty Gavin has been embezzling funds.

"Here's What Happened": 

Nicole Vasques discovered discrepancies in Warren St. Claire's financial records and reported it to Gavin Lloyd leaving him in quite a difficult position. After failing to bribe her to keep quiet he tries to hire bodyguard Jason Ronstadt to kill her. Again Lloyd is rejected leaving him with a heck of a lot of problems. He hires Ian Sykes to kill both Vasques and Ronstadt. Monk uses echoes to prove Lloyd's guilt in a rather awesome show of his genius.

In short:

The opening episode of Monk is a classic setting up what will become the key components of the show over the next eight seasons. Tony Shaloub is incredible as the "defective detective" bringing the tormented Monk to life in an amusing but very genuine way. Bitty Schram as Sharona is the perfect foil for Monk and even in this first appearance you can already tell the Stottlemeyer and Disher team is going to bring a real spark to the show. These are the starting blocks of true greatness and things can only get better from here.