Monk: Mr. Monk Is On The Run Part 1

Now that my favorite show, Friday Night Lights, has wrapped up for the season, I am able to watch Monk. They were both on at 9pm EST, but alas my heart belongs to the Dillon Panthers and Coach Taylor. Still no confirmation if the show will be picked for the Fall 2008 season. My fingers are still crossed. Plus there is always a Monk Marathon on USA, so I'm sure I'll catch some of the shows I missed.

One of my most common complaints regarding Monk is the lack of story advancement in the death of Adrian's wife Trudy. I'm not looking for a quick end to it, but there hasn't been a serious lead in several seasons now. The two-part sixth season finale changed that. In fact, I meet Trudy's killer. The finale was a homage to The Fugitive. Monk went on the run after supposedly killing someone and he had to prove that he didn't do it.

I was actually impressed by the way things turned out. Adrian was able to think on his feet and stole Natalie's pass which allowed him to escape. He did a good job at playing a wanted man on the run.All of that was great, but there were some funny scenes that really stood out, such as Adrian's auto-theft attempt, the sewing of the torn pocket, and Natalie's smoothie. I'd love to know how many takes it took to do that smoothie scene because that was hysterical. It's hard to imagine how that drink would actually taste.

It was obvious early on that the small-town sheriff was involved in setting Adrian up. He arrived to the scene of the shooting far too early not to be involved. But the question remains: why did he set up Adrian? I really haven't got a satisfactory theory to that question, but I am theorizing the sheriff may have been involved in the murder of Trudy. The sheriff said he's got old friends in high places, namely the lieutenant governor. It wouldn't be the first time that Trudy (a journalist) was working on an exposé which would damage someone's career. It's possible the sheriff and lieutenant governor decided to get rid of Trudy before her story could be published and the man's reputation damaged.

The cliffhanger in the first part wasn't particularly great. It was obvious that Adrian and Leland conspired to setup the scene to make it look like Adrian had been shot and killed with the intent to get the sheriff to back off a bit while they figure out why he's after Adrian. Still, this was a great episode. There was a lot more drama in this episode because of the fact that Adrian was directly accused of something. Call me a skeptic, but somehow I don't think the second half could possibly live up to the first half.