Monk – Mr Monk Is On The Run Pt. 1
And now your annual dose of plot advancement. A burglary takes place where they things stolen are the same components as used in the bomb that killed Monk’s wife Trudy. A clue at the scene leads Monk to the mysterious six fingered bomber, who Monk seemingly murders.
Another Tom Scharpling script, and even on a serious episode, he again avoids the treacly pathos that pervades the worst Monk episodes. And delivers a great scene of Randy buffoonery involving a smoothie. Also we get something of a real mystery that needs solving, before we, the viewers, know what happened. Looking to be a great end to a season that has been strong most the way through.
Psych – Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead
Another horror themed finale for Psych, as Shawn and Gus investigate the disappearance of a mummy that seemingly walked out of a museum. The relationship between the two leads seemed a little strained, almost to the point of hurting the charm of the show. Not sure if this is poor writing or foreshadowing… something. Seeing as the thing I said they had been subtly foreshadowing actually happens in the last seconds of this episode, it may be deliberate, in which case, great. I’d hate to see the show fall into the cycle of hating their own characters so early in it’s life. It tends to happen when the natural behaviour of characters in a show seem to have all been exhausted, and so they start to deliberate mock that behaviour and have them become caricatures. Later seasons of The Simpsons or Friends are good examples of this.
Apart from Gus’ anger bordering on grating in the hiding from the camera sequence, this was a fine TV mystery, with the high standards of fairness maintained nicely. Plus the callback to the paleontologist episode gave the series more of a feel of a coherent universe.