I've been a huge Monk fan for a LONG time now (probably since the second or third season) and I have to say that I am VERY disappointed in the way this season has been progressing.

I have yet to see an episode this season that has just blown me away. I was looking foreword to the 100th episode, but they are billing it as "Monk's 100th case" which actually isn't true. For die-hard Monk fans like myself, it was mentioned in "The Big Game" that at that point he had solved a total of 104 cases. Julie and Natalie bought Adrian 100 little trophies for his mantel (one for every case). They gave him 100 to make it "even".

I've noticed a BIG change in the way this season has progressed. At first I blamed it on the loss of Stanley Kamel, which actually is part of the reason I'm not enjoying the show that much. After all, Dr. Kroger was my favorite character.:(

But it's other things too. It's just not as funny as it used to be. I was watching some earlier episodes (ones I absolutely love, like "Farm" and "DJ") and those were so much better. Even the ones with Sharona were better than what's happening now.

I hated the first episode with Brad Garrett, and I won't go into that because I've already discussed it in another thread. But the other ones haven't been that great either. "Lottery" was cute, with Natalie becoming the "Lottery" girl, and I liked "Underwater" as well. "Genius was funny, too. But really something is missing-and it's BIG. Adrian doesn't act like he used to and I don't think it's because he's getting better. I think he actually may be getting worse.

The one thing I really hate is that we were never "introduced" to Dr. Bell. He just appeared. In "New Shrink", Adrian was having a terrible time coping with the fact that Dr. Kroger quit his practice after Theresa died. So I find it hard to believe that he would be completely comfortable walking into a stranger's office (new surrounds, etc) and act as though nothing had happened.

The most disappointing episode of all has to be "Falls In Love". It started out great, with Randy and his girlfriend but it went downhill from there. First of all, Adrian is not likely to fall in love with someone who doesn't look anything like Trudy. And he really had no "Motive" for falling for her in the first place. I was hoping for a cute romantic episode and instead we got this. And where was Dr. Bell? Wouldn't Adrian need some encouragement?

I realize that I might have ranted about Season 7 before, but I just had a few things to get off my mind. I really hope this season improves, but I don't have very high hopes.

As I said before, the 100th episode should be interesting to watch, but I'm not expecting much. It will be nice to see Ambrose again (he's a definite favorite of mine), as well as the other guests, but I hope it's not as disappointing as others this season have been.

Anyone have any thoughts on how Season 7 is going so far?

Andrea