Our Rating:
Date of Show: July 27, 2007
Network: USA
Director: Randall Zisk
Awards: This episode won no awards although several web reviewers gave it an 8 out of 10 rating.
Series Awards:
Emmy Awards: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Tony Shalhoub (2003, 2005, 2006), Outstanding Main Title Theme Music Jeff Beal (2003), Outstanding Main Title Theme Music Randy Newman (2004)
Golden Globe Awards: Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy Tony Shalhoub (2003)
Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Tony Shalhoub (2004, 2005)
Principal Cast: Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Traylor Howard (Natalie), Jason Gray-Stanford (Lt. Randall Disher),
Ted Levine (Captain Leland Stottlemeyer).
Guest Cast: Diedrich Bader (Chance Singer), Alfred Molina (Peter Magneri)
Comedy, 54 min, TV Rating: PG-13, Color, Series available on DVD
"MR. MONK AND THE NAKED MAN" EPISODE
PUTS SILLY HOLLYWOOD SPIN ON NUDE BEACH WHO-DUN-IT
Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) tries to overcome his issues with the flesh while solving a murder on a nudist beach.
Monk isn't simply offended or disturbed by nakedness. Bare skin has an unprecedented power to unsettle the meticulous
detective.
Alfred Molina and Diedrich Bader guest star in the episode. Molina (Chocolate, The DaVinci Code) plays Peter Magneri,
an obnoxious high-tech millionaire who owns the big house on the hill above the traditional nudist beach. Magneri wants
the local Council to evict the nudists so he can have the beach for himself. Bader plays Chance Singer, the “beach mayor,”
and he gives the illusion of being nude all the time during the show, as do his fellow nudists, although the strategic
placement of props gets a workout: surfboards, beach balls, and Venetian blinds are all employed to comic effect to keep
the episode rating PG.
Monk insists on accusing Singer of the murder he could not have committed, since he was in jail at the time of the
crime, simply because he is a nudist. Challenged to make the accusation stick, Monk rattles off a series of
preposterous scenarios, from the Apple-Core-Key Theory to the Double-Jointed Jail Escape Through-a-Bathroom-
Window Theory.
The detective even breaks into the nudist’s trailer home on the beach after dark seeking incriminating evidence.
Unfortunately for Monk, Singer returns unexpectedly with several nudist friends, and Monk is forced to hide in a
closet where he must endure the sight of way too much skin for his sensitive system. It is in this scene that SCNA
literature is supposed to be displayed, but all we got was a reference to a Beach Etiquette brochure without seeing it.
The Naturist Society got on the scoreboard with a poster on the wall, which is visible throughout the scene.
Of course the dialog is contrived as only a Hollywood writer could do. Examples:
Monk: “Captain, there’s only one way to deal with them. We’ve got to ship them back.”
Captain Stottlemeyer: “Ship them back where, Monk?”
Monk: “Exactly.”
And another one:
Captain Stottlemeyer: “Monk, this is San Francisco, there are a million weirdos out there. Some of them are wearing clothes,
some of them are not. “
Any true nudist will wince at the nudists stereotypes, especially when the nudist’s insist that they never wear clothes
– ever! (“I have nothing to wear to the hearing. I mean I really have nothing to wear!”) And there isn’t a sitting towel in
sight when the group sits down to talk. Basically the writers have placed Singer into the creepy fringe of society,
talking about “bad vibes” while driving nude around town in his open-top jeep (yeah, like that could happen!)
Ordered to sort out his personal issue, Monk sees his devoted therapist. In a conveniently revealing, Monk realizes
that his fear of nudity springs from a surreal memory of his own birth and being beaten by a man in a mask.
Overcoming the emotional scars of that recollection, and putting it in perspective as a positive event, Monk regains
his relative composure in time to solve the crime (the dead woman’s roommate is the murderer) and he offers an
olive branch to the always-nude Singer, the man he formerly targeted: "I'm sorry for hating you and accusing you of
murder, and I've learned a lot and I'm a better person."
[Note: If you look really fast, there is a crumpled AANR sign in the back of Singer’s jeep as he drives up..]
Bader forgives the detective’s prior bad behavior with a big hug – the last thing the phobic Monk wants to happen.
As the episode closes, Monk stoically walks fully clothed into the crashing surf to get “clean” again.
I suppose we should be thankful that the writers actually tried to not embarrass themselves or the real nudists
watching the show. It could have been a lot worse, but some day I wish a real life, practicing nudist would act as a
technical consultant on these episodes.
