Mr. Monk Paints His Masterpiece

The owner of a junk yard has booby traps set up all over his property. One night a silent gunman enters the property and is slowly coming toward the owner who warns him to "come no closer". He comes closer, trips a wire, and gets cut in two with a shotgun blast. When the police are investigating the scene, Monk notices some art supplies for sale at the junk yard and buys some canvases and paint. This was because Monk was advised by Dr. Kroger that he might enjoy taking up a hobby.

But Monk has a hard time being creative, since part of his compulsions is to see things only as they are or as he thinks they should be. Thus he obsesses about circles, bananas and their lack of flatness, and individual lines. Then one day a Russian comes to Monk, claiming to be an art collector. He says that he sees genius in Monk's paintings and offers to buy all he can paint for thousands of dollars per painting. This gives Monk a swelled head, and he loses all interest in investigating crimes and begins dressing ridiculously in a bright red beret and frock. His fellow art students at the community college don't know what to say because, after all, someone was willing to pay big money for what they see as junk. Monk even tries to pay Dr. Kroger with one of his sketches and is incredulous that he wants actual currency instead. What goes on here? Watch and find out.

The funniest bit of the episode is a "portrait" of Natalie that Monk paints that is smartly not shown to the audience, so you can just use your imagination as to what it might look like. The Russian calls the portrait "pig woman". Natalie thinks it is a portrait of Stottlemeyer until Monk advises her otherwise, and Natalie is beyond embarrassed that the thing even exists.

In attempting to solve the murder of a junkyard owner, Monk takes up painting. Don't ask. A stranger then appears (the wonderful Peter Stormare) and offers Monk substantial sums of money for his attempts at art. Monk then begins wearing a matching beret and artist smock to his art classes. While it may be easy to spot the bad guy, figuring out the whys and wherefores of this convoluted mystery will have you doubled over with laughter or in disbelief, or maybe both. Monk's art teacher is archly played by Victoria Tennant, whom any film buff will instantly recognize from years past. And watch the transformation of the goth girl in Monk's art class from cynic to sycophant as Monk keeps racking up sales of his scribblings. She's a hoot.

When Monk becomes bored, Dr. Kroger and Natalie try to get him to turn to a hobby. A murder has been committed in a kind of junkyard/flea market. So while investigating, they come upon a set of artists supplies. Monk takes up painting. He has no sense of art, but soon a Russian man comes to him and pays outrageous amounts for his "work." His head swells and he soon begins to think he is hot stuff. The results are pretty funny.

Victoria Tennant, who was superb in All of Me, guest stars in this fine episode of Monk. Hard to believe that Monk was filmed in the 2000s, before Twitter and Facebook were invented.

Anyway, Monk immerses himself in the art world and takes it very seriously indeed. But there is an ulterior motive for sure layered in this episode.

Okay, the mystery is decent, everything else is decent. Except why did Monk have to set fire to his own paintings knowing they were vital pieces of evidence to the counterfeiting case. Also, I get it, the painting of Natalie is terrible, but Randy is right it's a piece of evidence now in a major counterfeiting conspiracy, so don't try to burn Nat. This could have worked, but why have Monk make such a stupid decision like that just to lure the gangster out of the house. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.