- Title: Monk – Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation
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Monk Monday takes us back to San Francisco and the toils of the defective detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub). The First Season of Monk has a couple of episodes that take Monk from the comforts of San Francisco. “Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation” begins with Monk, Sharona (Bitty Schram), and Benjy (Max Morrow) already on vacation at a beach resort. While Sharona attempts to enjoy herself, Monk is miserable, at least until Benji witnesses a murder. However, when no evidence of the crime can be found, proving what happened proves nearly impossible.
Much of the humor of the episode comes from Monk being uncomfortable in the hotel and from Polly Draper who plays the hotel’s over-the-top head of security Rita Bronwyn who proves to be Monk’s only ally against the hotel manager who doesn’t want his guest disturbed by an investigation of a murder that no one other than Monk and Benji believe occurred. One of the running gags of the episode is Benji finding the hidden body over the course of the episode multiple times, but it vanishing before he can show anyone and give credence to his story.
This won’t be the last time we see murder follow Monk (in fact, we’ll get something similar in the season finale). The Rear Window setup works, especially having it be Benjy rather than Sharona to witness the crime, to provide an initial distrust of the adults (many of whom have stake in a murder not occurring, even Sharona). While a wealthy CEO provides a momentary red herring, the true murderers turn out to be the hotel cleaning staff whose cleaning work Monk greatly appreciates. The episode ends by teasing defeat for Monk, only quickly for the detective to find the clue he was missing, silently smile at the hotel staff, and lead them to the body.
