The WORST episodes of Monk
Every episode of Monk ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Monk!
An ex-cop suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder solves crimes with various (and usually exasperated) sidekicks. The 'defective detective' may have an abundance of phobias (heights, crowds, and even milk), but also razor-sharp deductive skills, which he uses to help the San Francisco police with especially baffling cases.
#1 - Mr. Monk and the Actor
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/7/2006
While working on a double murder, Monk finds that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery when he finds that an obsessive method actor has been cast to play...Adrian Monk in a new movie.
#2 - Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/6/2004
A law student (Rachel Dratch) offers to get Monk reinstated to the police force in exchange for his help in finding the kidnappers of her beloved grandmother.
#3 - Mr. Monk and the Naked Man
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/27/2007
Monk must confront his prejudice against nudists when he's called to investigate a murder on a nude beach.
#4 - Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/12/2008
Monk agrees to undergo hypnotic therapy as treatment for his OCD and reverts to a different persona.
#5 - Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa Claus
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/7/2007
Monk becomes a social pariah when he shoots a man dressed as Santa Claus. Then he must clear his name and foil a larger criminal plot, all in time for Christmas.
#6 - Mr. Monk and the Blackout
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/9/2004
Three deaths during a city-wide blackout result in a joint investigation by Stottlemeyer, Monk, Sharona, and Disher, with the unprecedented cooperation of the FBI and the help of power company spokeswoman Michelle Rivas, an attractive brunette who is inexplicably attracted to Monk. While Sharona and Dr. Kroger pressure Monk to call Michelle, Disher follows up on Monk's suggestion that the power outage is connected to a '90s radical named Winston Brenner. Everything fits--the handwriting in the note, the phrasing, even a pair of photographs. Everything except one small detail at the end of the report--Brenner died in 1995. When the FBI acknowledges the possibility that Brenner may have faked his own death to avoid a trial, Captain Stottlemeyer presents a tree-hugging former friend of Brenner's with the evidence that Brenner is still alive and reminds him that this particular power outage is also a homicide. When the tree-hugger is murdered, it becomes clear that the killer is indeed Bre
#7 - Mr. Monk Is at Your Service
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/26/2007
When Natalie suspects foul play in the deaths of her parents' wealthy neighbors, Monk goes undercover as a butler to investigate.
#8 - Mr. Monk and the Miracle
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/28/2008
When three homeless men seek Monk's services at the holidays, Natalie convinces him to investigate their friend's death; Stottlemeyer's faith is reawakened after a visit to a monastery fountain rids him of crippling pain.
#9 - Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/25/2006
Monk goes to a rock concert to look for Captain Stottlemeyer's son and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.
#10 - Mr. Monk and the Rapper
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/20/2007
Monk is hired to clear the name of a famous rap star who is accused of murder.
#11 - Mr. Monk and the Game Show
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/13/2004
With Sharona in New Jersey to visit her ailing mother, Monk is left in the very incompetent hands of his annoying upstairs neighbor, Kevin Dorfman, but the prospect of a week with Kevin is eased somewhat by a visit from Trudy's father, Dwight Ellison. Dwight invites Monk (and Kevin) to spend the week with him and his wife, Marcia – and at the same time investigate gameshow host Roddy Lankman, who appears to be involved in a conspiracy to allow one of his contestants, Val Birch, to win every game. Despite the memories of Trudy aroused by spending time with her parents in her former home and the questionable help of Kevin, Monk discovers evidence that Lankman visited Birch's house – and that Birch visited the site of the accident that killed Lankman's assistant, Lizzie Talvo. To discover exactly how Lankman and his crooked contestant are communicating – and possibly prove that they're involved in something much worse than cheating – Monk becomes a contestant on the game show. His knowledge o
#12 - Mr. Monk and the Big Reward
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/3/2006
Low on cash because they haven't had a homicide to investigate in three weeks, Monk and Natalie search for the stolen Alexander Diamond, hoping to win the million-dollar reward. Unfortunately, they have competition in the form of a retired Scotland Yard investigator, a bounty hunter, and a gadget-loving private detective, all of whom want the reward money for themselves. Monk quickly figures out that the heist was an inside job and that one of the robbers was under five feet tall, short enough to hide inside a roll-top desk. He also discovers a clue linking a perpetrator to a transcendental meditation retreat. With their competitors close behind them, Monk and Natalie head for the retreat, where they find the thief, who is unfortunately dead. Meanwhile, Disher is having to interrogate a strange young woman who keeps turning herself in for such "crimes" as stealing pens or murdering a hamster. Monk tells Natalie that he's solved the case and they race to the police station with the other detectives following. The only thing left is to find the diamond before their competitors do.
#13 - Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/13/2004
A tow truck driver is shot dead by a roadside sniper. His truck then careens off the road and crashes into Karen Stottlemeyer's (Glenne Headly) oncoming van, leaving her in a coma. Monk, most interested by the fact that the shooter and the driver were barefoot, must find out what really happened and keep Leland from doing something that could cost him his badge.
#14 - Mr. Monk Goes to Jail
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/5/2004
When a death row inmate is poisoned to death 45 minutes before his scheduled execution, Monk is brought in to find out why and runs into his nemesis, Dale the Whale (Tim Curry), who will offer Monk information about Trudy if he finds who killed the inmate. The suspects, however, are endless, including the prison librarian (Kathy Baker), another inmate (Danny Trejo), and even neo-Nazis.
#15 - Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/26/2002
When a local judge is found murdered, all the evidence points to one man: an 800 lb (360 kg) reclusive tycoon named Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck (Adam Arkin). However, due to his extreme obesity, he is unable to leave his bed.
#16 - Mr. Monk and Little Monk
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/26/2005
Monk flashes back to his early teenage years.
#17 - Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/12/2005
Is Monk hallucinating or is he really seeing Trudy?
#18 - Mr. Monk Gets Married
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/27/2004
When Randy's mother gets married to an antiques store dealer (Nestor Carbonell), Randy becomes suspicious of his new stepfather and asks Monk and Sharona to look into him.
#19 - Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/1/2008
Monk has to help out Natalie when she becomes involved in a lotto scandal.
#20 - Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/30/2004
Monk suspects the star (Billy Burke) of a popular CSI-based TV crime show of killing his ex-wife so that he doesn't have to share his enormous paychecks with her.
#21 - Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/2/2005
When an officer dies after drinking poisoned wine sent to Captain Stottlemeyer as a Christmas gift, the captain suspects Frank Prager, who tried to shoot him outside a bar several months earlier. Searching the crime scene for clues, Monk notes that the bullet holes seem to form a pattern, but neither he nor Stottlemeyer can figure out the message they're intended to convey. After trying unsuccessfully to talk with Prager's young daughter, Monk goes under cover as Santa Claus. This time he learns that Prager is hiding in a church with "three ladies" in front of it. But when Prager is caught and interrogated, it's clear that he had nothing to do with the poisoned wine. With the other suspects on Disher's list also eliminated, Monk and the captain are back to square one. But when Monk opens the card accompanying his gift from the Christmas party, he finds the clue that solves the case.
#22 - Mr. Monk Is Someone Else
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/28/2009
Monk assumes a dead hitman's identity in order to foil an assassination plot.
#23 - Mr. Monk Takes a Punch
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/8/2008
Monk finds a new lease on life after giving up his hope of reinstatement to the SFPD.
#24 - Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/27/2006
During the investigation of a murder in a junkyard, Captain Stottlemeyer punches a cop named Ryan Sharkey, who claims to be having an affair with the captain's wife, Karen. The only witness to the murder, a homeless man named Gerald or Jerry, has disappeared, but Stottlemeyer suspects businessman Michael Karpov, who is facing charges for money laundering and had a motive for killing the victim, who was scheduled to testify against him. Removed from the case and ordered to take anger management classes, Stottlemeyer asks Monk and Natalie to follow his wife, whom he suspects of lying about her whereabouts. They discover Karen having lunch with a man but are only able to photograph him from the back before being interrupted. Meanwhile, the homeless witness has been stunned and thrown from the third floor of a building but survives the fall, thanks to a corrugated refrigerator carton. Disher places Karpov in a line-up otherwise composed of police officers, including Sharkey, but Stottlemeyer, still enraged at Sharkey, disrupts the line-up before the procedure has been completed. An apple provides the clue that Monk needs to solve the murder case, and Karen reveals the identity of the mystery man she had lunch with. Unfortunately for the captain, it isn't Sharkey.
#25 - Mr. Monk Is on the Air
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/2/2007
Monk goes toe to toe with a popular radio shock jock who is suspected of killing his wife.