Monk
USA
For a long time, commercial cable networks presented
only a nuisance to their broadcast counterparts. Sure,
their first-run syndicated shows and cheap made-for-TV
movies took a percentage of overall viewers, but
television viewership as a whole was growing. Numbers
for the big three (later four) networks, even at a
smaller percentage, grew as well. But recently, the
balance tipped as commercial cable nets finally beat
out their over-the-air competition in primetime
ratings. Much of the win is due to a new strategy in
cable — the hard sell of flagship, quality shows —
shows like USA's new "Monk," a detective drama/comedy
starring Tony Shalhoub.
"Monk" may have premiered after the ratings victory,
which was in great part due to MTV's "The Osbournes",
but it illustrates cable's new plan of attack. For the
majority of its history, commercial cable has been
about quantity over quality, reruns of reruns and
tired video store fodder. Then, pay cable — particularly
HBO with "The Larry Sanders Show," "The Sopranos" and
"Sex and the City" — showed that the best way to compete
with the major networks was with high-end, critically
acclaimed shows. Enter a new wave of cable
programming, semi-auteur and highly publicized. Recent
shows like FX's "The Shield" and USA's "The Dead Zone"
have a sense of artistry and scale that makes them
tough competition for broadcast. So, too, does "Monk".
Tony Shalhoub, of "Wings," Barton Fink and Big Night
fame, plays Adrian Monk, a brilliant detective
suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder and
various phobias, including fear of heights and germs.
These conditions were triggered by the murder of his
wife and his inability to solve the crime, and they
led to his suspension from the police force. Now,
after therapy and with help from his nurse, Sharona
(Bitty Schram), he has come back to decrypt crime
scenes and help his former colleagues, in an attempt
to get him reinstated to the force. Monk's amazing
mind and attention to detail still serve him well, but
his own eccentricities are stumbling blocks.
It's a classic off-center detective story, somewhere
between "Nero Wolfe" and "Zero Effect," at odds with
the network's repeated claims of its originality. Yet
originality isn't half as important as performing a
classic well, and "Monk" pulls it off. The creators
scored a coup with Shalhoub — without him, the show
wouldn't work. The mystery is solid enough, but the
premise is shaky. Obsessive-compulsive disorder in
itself is not funny — it's tragic. (As Good As It Gets
set people's perception of the disease a long way
back, and this show is still feeling the effects.) But
Shalhoub somehow manages to hold everything together.
Rather than relying on tics and compulsions to create
the character, Shalhoub bookends them with subtle
comedy. His dire need to rearrange a pillow would be
sad if not for his slight grimace of disbelief that it
was out of place in the first place. His pauses do
more to build the character than any writer-inflicted
phobias ever could.
Shalhoub, along with the rest of the regular cast,
give the show a sort of cinematic suggestion — a mood
that the casting on "The West Wing" and "Six Feet
Under" strive for. Bitty Schram has had small roles in
several films, but is mostly a new face on TV. Ted
Levine plays Capt. Stottlemeyer, Monk's former boss,
still frustrated and jealous. He's best known as the
(other) serial killer in Silence of the Lambs.
Unfortunately, the look of the show fails to strive
for the cinematic, unlike the other shows mentioned
above. The lighting and color are washed out, and the
camera work is simple. These are the important
stylistic details that, if done better, create
appointment television — the kind of programming cable
is turning toward.
"Monk" has potential to draw a major audience share
away from the big four networks. It has solid writing
and acting. Moreover, it feels like something big,
perhaps due to a network with enough confidence to
give it the hard sell. It just has yet to make that
step to what the pay channels and top network shows
have done, giving the show not only good writing and
acting, but also a feeling of artistry and voice. With
someone as talented as Tony Shalhoub returning to TV,
USA has a good start at doing both.
— Andy Ross (apross@earthlink.net)
