Article Number "10" - MONK!!

Dear Readers, I know most you all would be aware of this name as in ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ but here, I am speaking of another Monk, who is equally impressing and just more brilliant and lovable!

Reading about a series may seem boring, but wait… This is not about the series, this is only about Monk! Monk!

Monk is an American detective mystery series created by Andy Breckman and starred Tony Shalhoub as Mr. Monk. Running over a span of seven years from 2002 to 2009, it had achieved an unbeatable fan followership, finale episode having 9.4 million viewers! It was mainly a detective mystery series solving most of the highest rated unfathomable murders but even had its own dull and dark sides and even the rightly timed comic touches.

Monk was not just a series; it was and still is a world in its own. Right from the brilliant writers to the right cast, Monk in many ways is just more than a perfect series ever created. Each of the episodes has been brilliantly scripted with each and every line supporting the moment with right timing. The dull and comic scenes come and go at the right times without ever disturbing the main plot of the crime. The right cast including The Captain, Lieutenant, and the two beautiful assistants just add more feathers to the scenes.

There are few things which I can never forget about this person – his silence, his skills, his thirst for solving the crimes, his strength in overcoming his loneliness, his strength in fighting the world’s taunts on him and last but not the least, his quotes!

Let’s walk through all of them minute by minute… I promise, your walk with Monk would not go wasted and would not take more than few minutes of your valuable Sunday!

Back to Monk, a former homicide detective with San Francisco Police Department and currently working as a consultant detective for them is an Obsessive Compulsive detective with a number of Phobias.  A number which is hard to remember! Upon this, he has his own way of living, brushes 12 times a day and flosses every 90 minutes. He takes 3 showers a day only with a star shaped nozzle. He wears only the same type and color of shirt which has even number of squares on it. His one and only favorite number is an even 10. He is so much obsessed with this number that in an episode when arrested, his bail is set at $900000 and he asks it to be rounded to an even million!

He even has a peculiar way of holding his hands while studying the crime scene and in one episode he explains it not be funny. Instead, it helps him split the scene into parts and give attention to the minute details which he can pick up and tie up with the crime.

But, apart from this all, he is a man with Golden Heart!

His Phobias – His ‘103’ phobias (as he mentions in one of the episodes) keep hindering him from living happily and fighting the world. But it’s not about his Phobias. It’s all about how he faces the challenges of this selfish world carrying those phobias. How he turns around from the people mocking at him and just smiles at his victory of solving another crime and cleaning this world from another criminal. I remember the episode ‘Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike’ in which he is torn apart because of the smell of the uncollected garbage all over the city and his mind stops thinking. At first it seems how irritating his behavior is, but as the episode comes to an end you will recognize the fight he had in himself to overcome and finally solve the crime that had been closed as a suicide.

Now just sit back and think of one small fear you have. Don’t tell me you are afraid of nothing and unafraid of everything. Every person has one or the other fear. Just think of it and imagine yourself sitting right in front of it and even facing the whole world, remember the whole world is laughing at you for being a fear baby, and even in that situation trying hard to be normal. Now just multiply this with the number 103. This is what happens in Monk! And every time he wins!

His Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - While his obsessive attention to minute detail cripples him socially, it makes him a gifted detective and profiler; he has an uncanny ability to reconstruct entire crimes based on little more than scraps of detail that seem unimportant (if noticed at all) by his colleagues. But this obsessive compulsive disorder masks his brilliance and presents him to the world as a vulnerable person. His repetitive habits and irritating behavior keeps people annoyed at him, but at heart everyone can’t just stay away from loving Monk and respecting his brilliance.

A child keeps crying day and night, it may annoy us at times, but at heart, a child is always the most loved member of the family!

His Deductions - He is very particular and very persnickety in his examinations and his deductions. His attention to minute details is showcased in one particular episode ‘Mr. Monk takes Manhattan’ where he identifies the criminal just by the shape of his earlobe which he had seen (and still remembers) on the day of the crime. His character is inspired from the Great Sherlock Holmes and he, in the same way, pays attention to every detail in the crime scene and is able to relate anything he hears or observes or remembers with every other detail and build up the crime in the exact way it occurred.

His Quotes – This is the best part of Monk! Each of his quotes is more than worth remembering.

It's a gift... and a curse. Monk keeps on repeating this when someone asks him about his observational skills. He means it when he says curse because it just doesn’t allow him to live normally among others just like them, being careless and enjoying the world without any details to bother about.

Unless I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not... Monk adds this line after he declares his deductions about anyone and tells them about it. I have never seen, in 125 episodes, anyone deny him once he says this.

You'll thank me later. Monk says this after he straightens someone’s shirt or cleans up any table or arranges anything neatly in the room. No need of further explanation!

I don't know how he did it. But he did it. Monk tells this to everyone trying to convince them but no one believes him until he ends up proving the ‘how’. The importance of this quote can be seen in the episode ‘Mr. Monk and the Astronaut’ where the murderer, an astronaut, is in space at the time of the murder. Yet Monk proves the ‘how he did it’ when no one believes him!

He's the guy. Monk just keeps hissing this modestly like a child when he solves any case in his mind and wants to declare his victory.

Here's what happened. This is always the first line of his explanation of the crime to the audience silently listening to him and amazingly imagining how right he has deducted it. Though his ‘Here’s what happened’ segments been wrong in two episodes which were deliberately directed to show out his weakness in fighting his phobias and his obsessive compulsive behavior, at the end his explanation of the crime scene and ‘Here’s what happened’ has always been right!

The theme tunes – It won’t take more than five minutes to go through (sparing you readers from the explanation) the wonderful and equally meaningful theme tunes created by Randy Newman.

Opening Theme – It’s Jungle Out There

It's a jungle out there
Disorder and confusion everywhere
No one seems to care
Well I do
Hey, who's in charge here?
It's a jungle out there
Poison in the very air we breathe
Do you know what's in the water that you drink?
Well I do, and it's amazing
People think I'm crazy, 'cause I worry all the time
If you paid attention, you'd be worried too
You better pay attention
Or this world we love so much might just kill you
I could be wrong now, but I don't think so!
'Cause there's a jungle out there.
It's a jungle out there.

The Finale Closing Theme – When I’m Gone

The time for us to say goodbye is near
The day I hoped would never come is here
Though many hearts are broken we must somehow carry on
Cause I think you're gonna miss me when I'm gone

I thought my life was over when we met
So little to remember, so much to forget
Though it was you who saw me through the darkness to the dawn
Still I think you're gonna miss me when I'm gone

I'm a modest man
And it hurts me to say these things to you
After all we've been through it's the least that I can do
So instead of just goodbye I'll say so long
And as for the light by which you see me leave it on
I'm a better man than I was before
Knowing you has made me strong
And I sure am going to miss you when I'm gone
Yes I sure am going to miss you when I'm gone

Monk never meant himself to be inspired by his phobias and diseases. But he always sent out a message on how to be concentrated on what we are best at and fight for it even amidst our struggle of own list of sufferings. He silently inspires us overcome our weakness and proving the world that right is always right, how powerful may be the strength of what keeps it away!

Monk is not just any normal detective to watch and a normal obsessive compulsive disorder patient to feel sorry about. He is a person who inspires on being strong, being right, proving right, fighting any power that might hinder us in our battle, ignore the world when it laughs at us and care for the same world when it asks for our help and keep ourselves neat and arranged and just many more…

Monk is always right…

Vishal…


#sundayreaders #monk #adrianmonk #ItsAGiftAndACurse

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