Finally: Somebody more obsessive-compulsive than I am!

I hadn't heard of the TV show Monk when my mother recommended I rent the DVDs collecting this series. She thought I'd sympathize with the title character. She was right; I can see a lot of my own personality traits in Mr. Monk, only he's got them to an even more intense level than I do.

Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) is a former police detective in San Francisco who was relieved of his duties after the death of his wife caused Monk's already-present personality disorder issues to greatly intensify as he coped with this great loss. Monk has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, meaning that he has intense obsessions on many subjects, and compulsive behavior he is incapable of stopping himself from doing. In particular, he's intensely fearful of germs and infection, leading him to wash his hands immediately after shaking hands with anybody (which often makes the people he meets very uneasy), and only drink one brand of bottled water because he distrusts all others. He also insists on straightening any crooked pictures on the wall wherever he is: at home, in a hotel room, in somebody else's office, wherever. Anything disorderly or out of place must always be corrected. And he's careful not to step on the cracks in the sidewalk.

By his own admission, all of this is a curse... and a gift. The same personality traits that make it hard for people around him to stand him, and get in the way of him leading an ordinary life and keeping a job, also make him a phenomenal detective. Detective work, after all, involves being highly observant and noting all irregularities and incongruities that show up, no matter how subtle, which is something for which Monk is uniquely qualified.

The result is that, although he hasn't yet managed to regain his job on the San Francisco police force, he's called in on a consultant basis whenever a bizarre crime emerges which can't be solved by more conventional techniques. Fortunately for him, a lot of such cases come up.

Monk is assisted in his work and his life by his nurse / assistant / associate Sharona (Bitty Schram), whose name provokes in people of my generation an uncontrollable urge to start singing the hit song from The Knack. (Well, at least it does for the more obsessive-compulsive members of that generation...) Like everybody else around him, she gets exasperated at his personality, but manages to cope with it and encourage him to keep on channeling his unique tendencies in a productive direction rather than a dysfunctional one. I've heard that she leaves the show in a later season I haven't seen yet; I don't know how he copes without her.

Monk is constantly torn between the conflicting demands of his compulsion to stick to safe, familiar, and orderly places and things, and his obsessive curiosity to get to the bottom of any incongruity he has uncovered, which sometimes forces him to go to unsafe, unfamiliar, and disorderly places. He manages to live through it, and solve the case, every time.

There's still one case he can't solve, however; the unsolved murder of his wife is the one murder he knows about but doesn't have an answer for. Occasionally, new clues in that case emerge as he pursues other things.

It's a very interesting show, and I do see a lot of myself in him; I, too, feel compelled to straighten any crooked objects I encounter. But I'm willing to drink multiple brands of bottled water, and even tap water through the filter in my refrigerator. So I'm not as dysfunctional as this guy!

This collection contains four DVDs with a total of 13 episodes (counting the two-part first episode as two). The contents:

Disc 1
1-2) Mr. Monk and the Candidate
3) Mr. Monk and the Psychic
4) Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale

Disc 2
5) Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival
6) Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum
7) Mr. Monk and the Billionaire

Disc 3
8) Mr. Monk and the Other Woman
9) Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man
10) Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation

Disc 4
11) Mr. Monk and the Earthquake
12) Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger
13) Mr. Monk and the Airplane

There are also a few bonus features, talking about the creation of this series and about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

It's a good introduction to this series, and it leaves me wanting more. Fortunately, season 2 is out as a DVD set now as well.