Monk, le retour

Some TV reboots -- or movie-length one-offs based on long-cancelled shows -- turn out to be major disappointments. Not so with "Mr. Monk's Last Case," in which the Defective Detective is called upon to investigate a horrifying accident involving his daughter's fiance. Once again, he drives everyone crazy with his obsessive/compulsive behavior -- the scene in which he pretends to be a bartender goes on for too long (which, frankly, the series' most memorable comedy bits often did, anyway) -- but watching him try to play master mixologist under the judgmental eye of a horde of customers was still laugh-out-loud funny. Balancing out the chuckles: Monk's suicidal tendencies, borne of the fact that he hasn't solved a murder in ten years (and hasn't even been asked to), the memoir he has written has elicited a polite but firm "No!" from his publisher, and he's beginning to feel not just unhappy, but useless. (Never has Shalhoub looked more hangdog, more emotionally drained; every crease on his aging face tells a sad tale all its own.) Most of the old gang is on hand to help him, the villain is as evil as any he's ever encountered, the ending is a tear-jerker, and if the Big Reveal -- that inevitable moment when he explains exactly how the crime was committed -- seems a bit predictable, so what? The movie is a fine addition to the Adrian Monk mythos, and -- even better -- it looks like this won't be his swan song, after all. Maybe he'll follow in Columbo's footsteps and keep coming back. We can only hope.