Mr. Monk’s Last Case

➤Rated TV-PG
➤Peacock

Fans of quirky crime shows can rejoice. After more than a decade, Tony Shalhoub returns as Adrian Monk, the obsessive-­compulsive detective plagued by a laundry list of phobias.

At the beginning of Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie, Monk is struggling. Retired for 10 years, he’s trying to puzzle out a purpose for his life. He was working on a book about his exploits, but the publisher canceled his contract because his prose focuses on minutiae rather than the solving of crimes. To top it off, COVID-19 left the germophobic genius even more of a nervous wreck than usual.

Monk decides the world would be better off without him, so he begins planning his own death. That might sound heavy, but the audience knows that’s a plot device and that their hero is never in serious jeopardy. Viewers know Monk just needs a crime to solve, and he becomes his old neurotic self when he crosses a tech titan who won’t stop at ­murder to get what he wants.

Mr. Monk’s Last Case proves to be an enjoyable diversion for fans of the original Monk TV series. Besides Shalhoub, most of the core cast return. Traylor Howard and Héctor Elizondo are back as Monk’s assistant and therapist respectively. Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford return as Monk’s law enforcement allies. Andy Breckman, who created the series, pens the witty script.

This movie isn’t much weightier than a typical episode of the series, only running to 90 minutes. The first half-hour gets us up to speed on Monk’s bleak life, and the rest of the movie unfolds more or less like a TV episode. But staying true to the old Monk formula works—we get a satisfying police procedural with just the right blend of ­comedy and drama.