Daytime TV stinks--TGIM

I'm pretty much on my own all day, just me and close to 200 channels of bad TV. Fortunately, Comedy Central runs repeats of the Daily Show and Colbert, so that the vast wasteland does have the occasional entertainment oasis.
Another break from terrible TV is Monk. I'm not entirely sure why I like the show. It doesn't have the suspense even of Scooby Doo and doesn't come close to a fair to middlin' whodunit like Murder She Wrote. But there is something about the character, Adrian Monk, that is endearing. It must be that he is one of the greatest detectives in the world, yet he is called, behind his back, the defective detective.

He is able to excel despite his flaws and fears. While he rarely overcomes his negative character traits, he continues to do his job in spite of them. The show is more comedy than detective show, more human interest than interesting crimes.

A typical episode would be one like Mr Monk and the Psychic. A local official's wife is killed (by the way, the opening of the show details who did it--mystery solved) and the rest of the episode is used to discredit the psychic who found the body, and to pin the rap on the murderer.

Monk begins nearly every case by deciding "he's the guy," and then setting out to gather evidence. It is sort of a reverse whodunit, may be the best way to explain it. But the show maintains my interest through the interpersonal relationships of Monk, the San Francisco PD, Monk's assistant, his psychiatrist, and occasionally, various ancilliary characters.

Monk's assistant (there have been a couple from season to season) has such duties as providing nursing care for Mr Monk, along with maintaining his list of fears. Naturally, his list is in perfect order. A recent episode included an encounter with frogs. Mr Monk had to decide if he was afraid of frogs (he decided he was) and then had to determine where they went on the list.

I rate this show pretty highly, putting it at a very solid 7.2.