Monk I've been getting a lot of...

Monk
I've been getting a lot of love ever since I promised to give Natalie a chance. And I admit, Traylor Howard was pretty funny tonight, driving Monk insane (instead of the other way around) with her constant "ka-chings" as they furiously searched for a stolen diamond in the hopes of winning a $1 million reward. The opening heist sequence was totally lifted from The Pink Panther movies, with the robber emerging from a rolltop desk sporting a black jumpsuit and a Michael Myers-like mask from Halloween. As usual, the mystery was pretty easy to solve, and the bad guy (in this case, gal) was simple to spot. So I ignored the plot and sat back to enjoy the punch lines, like the excuse Tyler Mane's (yay, Sabretooth!) bounty hunter used when chastised for parking in a handicapped spot: "That's OK. I'm psychotic." Quirky DJ Qualls was also on hand as one of Monk's other competitors, and, of course, he was a technology geek (with looks like his, can he play anything else?). The episode had some pretty hip trappings (well, for Monk anyway), including heist music that sounded like a Muzak rendition of a Chemical Brothers' track, and a reference to crystal meth (do the old folks who watch this show even know what that is? And before you start sending in nasty e-mails saying I'm ageist, I'll have you know that I'm a proud old fogey who was raised on a steady diet of Murder, She Wrote and Matlock). In the end, Monk didn't get the money  it went to the cleaning lady. But wouldn't it have been funnier if Sharona had suddenly shown up and won it instead? Oops, sorry, Natalie!