So now that I've got a DVR, I think I'm going to start watching this regularly (I still wish they'd put it somewhere other than Friday night though). The reason is I heard an interview with him on the radio this morning (on Q101's "Morning Fix" program) that was quite funny. They were calling the show the "anti-CSI," and he more or less agreed. Tony said he hates seeing computers in TV and movies with all the "clackety-clacking" and not knowing what's going on or getting bored when there's a lot of that going on. Though maybe he doesn't realize that most of the time there really *is* nothing meaningful going on :)
At any rate, the funniest part of the interview was his description of the first two episodes of this season (spoilers!) In the first episode, Sarah Silverman returns in a Monk-stalker role she's played before, but she does much more this time. And in the second episode, it's called something like "Mr. Monk meets a rapper" or something, and none other than Snoop Dogg is guest starring. He was laughing about it saying, "could you get any bigger opposites?"
Monk's the kind of show that just takes a couple of episodes to get familiar with his mannerisms, and then it's hilarious, consistently. Tony also said something like, "It's the TV show for people that don't watch TV." I wouldn't go that far, but I'd say it's very unique and definitely more character-driven than plot-driven, and it works incredibly well. If you've never seen the show, give it a shot. There's a reason it's won a lot of awards in a short amount of time.
He also mentioned how they don't like making pop culture references so the show doesn't appear dated when viewed later. You can listen to the whole interview in MP3 format here.
