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.

Last Updated: 6/17/2025Network: USA NetworkStatus: Ended
Mr. Monk and the Actor
star
7.16
702 votes

#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.

Directors: Randy Zisk
Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny
star
7.18
651 votes

#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.

Directors: Tony Bill
Writer: Joe Toplyn
Mr. Monk and the Naked Man
star
7.20
604 votes

#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.

Directors: Randy Zisk
Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized
star
7.33
675 votes

#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.

Directors: Michael Watkins
Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa Claus
star
7.33
577 votes

#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.

Directors: Randy Zisk
Mr. Monk and the Blackout
star
7.34
694 votes

#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

Directors: Michael Zinberg
Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert
star
7.36
521 votes

#7 - 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.

Directors: Randy Zisk
Writer: Blair Singer
Mr. Monk Is at Your Service
star
7.36
633 votes

#8 - 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.

Directors: Anton Cropper
Writer: Rob LaZebnik
Mr. Monk and the Miracle
star
7.37
657 votes

#9 - 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.

Directors: Andrei Belgrader
Writer: Peter Wolk
Mr. Monk and the Rapper
star
7.37
531 votes

#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.

Directors: Paris Barclay
Writer: Dan Dratch
Mr. Monk Goes to Jail
star
7.38
607 votes

#11 - 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.

Directors: Jerry Levine
Mr. Monk and the Game Show
star
7.38
702 votes

#12 - 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

Directors: Randy Zisk
Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife
star
7.39
614 votes

#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.

Directors: Jerry Levine
Mr. Monk and the Big Reward
star
7.41
728 votes

#14 - 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.

Directors: Randy Zisk
Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale
star
7.42
874 votes

#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.

Directors: Rob Thompson
Mr. Monk and Little Monk
star
7.43
616 votes

#16 - Mr. Monk and Little Monk

Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/26/2005

Monk flashes back to his early teenage years.

Directors: Randy Zisk
Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever
star
7.43
679 votes

#17 - 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.

Directors: Michael Zinberg
Writer: Hy Conrad
Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk
star
7.44
685 votes

#18 - Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/12/2005

Is Monk hallucinating or is he really seeing Trudy?

Directors: Randy Zisk
Mr. Monk Takes a Punch
star
7.44
700 votes

#19 - 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.

Directors: Barnet Kellman
Writer: Sal Savo
Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star
star
7.44
653 votes

#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.

Directors: Randy Zisk
Mr. Monk Is Someone Else
star
7.44
837 votes

#21 - 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.

Directors: Mary Lou Belli
Mr. Monk Gets Married
star
7.45
645 votes

#22 - 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.

Directors: Craig Zisk
Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa
star
7.45
618 votes

#23 - 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.

Directors: Jerry Levine
Mr. Monk Is on the Air
star
7.45
594 votes

#24 - 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.

Directors: Mike Listo
Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding
star
7.46
675 votes

#25 - Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding

Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/19/2005

Needing a date for her brother's rehearsal dinner, Natalie resorts to asking Lt. Disher.

Directors: Tony Palmieri
Writer: Liz Sagal