Mr. Monk and the Astronaut

I guess a criminal with a good mind could come up with what happened here, but it is such a reach. An astronaut who has political aspirations kills a hooker who is going to reveal some nasties about him. He makes a mistake. He judges and belittles our friend and that sets things in motion. There are a couple really good scenes in this one. Monk learns.

An astronaut, nearing a mission, is at a girlfriend's place where she reveals to him that he's in chapter five of her new book. Apparently, it's a sexy book. Since the astronaut may also be running for political soon, he obviously don't want this book published. I say "obviously" because he is shown putting poison in her drink.

Five days later, a maid comes in and sees the dead woman hanging. It didn't take a genius to see this wasn't a suicide. Even Capt. Stottlemeyer deduces this in a hurry. So, how do they find out it's the astronaut who killed the woman?

A so-so episode that started off very promising but wound up with a bunch of unrealistic and stupid scenes, such as the classroom scene, the exaggerated character of the astronaut (played well, however, by Jeffrey Donovan) throughout and the ending - none of which were very credible.

Monk faces a homicidal astronaut in MR. MONK AND THE ASTRONAUT. Jeff Donovan of BURN NOTICE and CROSSING JORDAN plays a hugely egotistical astronaut who murders an old flame in a truly bizarre fashion. It is up to Monk to figure out how the guy did it, since he was in orbit around the Earth at the time of the murder. Donovan steals every scene he is in, although after goading the shy Monk in a school hallway confrontation, it is plain the preening flyboy has sealed his fate. Monk does a fair amount of running around in this episode. And his run-in with the condescending astronaut is right out of an older episode where Monk confronts a homicidal doctor who thinks of himself as bulletproof and Monk as a mental midget. The ending is far-fetched, but watching Monk run all over creation in an attempt to expose the astronaut was different, I must say.

What I like about Monk is his humanity. The juxtaposition of his human frailties, shortcomings, and weakness with his strong talents in other ways and his resilience. This was explored in this show by his interaction with the astronaut who has an over abundance of self confidence to the point of arrogance that he plays against Monk to make him feel inferior. Some of the plot details here are stretched a bit far in terms of plausibility though. Most irritating to me though is the classroom speech scene. I have worked as a teacher and never would myself or any of the other teachers I worked with have allowed those students to behave like that without intervening in some way. We certainly would never leave students unattended with invited guest speakers so to think a teacher just let that go on was ridiculous to me. Nit picky maybe but this is Monk where the central character's obsession with details is both a strength and weakness. It makes the inconsistencies in characters actions, details and reality in the stories seem to stand out more harshly sometimes. Still loved Monk! :)

I remember this episode as a great one, and now seeing it years later I still agree. One of the most fascinating and 'impossible' cases to solve for Monk. I mean how does an astronaut kill someone while he's orbiting in space! But Monk knows he is the guy.

It is a genius plot to work out, that I couldn't remember how the murdering astronaut actually did it. But also the culprit is so pompous and annoying, on my third view i have to put it down a couple of points to 8 from the original 10. It's not too cringeworthy either as other episodes where Monk's phobias and idiosyncrasies are really on display. However, as someone said in the trivia, the teachers or Natalie should have stopped the kids from pointing lasers at Monk. But he manages to face a few of his phobias in this episode, and the ending staring down an airplane is something hardly any of us would do!