Monk – Episode 8-8 Review

It's here: the halfway point. “Mr. Monk Goes to Group Therapy” is the eighth of sixteen episodes in the eighth and final season of Monk. I’m sure it’s completely subjective, but it seems like they’re going by far too quickly and each episode seems shorter than the last. Crazy, I know: eight years of anything else (curtains, jobs, elected officials, people) is way too much for me, but I’m just not ready to let go of Monk. That each episode so far this season has been memorable, sharp, and amusing, doesn’t help in my letting go process.

I could easily have watched an hour more of “Group Therapy”, especially since the wrap-up seemed oddly rushed. The episode itself concentrates more on Monk and his relationships than it does on the crime of the week. In particular it deals with the relationships between Monk and the two recurring characters on the show, Dr. Bell (Hector Elizondo) and Harold Krenshaw (Tim Bagley).

Dr. Neven Bell has been Monk’s therapist since the beginning of season seven, when his first psychiatrist, Dr. Kroger, died suddenly off screen. He’s been a reassuring presence that Monk the character needed badly and veteran actor Hector Elizondo (now 72 years old) has been a reassuring presence that Monk the show badly needed after the loss of Stanley Kamel who played Dr. Kroger. It was a difficult transition for Tony Shalhoub in particular. “When I’m in these scenes with Hector Elizondo who plays Dr. Bell, I sort of do this internal toast, as it were, to Stanley Kamel, because he was the original doctor and I like to think that he’s kind of there in those sessions with me. He is missed.”

Harold Krenshaw is Monk’s fellow patient and nemesis since his first appearance in the season three episode “Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf.” This is the ninth episode featuring Tim Bagley as Harold. “I don’t know why they keep calling Harold Krenshaw back,” Tim told me in an interview this past spring, “but I’m thrilled when they do.” He also added, “I think we can all agree that Harold could use some help from Dr. Bell.”

Agreed and Monk can always use some help from Tim Bagley and Harold Krenshaw.

There’s one more actor in this episode making a return appearance on the show: Amy Aquino. She plays fellow group therapy patient, Rhonda. She also played the ill-tempered applicant in “Mr. Monk and the Red Herring” who told Monk he didn’t need a nurse and set his waste basket on fire right before Natalie walked into his life. She still has a sharp tongue as Rhonda, but her character doesn’t fare so well this time around.

It’s a fun and out of the ordinary episode, but it was a little rough on star Tony Shalhoub. “Last night I spent six hours in the trunk of a car with Tim Bagley who plays Harold Krenshaw,” he said during filming. We get abducted and jammed into a trunk. The day before that I was in a swimming pool fully clothed, you know, up to my shoulders. The writers always seem to find really unglamorous places for me to wind up.”

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