The crime is the secondary story in this episode. The main story is Monk seeing his father for the first time in 39 years and how the two slowly re-establish ties Dan Hedaya, one of the better characters of our era, plays "Jack Monk," a long-haired sleazy-looking 68-year-old truck driver.
The murder case, which is shown primarily in the introduction, is one where a guy doesn't actually commit homicide but stands by and watches his nemesis accidentally kill himself and does nothing to prevent it, when he could have helped. In this case, he helps the accident finish off the guy by making sure the victim doesn't have a foothold when the man is choking as his tie is caught in the engine. The tie-in, pun intended, is that the elder Monk also drives truck for this company and his boss-murderer.
Monk, believe-it-or-not, reluctantly takes a long trip in his dad's big truck to Phoenix because Capt. Stottlemeyer convinces him this may be his only shot to ever connect with his dad. By the way, I've watched every episode up to this one and Monk would never go anywhere without all his necessities....but, that's the story here.
This one then blends humor, sentimentality, and suspense at the end as the two men's lives are in danger in the truck when it speeds down a mountain with no breaks!
In all, a very flawed because of so many things that are out of character here, but a very entertaining episode, and that's why we watch isn't it? I give it high marks, simply for the entertainment.
Hedaya was riveting and weird but then again, what male isn't strange in the Monk family? Speaking of that, I wish we'd see Adrian's brother "Ambrose" again. JohnTurturro was hilarious in that role.
The murder case, which is shown primarily in the introduction, is one where a guy doesn't actually commit homicide but stands by and watches his nemesis accidentally kill himself and does nothing to prevent it, when he could have helped. In this case, he helps the accident finish off the guy by making sure the victim doesn't have a foothold when the man is choking as his tie is caught in the engine. The tie-in, pun intended, is that the elder Monk also drives truck for this company and his boss-murderer.
Monk, believe-it-or-not, reluctantly takes a long trip in his dad's big truck to Phoenix because Capt. Stottlemeyer convinces him this may be his only shot to ever connect with his dad. By the way, I've watched every episode up to this one and Monk would never go anywhere without all his necessities....but, that's the story here.
This one then blends humor, sentimentality, and suspense at the end as the two men's lives are in danger in the truck when it speeds down a mountain with no breaks!
In all, a very flawed because of so many things that are out of character here, but a very entertaining episode, and that's why we watch isn't it? I give it high marks, simply for the entertainment.
Hedaya was riveting and weird but then again, what male isn't strange in the Monk family? Speaking of that, I wish we'd see Adrian's brother "Ambrose" again. JohnTurturro was hilarious in that role.