Tony Shalhoub’s Adrian Monk (from Monk) is one of the sweetest, smartest, and most unfairly tortured TV characters in history, having spent years solving mysteries with the help of his friends and a certain gift/curse that makes him very good at spotting details that others miss while simultaneously making him utterly terrified of germs and dirt and other things that are unclean—and that’s all after his wife was murdered by Craig T. Nelson (spoiler alert). He lived a hard life on his TV show, facing his struggles with a begrudging warmth, and he earned a reprieve from some of his many anxieties in the series finale by bringing Craig T. Nelson (spoiler alert) to justice. Now who wants to see him struggling to keep his anxiety under control in the midst of the coronavirus? Doesn’t that sound like a blast? Well, here it is, courtesy of Peacock’s new At-Home Variety Show (which we just wrote about earlier today):
Monk was always kind of a sad show, but Shalhoub’s excellent performance always kept it from becoming depressing. We’re living in a very different world than we were when Monk was on, though, and so it feels very different to see him struggling to wash his hands because he keeps getting distracted by a smudge on the mirror. It’s less funny-sad and more depressing-sad. Do we really want to see Adrian Monk being truly miserable now that so many of us are also miserable? Thankfully, the video gets a little brighter when Monk’s friends show up, with Ted Levine, Jason Gray-Stanford, and Traylor Howard all reprising their roles from the show, both in the sense that they’re literally playing the same characters and in the sense that they’re working to help pull Monk (and this short) away from the grim vortex of anxiety. Still, we all wanted to see Adrian Monk again, but… surely not like this, right?
Peacock will continue releasing shorts like this every weekday for the next four weeks. You can find more about it at the link up above.