Monk: The Complete Seconed Season

A quirky comedy about a man with obsessive compulsive disorder and several phobias who is alternatively helped and hindered by his excrutiating attention to detail. In the first season, Monk loses his job as a police officer and works as a private investigator. His department continues to call him for help on the toughest cases. Here's another funny season.

1. Mr. Monk Goes Back to School: Monk becomes a substitute teacher to investigate the death of an English teacher.

2. Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico: Monk investigates a friend's sons death in Mexico.

3. Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame: While investigating the murders of a CEO and his wife, Monk befriends the Major League superstar who was having an affair with the wife.

4. Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus: Monk investigates the murder of a circus ringmaster.

5. Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man: The captain's hippie wife thinks the world's oldest man has been murdered.

6. Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater: Mr. Monk takes the place of a murdered actor on stage while investigating the murder.

7. Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect: When a woman is murdered, Monk suspects her brother who has been in a coma for four months.

8. Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy: A secretary hires Monk to discover who killed her boss.

10. Mr. Monk and the 12th Man: The Captain calls Monk for help in solving nine brutal murders.

11. Mr. Monk and the Paperboy: Monk's paperboy is murdered.

12. Mr. Monk and the Three Pies: Monk helps his estranged brother whom he has not seen in many years when he claims his neighbor murdered his wife.

13. Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star: Monk becomes convinced that a TV show's star has murdered his ex-wife.

14. Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny: An older law student asks Monk for help finding her missing grandmother. In exchange, she offers to help him get reinstated as a policeman. Michael Shalhoub, Tony's brother, plays on this episode.

15. Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife: The captain's wife is injured when her car has been stuck by a truck whose driver was killed by a sniper.

16. Mr. Monk Gets Married: To solve a murder, Sharona and Monk pose as a couple going for counseling at a clinic

17. Mr. Monk Goes to Jail: Dale the Whale calls Monk from jail with information about a murder.

Adrian Monk is back for his second season with 16 new cases to solve. Whether he's facing public speaking, umpiring, or searching for a missing grandmother, you can count on two things. The mystery will be bizarre and you'll get a laugh or two in the process.

This is the season when I started watching the show, and it hooked me from the start. It hits just the right balance of humor, mystery, and drama. We feel for Monk even as we laugh at him. And the comedy, while usually at Monk's expense, is done without mocking him. It's a fine line, but they are able to do it. All four of the leads are excellent, helping their characters stand out in what could become caricatures.

And these mysteries are top notch as well. Instead of the standard one murder and three suspects, this show usually goes for one suspect with the perfect alibi that Monk has to break. And there lies some of the best mysteries on TV today. My personal favorite puzzle from this season is "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect" in which Monk must prove the mailer of recent package bombs has been in a coma for three months.

My all time favorite episode of the show (at least so far) is also in this set. "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies" really digs into his character as we see him interact with his brother, who is even worse then he is. The mystery is well done, but it's the brothers' relationship that makes the episode stand out.

While the extras could have been better, this DVD set is great. All 16 episodes are presented in sharp widescreen with Dolby 2.0 surround. Each of the four discs has a couple minute featurette. "The Minds Behind Monk" talks about the creation of the character. There are profiles with interviews with the actors of Disher and Stottlemeyer. Finally, there's a tour of the precinct set. Nothing spectacular, but the episodes are well worth getting it for.

Fans of this show will be pleased to have it on disc to watch over and over again. And if you've managed to miss this gem, get it today. You'll be hooked in no time.

One of the more clever television creations of the new millennium, Monk combines the high-grade suspense of a traditional TV drama with the quirky humor of a big screen comedy. Originally developed for ABC, the show became an instant prime-time lynchpin for the USA network, proving itself one of the more successful shows on cable TV...

In Monk, Tony Shalhoub stars in the title role of Adrian Monk, a former San Francisco detective placed on psychiatric leave. A true legend in the community, Monk solves unsolvable crimes via his towering intellect, photographic memory, and meticulous observations. But the one case that alludes Monk is the 1997 murder of his wife Trudy, which forever altered Monk's capacity to perform his job. Suffering from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and a number of odd phobias, Monk requires a personal assistant, Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), for even his most basic daily activities. Yet Monk remains a police consultant on difficult cases, and he hopes to persuade Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) to give him his old job back. But Stottlemeyer and colleague Lt. Randall Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford), harbor doubts about Monk's mental faculties. As Monk solves cases though, those doubts dissipate and Stottlemeyer and Disher learn to appreciate Monk's special talents - despite his inability to cope with the day-to-day activities of a normal detective... Nevertheless, he remains a de facto investigator as he and Sharona aid the San Francisco police department in solving numerous high profile cases...

The Monk (Season 2) DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" in which Monk is called in to investigate the apparent suicide of a high school English teacher who fell from a clock tower. Monk quickly establishes that the teacher's suicide was a murder, but his prime suspect has the perfect alibi. Perfect, that is, until Monk unravels the mystery... Other notable episodes from Season 2 include "Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame" in which Monk investigates the murder of a wealthy CEO and his beautiful wife, and "Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star" in which Monk suspects a famous television star from Crime Lab S.F. of murdering his wife despite the man's airtight alibi...

Below is a list of episodes included on the Monk (Season 2) DVD:

Episode 14 (Mr. Monk Goes Back to School)

Episode 15 (Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico)

Episode 16 (Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame)

Episode 17 (Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus)

Episode 18 (Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man)

Episode 19 (Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater)

Episode 20 (Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect)

Episode 21 (Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy)

Episode 22 (Mr. Monk and the 12th Man)

Episode 23 (Mr. Monk and the Paperboy)

Episode 24 (Mr. Monk and the Three Pies)

Episode 25 (Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star)

Episode 26 (Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny)

Episode 27 (Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife)

Episode 28 (Mr. Monk Gets Married)

Episode 29 (Mr. Monk Goes to Jail)

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