Mr. Monk’s Last Case is more like Mr. Monk’s Hallmark movie

11.12.2023 - 08:19 / polygon.com

Adrian Monk has always been consistent. He’s never been a fan of germs, heights, loud noises, crowds, elevators, milk, or plenty of other things. But he knows how to solve a murder. Monk, the 2000s USA Network procedural centered around the fictional detective played by Tony Shalhoub, was not as consistent; after a few seasons, the show seemed to reverse-engineer its mysteries from the most uncomfortable situations they could put Monk in for an episode. The quality of the show suffered for it, but Shalhoub’s compassion and meticulous care always tethered the show to something.

Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie, the new Peacock special bringing back Shalhoub, Monk, and most of the show’s cast of characters, throws away what little consistency Monk maintained. It’s a decade-plus since he finally solved his wife Trudy’s murder, and post-COVID living has not been kind to him. With his memoir canceled, Monk can’t afford to pay for his step-daughter Molly’s (Caitlin McGee) wedding, prompting him to feel depressed and contemplating suicide. He delays his plans when he gets roped into solving one final case on Molly’s behalf, but throughout the movie Monk feels broken, so much so that the ghost of Trudy (Melora Hardin) has to step in numerous times to talk him through low moments.

Unfortunately, what Mr. Monk’s Last Case is built on — the sadness underpinning Monk’s whole situation — falters because it doesn’t feel true. And worse yet: The straight-to-streaming movie revival is a glaring imitation of what Monk did better elsewhere.

The special suffers from a lot of the traditional problems that come with this kind of reunion. The central mystery he’s here to solve sprawls in a way the show couldn’t, a casualty of a longer run time without a real backbone to bolster it. It’s trapped somewhere between concluding Monk’s story (it’s his Last Case) and rebooting it (he got pulled back in for one last case!). Your mileage may vary on the stuff in the movie that plays on the nostalgia such reboots are built on: Randy (Jason Gray-Stanford) is still a goober, and real fans still remember his music “project.” Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) is still brassy and doubtful of Monk’s logic. “It’s a gift. And a curse.”

But such nostalgia seems to simply retread Monk’s primary arc from the show. Notably, this isn’t the first time Monk has seen Trudy’s ghost. In season 3’s “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine,” Monk is particularly despondent about his limitations and pulls Trudy’s old pillow out of a plastic bag in the closet and she appears, ethereal and brightly lit. The conversation they have is a speedrun of everything Mr. Monk’s Last Case is trying to build its emotional throughline on: His fear of change (and his fear of “not