Natalie becomes San Francisco's "Gold Rush Lotto Girl." The previous one is chased out of the TV station late one evening and killed. (These are the women who read the day's lotto numbers off the ping pong balls.) At the crime scene, the station manager notices Adrian Monk's assistant and - presto! - Natalie Teeger is the fill-in the next night. She does so well that the manager asks if she'd do it full-time, meaning three times a week.
Immediately (at least in the episode) Natalie's face and body is plastered over city buses and she becomes a San Francisco celebrity. People stop her on the street and ask for autographs. She's a star.....and Monk is not happy. She isn't paying attention to the crime job and Monk gives her an ultimatum: pick which job she wants but she can't do both. She quits him! Monk, of course, is now very depressed....but at least he continues on the case. (We all know Natalie will come back to him in the end, anyway.) It was pretty obvious who the killer was, but how it all transpired is kind of neat. We also get a humorous look at a lotto fanatic.....and I mean, fanatic.
The episode, like many Monk ones in the last few years, is more humor than crime story. Some of the stuff with Stottlemeyer and Disher is kind of stupid, but that's normal, too! This episode really belonged to Traylor Howard ("Natalie Teeger") who seems to be getting more and more airtime, but that's okay. She's been with the show now for three years and has fit in admirably, replacing the popular Bitty Schram as "Sharona Fleming."
Immediately (at least in the episode) Natalie's face and body is plastered over city buses and she becomes a San Francisco celebrity. People stop her on the street and ask for autographs. She's a star.....and Monk is not happy. She isn't paying attention to the crime job and Monk gives her an ultimatum: pick which job she wants but she can't do both. She quits him! Monk, of course, is now very depressed....but at least he continues on the case. (We all know Natalie will come back to him in the end, anyway.) It was pretty obvious who the killer was, but how it all transpired is kind of neat. We also get a humorous look at a lotto fanatic.....and I mean, fanatic.
The episode, like many Monk ones in the last few years, is more humor than crime story. Some of the stuff with Stottlemeyer and Disher is kind of stupid, but that's normal, too! This episode really belonged to Traylor Howard ("Natalie Teeger") who seems to be getting more and more airtime, but that's okay. She's been with the show now for three years and has fit in admirably, replacing the popular Bitty Schram as "Sharona Fleming."
