| “ | Here's what happened... | „ |
| ~ Monk before he lets his summarization and one of his most famous iconic quotes |
| “ | You'll thank me later. | „ |
| ~ One of Adrian Monk's most famous quotes |
| “ | Wipe, wipe,wipe! | „ |
| ~ One of Adrian Monk's most famous quotes |
| “ | He's the guy... I don't know how he did it. But he did it. | „ |
| ~ Another one of Adrian Monk's most famous quotes |
Adrian Monk is the titular main protagonist of USA's Monk franchise, debuting in "Mr. Monk and the Candidate" (the first episode of the first season) and last appearing in the movie sequel.
He is a private investigator and former detective for the San Francisco Police Department who suffers from obsessive-compulsive and post traumatic stress disorders. However, Monk is known for his high level intellect, and wide arrange of phobias. He is the widower of the late journalist Trudy Monk, the step-father of Molly Evans, the best friend and surrogate brother[8] of Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, a close friend of Randy Disher, and the former employer/close friend of Sharona Fleming and Natalie Teeger.
A cold case involving the murder of his wife, Trudy, is his primary motivation for putting criminals away and is part of a larger conspiracy. He is also known for his many fears (heights, sanitation, etc), which tends to get on other people's nerves at times. However, he is a good man at heart and due to being a stickler for details is a master detective.
He is portrayed by Tony Shalhoub, who also portrayed Alexander Minion in the first three Spy Kids films, a character in 13 Ghosts, and Master Splinter from Paramount's 2010s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action films, Luiggi Debiasse in his college years, Grant Rosenmeyer as a teenager, Aaron Wayne Hill and Aaron Linker as children.
History[]
Early Life[]
Adrian Monk was born on October 17, 1959 and was the youngest of two boys. When he was eight, Adrian's father abandoned the family after claiming he was going out for Chinese food downtown. However, Jack never came back, causing Adrian to resent his father for years to come.[9]
Season 1[]
Catching the Carnival Killer[]
Adam Kirk, a lieutenant with the San Francisco Police Department and Stottlemeyers old partner, is arrested for the apparent murder of David Gitomer. Monk, Sharona Stottlemeyer and Randy are at the courthouse, attending Kirk's bail hearing. Stottlemeyer hires Adrian to figure out who really did this and tells him that he'll owe him one day. During the investigation, Monk finds out Gitomer made self-inflicted wounds on his torso and the crime had something to do with Leonard Stokes, the man who previous accused Kirk for brutally arresting him. With Gitomer's death, Stokes is released from prison on a technicality. Despite Adrian agreeing to help Leland out, Stottlemeyer praised Monk but doesn't vouch for him in front of the board because he fears Adrian's not ready to gain his badge yet.
Feeling betrayed and hurt, Monk refused to talk to him. When vacuuming the floor, Adrian figured out that Gitomer was stabbed by the Ferris wheel operator Kitty Malone to make Kirk look like a corrupted cop instead of a hot tempered one. At the amusement park, Sharona gets on the Ferris wheel to find Stokes, and he turns up to be on the ride with Sharona. He tried to attack Sharona while the wheel was in motion, and Monk attempted to climb on the Ferris wheel despite his fear of heights. However he surrendered when the police showed up in force, and was taken back into custody. Later, Adrian was thanked by Kirk for helping him regain his badge and reputation. Stottlemeyer orders Monk to never give up on getting his badge back.[10]
Season 2[]
Going to Mexico[]
Monk is later lured to Mexico by Dr. Madero to get revenge on Monk for previously indicting him in a previous case and blaming him for his wife's suicide, even though Adrian never met the guy. Previously, Monk had testified against Dr. Madero when he was Dr. Luis Nivara. It was the result of the insurance fraud scam that was ran by Nivara in San Francisco and Monk's subsequent testimony against him, He and Sharona are assisted by Lt. Plato and Cpatain Alameda - two expies of Stottlemeyer and Disher. There, Adrian becomes dehydrated due to the lack of Sierra Springs water bottles not being sold in Mexico. Monk explains that Madero cut the chute from the opening, but because he didn't wear gloves and left fingerprints on it, which Alameda plans to compare to his.
Murder at the Circus[]
Later in, solving the case of a circus performer, Monk learned about Sharona's fear of elephants and is apathic to her plights throughout the whole episode. However, he tries helping her get over her fear by introducing her to the elephant, Dede. During the case, Monk figures out that Sergei's ex-wife, Natasia (AKA the "Queen of the Sky") was the one who shot Sergei and the one who instructed Dede to kill her trainer through a walkie talkie.[11]
Stottlemeyer and Monk, an Odd Couple[]
A few weeks later, after the oldest man in the world is murdered, a wedge is driven between Karen and Leland, resulting in him moving in with Monk for a while. However, the two end up driving each other crazy to the brink of wanting to nearly kill each other. Despite this, Monk and Sottlemeyer work the case together. After Karen and Leland reconcile, Stottlemeyer and Monk agree to not do this for a long time. Despite this Leland and Adrian still fist-bump each other, showing their friendship is on the mends.
Season 3[]
Getting Fired[]
Monk is fired by the new deputy police commissioner Brooks for no reason other than Monk once testifying against Brooks' friend who was a crooked cop. He goes to the crime scene but is excited off the property by a reluctant Stottlemeyer and Randy. Monk later goes to a job interview and Is devastated that he got the job despite its health benefits. However, when Adrian solves the case, his friends pitch in humiliating Brooks by Karen videotaping Sharona taking his toupee contained hair donated by the victim. In order to get the Stottlemeyers from around this embarrassing moment be put in Karen's documentary, Leland forces Brooks to rehire Adrian, thus giving Monk his job as a private consultant back.[12]
Mob Hit[]
Season 4[]
Season 5[]
Season 6[]
Season 7[]
Adrian's not been sleeping well because of his nextdoor neighbor playing the piano next door and the recent death of his therapist Dr. Kroger, who died of a heart attack. He also buys a house that is owned by an older man who was a thief but was murdered by his handyman Phillips' girlfriend. Phillips offers to help fix Adrian Monk's newly bought house. However, monk's contractor has ulterior motives, namely finding a large sum of money hidden somewhere in the house. He and Natalie are held hostage by Phillips as he starts looking for the money Joe hid.
Fortunately, Natalie is well versed in Morse code so she and monk send out an SOS signal using the chimney which Stottlemeyer and Randy see. Just as Phillips is about to kill Natalie and Adrian when Stottlemeyer and Randy save them. Monk finally moves out of his newly purchased house and back to his Apartment 2G. Finally coming to terms with Dr Kroger's untimely passing, Monk opens the window and he reads as he enjoys his next door neighbor playing the piano, with a portrait of Dr Kroger on his mantle.[13]
Season 8[]
COVID-19[]
Mr. Monk's Last Case[]
Personality[]
Monk is a very neurotic man with countless compulsions that nobody but him can make sense of, as well as being obsessively clean. He feels an overwhelming need for everything in his surroundings to be orderly and in its place, even down to every police officer in the area wearing matching socks, otherwise, he cannot function. He also has a comprehensive list of strange phobias, including height, frogs, and (for unexplained reasons) milk. As such, some people get mildly irritated with Adrian's quirks and antics. However, Adrian is still a man who grieves for his late wife. However, his closest friends accept these quirks, with even Stottlemeyer making sure that Monk can concentrate on a crime scene, like popping bubble wrap with him after Monk stepped on them and also shooting out a junkyard car's remaining headlight to make them uneven. Stottlemeyer considers Monk to be a fragile person at times or strange by some other people.
Apart from all of his phobias and somewhat being cautious when it comes to using money, Adrian is also capable of sympathy and empathy due to losing his wife all those years ago. He was able to bond with Natalie due to them both being widowed and understanding similar losses. Adrian also reassured Leland he was not going to lose Karen when she was in a car accident due to a sniper shooting at the repo truck. Stottlemeyer responded that he once said that to Adrian, causing the latter to become crestfallen upon being reminded of his wife and the former to apologize for his words.) He was also disgusted by the actions of corrupted individuals, as he disgustingly asked one suspect in "Mr. Monk and the Playboy," "What kind of man are you?" He also calls out Mr. Kloster in "Mr. Monk and the Genius" when he calls their chess game over Monk retorts that this wasn't chess; it was murder and that he took the lives of innocent women. Monk also called Judge Rickman on his actions of murdering Trudy and another woman for the sake of a job, ultimately leading the Judge to realize his mistake and then later shoot himself with Monk's gun rather than be arrested.
He is also mild-mannered but will lose it occasionally whenever someone threatens his loved ones or anyone insults his wife and her death, as he was provoked to attack a radio show talk host for making fun of his grief.
Yet despite his eccentricities, Monk is brilliant and observant - perhaps because of his manic attention to detail. These traits, combined with his deductive mind, make him one of the SFPD's best assets.
Appearance[]
- Species: Human
- Gender: Male
- Hair Color: Dark Brown
- Eye Color: Dark Brown
- Ethnicity: Caucasian (partially Lebenese)
- Age: 40s-50s (man series); 64 in the sequel film
Adrian Monk is a handsome Caucasian male with brown eyes, and short and curly black-brown hair, with a few grey streaks and a very light five o'clock shadow. He speaks in a soft-spoken and mild-mannered but will become intense or hard whenever someone makes fun of Trudy, his grief, hurting any of his friends or standing up for himself.
He generally wears suits in shades of black, gray, or tan in his professional environment. His typical ensemble includes a white long-sleeved button-up shirt worn beneath a jacket, paired with trousers and either black or brown dress shoes. He consistently keeps his jacket buttoned. In terms of jewelry, Adrian continues to wear his wedding ring, identifying himself as a married man despite the absence of Trudy.
In the sequel revival film, Adrian physically looks the same he did fourteen years ago, but with several wrinkles and a few grey streaks in his hair.
In 1980, he was 21 years old. During the flashback depicted in "Mr. Monk and the End," he was 38. His ages in subsequent seasons were as follows: 43 in Season 1, 44 in Season 2, 45 in Season 3, 46 in Season 4, 47 in Season 5, 48 in Season 6, 49 in Season 7, 50 in Season 8, and finally, 64 in the movie.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Genius level intellect/criminology: Adrian is an extremely gifted and talented individual whose intellect is unmatched, especially in criminology. His obsessive-compulsive nature may cause obvious problems in his day-to-day life, but it is also in fact a major boon for his crime-solving skills, as it gives him a remarkable talent for noticing things that stick out or don't add up about a crime. When he had doubts of catching a high school teacher, Mr Philby, he thought he was smarter than him but according to Sharona nobody is smarter than him. He is very understanding of criminal behavior and can tell how a person could commit a crime.
- Deduction: Adrian's detective skills are so great that he can early determine if a death has been ruled out as a homicide or suicide just by simply walking into a room. In 1990, when Adrian started working with Stottlemeyer, Leland recalled how he and Adrian entered the scene of a supposed suicide and Monk had figured out that it was a homicide simply by waking into the room. However, when Stottlemeyer or other people don't believe him, Adrian looks for proof to support his theories and convinced people.
- Photographic Memory/Assiduousness: Taking great care, attention, and effort, Monk is a stickler to l for detail, which allows him to solve cases and realize his deductive reasoning. He finds it hard to concentrate when in the presence of loud sounds and mismatched socks. He can tell when something is moved or something that shouldn't be there, as he did in "Mr. Monk and the Earthquake" when he suspected a woman of killing her elderly husband merely by looking at the pictures and a nearby cupboard being toppled over.
- Firearms: Despite rarely using guns these days, Adrian is still capable of defending himself with firearms. In "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees," Adrian was able to tell the difference between a .22 and .38 caliber. He found it strange that the owner kept a .38 caliber yet had bullets fit for a .22 and made Adrian realize the owner had two guns instead of one. Additionally Adrian used to be a detective which means he learned how to shoot firearms at a police academy.
- Marksmanship: In the premiere episode, "Mr. Monk and the Canidate," Adrian managed to wound one of the assassins with a gun in order to save Sharona's life, even temporarily getting over his acrophobia and mysophobia (fear of germs). Later in "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing," Adrian shot and killed a suspect in order to save his best friends, Stottlemeyer shortly after regaining his eyesight. He could also hold people at gunpoint, as seen when he and Natalie were threatening her ex-boyfriend Paul Buchanan. He first shot at a quail point blank to prove to Paul he wasn't bluffing before threatening Paul with it. He later threatened Rickover. However Adrian found it difficult to shoot Rickover due to him suffering from a poisoning and because it wasn't what Trudy would want
- Heightened Senses: Monk is fairly sensitive when it comes to smell or noise. According to Sharona, Monk can smell the The residue of a gun fire in a room that is small even after four days. He is able to hear things when others can't, which sometimes makes it harder for him to think. In "the sleeping suspect," Monk couldn't concentrate on a house bombing because the bomb squad was conversing to loud. Later in 2004, he couldn't answer Stottlemeyer's question to solve an ambassador's murder because of a nearby person was using a jackhammer when Monk and Stottlemeyer were talking on the sidewalk.[14]
Weaknesses[]
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Gullibility:
- Phobias:
Equipment[]
- Clarinet[17]
- Gun: As a former police detective, Adrian owns a Lennon Wesson handgun, which he keeps in a box in his closet.
- Beretta 92FS: As a former homicide detective/inspector, Adrian owns a Beretta 92FS which he uses at various moments in the series. In"Mr. Monk and the End," Adrian stole a police officers gun when he threatened Judge Rickover. However, Monk dropped the pistol due to being weakened by his poisoning. In the confusion, Monk dropped the pistol.
- Randy Disher's Beretta 92FS: In 2002, Adrian stole Randy Disher's pistol in order to save Sharona Fleming from Ian Sykes.[18]
- Ruger Model: Adrian grabbed a Ruger Model 77 (identifiable from the paddle stock, and the built-in strap ring on the forestock, both of which are visible for a second) from the sporting goods section of the "Mega-Mart" and tosses it to his ex-partner, Joe Christie, who uses it to shoot out the tire of the getaway van.
- Smith & Wesson 6906: Monk used this gun to threaten an actress from his favorite TV series.
- 12 Gauge Over/Under Double Barreled Shotgun: Both Natalie and Monk used a 12 Gauge Over/Under Double Barreled Shotgun to threaten Paul Buchanan.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Mrs. Monk † - Mother
- Jack Monk - Father
- Darlene Monk † - Stepmother
- Ambrose Monk - Older Brother
- Jack Monk Jr. - Paternal Half-Brother
- Trudy Monk † - Wife
- Molly Evans - Stepdaughter and Close Friend
- Marcia Ellison - Mother-in-Law
- Dwight Ellison - Father-in-law
Friends[]
- San Francisco Police Department
- Leland Stottlemeyer - Best Friend and Former Boss
- Randy Disher - Close Friend
- Sharona Fleming - Close Friend, Former Nurse and Former Assistant
- Natalie Teeger - Close Friend and Former Assistant
- Monica Waters - Former Love Intereest
- Leyla Zlatavich - Former Love Interest
- Sherry Judd - Former Crush
- Ellen Morse - Ex-Girlfriend
- Michelle Rivas - Former Love Interest
- Charles Kroger - Friend and Therapist (deceased)
- Neven Bell - Therapist
- Kevin Dorfman - Friend (deceased)
- Joe Christie
- Marge Johnson - Maternal Figure
- Bob Costas
- Chet Walsh
- Samuel Waingaya
- Darnell Rudner
- Julie Teeger - Friend and Daughter Figure
- Benjy Fleming - Friend
- Gail Fleming - Friend
- Cheryl Fleming - Friend
- Roderick Brody - Former Bully
- Harold Krenshaw - Former Bully
Enemies[]
- Ethan Rickover - Arch-Enemy and Wife's Killer (deceased)
- Frank Nunn
- Warrick Tennyson (presumably deceased)
- Dale J. "The Whale" Biederbeck III - Rival
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In Mr. Monk and the Three Pies, Monk's apartment is mentioned to be on Pine Street.
- Monk puts cinnamon on his popcorn.[19]
- Monk graduated from University of California, Berkeley. ("Mr Monk and the Class Reunion")
- Monk may have an eidetic or photographic memory since he mentions to Dr. Kroger that he actually remembers his own birth.
- According to Mr. Monk and the Airplane, one of his favorite musicals is The Music Man.
- Monk was part of the track club in high school but quit after an incident where he bent down to tie his shoe but missed the starting gun as a result.
- Monk plays the clarinet. [17]
- Although it is stated in Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum that Monk is allergic to tomatoes, it is shown that he can eat one without a problem[20].
- In total, Monk has been arrested three times over the course of the series.
- Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum, when he walked into someone else's house, mistaking it for his)
- Framed for the murder of Frank Nunn, Trudy's murderer [21]
- A final time was when he was arrested for obstruction of investigation in Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic.)
- Monk has been institutionalized at least once.
- In the episode Mr. Monk Meets His Dad, Monk is heard saying "After 39 years...", indicating that Monk is 47 years old, since the last time he saw his father was when he was 8.
- According to the episode "Mr. Monk and the Big Game", Monk has solved 105 murders since the start of his career.
- His father's abandonment of him and his wife's death are Adrian's sore spots and one of the few times he took things seriously.
- In Season 7 episode "Mr. Monk Buys a House" , it is revealed that Dr. Kroger died of a heart attack as did his actor in real life. Monk was upset by this and was forced to get a new psychiatrist with Dr. Bell. He currently has a picture of Dr. Kroger above his fireplace. The episode was dedicated in Stanley Kamal's memory.
- Adrian has six love interests in the series; second only to Sharona, who had the most number of love interests in the series.
- It is revealed in Mr. Monk and Little Monk that Monk had a crush on a girl named Sherry Judd. He was later reunited with her three decades later when she hired him to investigate the murder of her housekeeper. He thought about asking her out, with even Captain Stottlemeyer and Natalie encouraging him to do so but Monk couldn't because Sherry still had romantic feelings for an art restoration worker and he was forced to back off.[4]
- Before the series, Monk married Trudy, the only person who could keep most of his OCD symptoms at bay. However after her death, Adrian became ballistic with his OCD and that he can't truly find love again until he found out why she was killed.[18]
- In "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman," Adrian fell in love with another woman Monica Waters due to her similar appearance and personality to Trudy as well as her OCD traits. However she has more control of her disability and it turned out she has a husband who is suffering from schizophrenia. When Stottlemeyer insisted that she was a suspect and he saw Adrian was in love with her, he had to remind him that Monica wasn't Trudy. At the end of the episode, Monica decided to go be with her husband but not before Monica thanked Adrian for helping her realize this.[2]
- In Season 3, Adrian went on a date with Michelle Rivera, a PR worker from an electric company; but that ended in disaster when Adrian discovered the restaurant was on the top of the building. She still kissed him on the cheek and told Adrian she would like to again but this time a restaurant on the first floor.[6]
- In Mr. Monk Falls in Love, Monk falls in love with Leyla Zlatavich, who is also suspected of being the killer, and another woman who looks similar to Trudy.[3]
- In Mr. Monk Gets Even, Adrian has a girlfriend named Ellen Morse.[5]
- Adrian and Randy are the only characters of the main cast to be stepparents while the other main characters have biological children.
- He is also the only main character who has a stepdaughter.[22]
- "Mr Monk Gets Jury Duty" is the only episode where Tony Shalhoub and Tony Levine do not share any scenes together or interact with each other except Monk calling to warn him about the two convicts escaping from jury duty.
- He is the only character to appear in all 124 episodes of the series' run.[22]
References[]
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