Mr Monk and the Astronaught

Mr Monk and the Astronaut takes the concept of the locked room mystery, the impossible murder  to the extreme and was a really clever episode. This story coming from the end of season four sees the dysfunctional detective, Adrian Monk become convinced that an astronaut killed a woman even if he was in outer space at the time of the murder. Of course we know Monk is correct, he always is, but we have to find out how this seemingly impossible killing was carried out.

Of course I'm not going to give the answer away here - there may be some readers out there who, like me, are only now discovering this wonderful show but all I will say is that it was a bloody clever episode. And yes you can find weaknesses in the logic if you look hard enough but that doesn't change the fact that Monk is one of the best cosy- type crime series in many years. I bloody love this series and am now immediately starting season five.

Season four was filled with some great episodes - a stand out for me was Mr Monk Bumps his Head in which an amnesiac Monk find himself lost far from home and is taken in by the always brilliant Laurie Metcalf who claims to be his wife. She has just returned from a foreign  holiday and claimed she and Monk met there and quickly fell in love and were marries. As well as a top class mystery this episode contains some of the best character scenes of the entire season.

At the heart of the show is the remarkable performance by Tony Shalhoub but the supporting cast are all quite excellent and the chemistry between Ted Levine's police captain and Jason Grey-Stanford's Lieutenant Disher adds considerably to the show. Monk may be over in TV land but the entire eight season run is available on DVD and I'm glad I still have four seasons to go (I've just started season five) and I may just start all over again after watching the very last episode.

Monk - sheer genius!