lisamproctor

I've been watching Perry Mason since I was a kid, and I never get bored with it. It's somehow both very much a product of its time and timeless. Raymond Burr as Perry is brilliant and charismatic - you can't take your eyes off him. Barbara Hale as Della Street deftly pushes beyond the loyal secretary stereotype to portray Della as a true partner to Perry, not just window dressing. And William Hopper as Paul Drake is both dashingly handsome and goofy.

When you watch this show, you'll quickly see how it has served as inspiration for so many of the crime procedurals on TV today. It's a classic in the very best sense of the word.

I've really enjoyed watching Monk so far, but if this had been among the first of the series I would've gone no further. First, every show on TV just has to have a 12 Angry Men episode, which has become so overdone that's it's pretty much a cliche now. Normally, Monk does well turning familiar tropes on their heads, but it doesn't work here.

The other thing is how Monk's condition is portrayed. The series always plays his OCD and phobias for laughs, and usually it works because we're always reminded that ultimately what Monk is dealing with every day is no joke and no one is more aware of it than Monk himself. But in this episode, the writers skirt around all this by making it seem like it's all an affectation - something he chooses to get attention. Even Natalie tells the judge that Monk is "persnickety" instead being a real advocate for him.

The bottom line is that this episode is so far from being grounded in any kind of reality that it ends up being more annoying than anything else. There is just no way a man like Monk, with his mental health challenges, his career, and his connections to the people involved in the case would ever be chosen to sit on a jury. I recommend skipping this one and rewatching the finale from season 3 instead.