Monk: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Monk: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 22, 2024

Monk's third season is a turning point for the series. It sees the midseason departure of co-star Bitty Schram, whose character Sharona Flemming was a staple in seasons one and two as Monk's nurse/assistant/hand wipe dispenser and a critical glue that held his life together both at home and in the field. Now, thanks to a contract squabble, she, and her character, is replaced by Traylor Howard's Natalie Teeger, who will remain by Monk's side through the remainder of the show's run. Otherwise, this is classic Monk, a season that copies and pastes the basic formula from the previous outings but continues to grow characters, build lore, and find new ways to put Adrian Monk in extremely uncomfortable situations in the name of solving the crime and entertaining the audience.

“I’m so tired of being me,” Monk tells his therapist at the start of “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine,” one of the deeper looks, if not the deepest look, into the character here in season three or anywhere through the first three seasons that goes not just into the head, but into the soul of the man at the center of a life of excellence but also a life of misery at the same time. He calls himself “a broken machine” and his doctor recommends a new drug. Monk is reluctant to take it, but once he does it leads him to a new, chemically induced and comically insane persona and the episode stands as one of the season’s, and the series’, best, allowing Shalhoub to depart the established Monk personality and flourish by playing somebody new. The season ends with another wonderfully deep, intimate, personal, and heartfelt episode, “Mr. Monk and the Kid,” which sees Monk open his heart, off meds and completely in his own range as a troubled man, to a two-year-old boy. It’s a special episode, and it’s so good and worth rooting for that audiences would likely be happy if the series ended right then and there with the storybook ending of Monk keeping and raising the boy, retiring from the business, and giving his life and heart in service to another.

Other season three highlight episodes see Monk flirt with romance only to have his proclivities all but destroy any chance for the romance to blossom, even when the lady is (more or less) aware of his persona. Monk finds himself with an opportunity for reinstatement if he cooperates with the feds and goes undercover in the mob. The season also looks back at Monk’s life with Trudy when a case brings him, first, to New York City to discover a truth about the case, leading Monk to a very serious life-and-death opportunity with a man who was directly involved in Trudy’s murder. Another episode sees Monk reconnect with his father-law, played very well by the venerable Bob Gunton, while yet another episode sees Monk confront the very real possibility of death and find solace in his waning breaths in the spiritual presence of his late wife. He also finds a new niche in Vegas as a prolific blackjack player.

Of course, the highlight, in the grand scheme of things, is Natalie. She’s a feisty firebrand who doesn’t exactly put up with Monk. It’s not that Sharona did put up with Monk, but Natalie plays hardball with her boss, refusing to answer the phone, give him wipes, or help in any real way unless he promises to pay her reimbursements. She’s a great addition to the show. Sharona’s departure is not handled well; audiences are basically told she just got up and left one day, which is completely against the character, but it’s a fairly seamless transition, anyway, and Natalie is going to be a joy as Monk’s counterpart moving forward.

The following episodes comprise season two:

Disc One:

• Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan: A fresh tip leads Monk and company to the Big Apple in hopes of taking a bite out of the cold case of Monk's wife's murder.
• Mr. Monk and the Panic Room: Monk investigates a dead music producer who was killed at the hands of...a chimp...with a gun...inside a sealed panic room.
• Mr. Monk and the Blackout: Monk struggles to function when blackouts plague the city, but are they happening at a specific time and for a specific purpose?
• Mr. Monk Gets Fired: Monk's antics appear to cost him any chance at reinstatement when he inadvertently crosses a cross commissioner.

Disc Two:

• Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather: Monk must set aside any and all inhibitions when he's forced to go undercover in the mob to solve a case.
• Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf: Sharona is haunted by visions of a seemingly dead man, and nobody believes her.
• Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month: Monk finds himself working at a discount store to solve the mysterious murder of a longtime employee in good standing.
• Mr. Monk and the Game Show: Monk winds up on a television quiz show to try and piece together a murder and the mystery of a man who can't seem to answer a question incorrectly.

Disc Three:

• Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine: Monk finally relents and tries a new medication to settle his obsessive compulsive disorder. The result is a comic new persona with a keen inability to solve crime.
• Mr. Monk and the Red Herring: With Sharona gone, Monk finds himself struggling to solve his latest case.
• Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra: Monk and Natalie investigate their first murder together as an official pairing, and evidence appears to point back to a long-deceased martial arts film star as the killer.
• Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever: Monk is witness to a back alley, cold blood, broad daylight murder. When the killer marks Monk for death, Monk, Natlie, Captain Stottlemeyer, and an FBI agent are forced to go into hiding deep in California's back country until he can testify against the killer.

Disc Four:

• Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic: When an environmental activist is found dead in a nasty wreck on the highway, local cops believe it to be an accident, but Monk, stranded on the highway while the accident is cleared, comes to believe that he's been murdered.
• Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas: When a Vegas tycoon's wife dies mysteriously in a hotel elevator, Captain Stottlemeyer calls Monk to the scene in Sin City to investigate.
• Mr. Monk and the Election: Natalie is running for school board, but her campaign is interrupted when a shooter fires 14 rounds into her office -- with her and Monk inside. The initial suspect is her opponent, who is another of Dr. Kroger's patients and a fellow obsessive-compulsive.
• Mr. Monk and the Kid: A missing two-year-old is found carrying a freshly severed human pinkie finger. Monk takes a liking to the boy and takes him in while he works to solve the case of a kidnapping for ransom.

Monk: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Seasons one and two looked superb on Blu-ray, and so does season three. It would be adequate to merely repurpose the video reviews from either of those releases, because the same holds true here, but here are a few original words on this season. It's impressively filmic, for starters, and Kino has done a tremendous job with this faithful remaster. Grain is nearly always consistent and flattering, giving the picture a perfect look for its natural film elements. There are only brief spikes in grain density. The image is texturally rich as well, presenting firm, unwavering clarity and exceptional quality to every morsel of visual information, from faces to clothes, cityscapes, trees and grass, and other elements that never fail to mightily impress in every frame. Colors are wonderfully rich as well. Look at the opening minutes of the season's final episode. Green city park grasses are beautifully full and vivid. Clothing is likewise deep and satisfying for punch and accuracy, even considering Monk's more bland browns and beiges. Skin tones are spot-on accurate, black levels are deep and true, and whites are bold and vivid. There are no print issues and there are no encode problems, either. This is pretty much a textbook near-perfect TV transfer.

Monk: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the first two seasons on Blu-ray, Monk's third season features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. Musical clarity is exceptional, of course, with the highlight being the opening title song. Here, spacing is excellent, the audio is vigorous, and lyrics are firm. There is good body and definition to score, too. There are not a lot of high-power sound effects, but some of the few examples hit suitably hard, like when a grenade explodes partway through the season's penultimate episode. Most of the time, support atmospherics are limited to background sounds at crime scene, inside police stations, out on city streets, or in city parks. Dialogue is the main sonic driver here, and the presentation is naturally centered, well prioritized, and lifelike in clarity.

Monk: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with previous seasons, Monk's third season includes a few extras on disc five. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does ship with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Favorites: Featurette (480i, 4x3, 5:11): Cast and crew share favorite episodes and moments.
• Life Before Monk: Featurette (480i, 4x3, 3:08): Cast discusses some of the character background that helps them shape their work in the show.
• Quirks: Featurette (480i, 4x3, 3:56): Discussing the process of writing for Monk, both the dialogue and the situations around him, while also discussing some of the key quirks that define the character. Tony Shalhoub also discusses shaking hands in real life.
• Monk - Character Profile: Featurette (480i, 4x3, 5:55): Discussing Monk's brilliance, which is countered by his inability to function "normally" in the world. Tony Shalhoub also discusses what draws him to the character.
• Natalie Teeger - Character Profile: Featurette (480i, 4x3, 5:13): Discussing and exploring Monk's new assistant, replacing Sharona Flemming.

Monk: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Monk's third season is the best yet. There's not a poor episode in the bunch, there's a major change, the stories are engaging, and the murders and resolutions are clever. Kino's Blu-ray is excellent, too. The four-disc set includes a handful of extras on disc four. All episodes look and sound terrific. Very highly recommended!