There are not a lot of great things about "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall" because its feature homicide case is uninspired, impractical, ghoulishly handled and reveals nothing worthy of a series' penultimate season finale.
If anything, the 16th, season eight episode is misleading in that one official overview and promo indicated that something new was sure to develop about Trudy's murder when Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) investigates the disappearance of a city council member (Tamlyn Tomita) key to preserving the site where his wife died. But nothing new comes about from the homicide case once it is solved. It is at best just another run-of-the-mill murder.
Not only does the homicide case in question offer no new clues, but by the 41-minute-long episode's end Monk still does not agree with the prospect of the demolition of the parking garage where Trudy was killed, making it a pointless story to tell given the unfounded behavior he exhibits. He stops the development of a children's playground, only takes on a missing person's case out of self-interest and mistreats an admittedly annoying, but pregnant secretary (Kali Rocha).
Usually Monk's misbehavior is funny when adversity forces him to grow as a human being by doing something inconvenient other than preserving a decrepit crime scene he himself admits has no further investigate value and that his phobia of germs would otherwise cause him to dislike.
With that having been established, why does the defective detective spend all his time at Trudy's murder site and not at her grave?
A possible answer is that it is key to a premise that allows Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) to make inappropriate remarks about two dead German tourists who die on a site that conveniently becomes important later on, Lt. Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) accept a hot dog bribe and Harold Krenshaw (Tim Bagley) to extoll the strangest theory as to who might be behind his former colleague's ill fate.
Funny about the premise is that it has Monk interact with Harold at city hall over the former's new therapist, but only so long so as to provide time for several misfired jokes. Monk flirting, dirty hot dogs, Traylor Howard's Natalie Teeger's aversion to certain sex toys and the obnoxious secretary, who lands the job because of the most absurd circumstances, only make for a few light-hearted chuckles.
One has to wonder why the series' writers came up with this episode other than that they are saving the best for the last season, having nothing creative left to bring to the table, or simply decided to entirely phone it in for a change.
"Mr. Monk Fights City Hall" is the definition a filler episode if ever there was one that is not necessary to watch if it can be helped. Just know that the season eight finale features a small trinket of "Monk" trivia and move on.
Popcorn rating:(2 out of 5 pieces)
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