This has the best beginning I've ever seen on a Monk show. That's because I am biased, being a big fan of film noir movies, those great black-and-white crime films of the late '40s and early '50s.
The star of this show, actor Tony Shalhoub, greets us in a first-ever pre-introduction and explains that this show has all the elements of a film noir and so they filmed it in black-and-white. Sit back and enjoy, he says.....and I did. That opening segment has some of the best photography I've ever seen and it is truly great film cinematography. Monk meets a rich man who has disappeared for seven years and then tells (and shows himself, out of the shadows) as a man who has leprosy!!
After the commercial, we see the germ-conscious Adrian Monk freaking out and the film shifts to comedy for a bit until it settles into the story featuring deception, a femme fatal and all the other goodies of good noir.....yet, at the same time keeping it's comedy close by.
We also find Natalie getting a boy friend, a dermatologist played by Englishman Paul Blackthorn. He's the guy who played a terrorist in the series '24."
It got a little silly in the end and, for once, I had the crime solved before Monk figured it out. Kudos to the show for this unique black-and-white presentation. It was nice to see.
The star of this show, actor Tony Shalhoub, greets us in a first-ever pre-introduction and explains that this show has all the elements of a film noir and so they filmed it in black-and-white. Sit back and enjoy, he says.....and I did. That opening segment has some of the best photography I've ever seen and it is truly great film cinematography. Monk meets a rich man who has disappeared for seven years and then tells (and shows himself, out of the shadows) as a man who has leprosy!!
After the commercial, we see the germ-conscious Adrian Monk freaking out and the film shifts to comedy for a bit until it settles into the story featuring deception, a femme fatal and all the other goodies of good noir.....yet, at the same time keeping it's comedy close by.
We also find Natalie getting a boy friend, a dermatologist played by Englishman Paul Blackthorn. He's the guy who played a terrorist in the series '24."
It got a little silly in the end and, for once, I had the crime solved before Monk figured it out. Kudos to the show for this unique black-and-white presentation. It was nice to see.