We don’t watch much TV around here. The kids watch a little PBS in the afternoons, but that’s about it. Tonight we watched the first two episodes of the TV series Monk with Emmy award winning actor Tony Shaloub. I read a review in WORLD magazine and ordered from our DVD rental service. It was fun. Monk reminds me of the TV detectives of the past that I posted about here. There’s something endearing about quirky detectives like Columbo or Hercule Poirot or Nero Wolfe. They each have their limitations, even handicaps, but they manage not just to overcome those limitations but also use them to their advantage. Somehow the fact that Nero Wolfe is so fat and lazy that he hardly ever leaves his chair much less his house becomes an asset rather than a liability. Miss Marple uses her elderly insight into human nature and her fussy old lady persona to solve crimes that baffle the police. And Monk’s obsessive-compulsive disorder and his multiple phobias become both problems to be overcome and talents to be used. It’s not profound, but it is entertaining–which is more than I can say for any programs I’ve seen advertised on TV recently.