Monk episode review — 4.7 — Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding

Original air date: August 19, 2005
Director: Anthony R. Palmieri
Writer: Liz Sagal

Rating: 8/10

Natalie is to go to her brother’s (Rob Benedict) wedding, and she’s dreading it, as she doesn’t get along well with her very rich family. Her date cancels at the last minute, so she needs someone new. Instead of Monk, she goes with Randy, who she doesn’t seem to like all that much.

Before all that, though, it’s Randy’s birthday, and Monk covers the cake in saran wrap to keep the candles from dripping on it. But they leave the candles on for too long and what seems like a half-decent idea is proven disastrous, as the plastic wrap catches fire before Stottlemeyer puts it out with an extinguisher.

Natalie’s poor relationship with her family is fueled by her parents’ unwillingness to accept Mitch, which makes her surprised that her parents are so enthusiastic of her brother’s bride, Theresa Scott (Ashley Williams). Shortly after arriving at the wedding, Randy’s nearly killed in the parking lot, which gets Stottlemeyer and Monk involved in the case.

The wedding photographer turns up dead, and things get really interesting. Randy’s okay, and trying to go through photographs of people at the wedding that Stottlemeyer took, hoping to identify the killer. Monk suspects it’s Theresa, as she’s clearly lying about her parents’ deaths.

My favorite scene is when Monk stumbles upon the bachelorette party, with a cop stripper who he mistakes for a cop, and brings to the crime scene.

Stottlemeyer eventually figures out that the wife is a “black widow,” who marries rich men and kills them on their honeymoons. Randy was investigating her for one of her previous marriages, so that’s why he was nearly killed. And Monk has to make a speech to delay them from leaving as Stottlemeyer hurries to get a very injured Randy down to identify her.

This is where the episode most suffers, I think. There’s some real potential here with Monk, but it’s never as funny as it should be.

Honestly Monk isn’t that funny in this episode. Other than the scene with the stripper which is pretty good. This is really more of a Natalie episode, and it is pretty good.