28 Prime Payoffs

Ok, yeah, I know, I missed a day. Did you notice? Actually, it's a good thing--when you don't see entries here or at one of my other blogs, it means that I found things to do other than sit in front of a computer screen.

But getting back to our thematic meme for this year, I want to talk a little bit about Monk, the worldwide favorite TV show. It's finishing up this season, and actor Tony Shalhoub is talking it up.

In this interview, he talks about one or two of the things that have made it a favorite series of mine.

I think, if I had to choose one thing, I would say that I would want people to take away this idea that sometimes people’s problems or neuroses are really the things that are kind of a blessing in disguise, and even though there’s, you know, sometimes there’s pain associated with these things that sometimes in the face of adversity with obstacles to overcome, people can really kind of soar and find their higher selves and I think that’s what we’ve tried to do on the show is we’ve portrayed this character as someone who turns his liability, his liabilities into assets per his life.

...in any comedy, what I try to do is I try and find out what are the more serious aspects of the character. And, conversely, when I do a serious role, I try and find out what’s funny about the character. And the beauty of this particular character is that I’ve had the opportunity to do both comedy and drama within one series, one character.