After watching the season six finale of Monk, I am now eagerly awaiting season seven! A Monk finale hasn’t left me wanting to watch more this eagerly since the second season finale “Mr. Monk Goes to Jail”.

Every episode this season has been memorable. The guest stars this season were great. From Sarah Silverman’s return as Monk’s biggest fan, to Snoop Dogg in Mr. Monk and the Rapper” (complete with a rap-styled rendition of Monk’s theme song :)), to Deidrich Bader of The Drew Carey show fame as a nudist, to Howie Mandel as a cult leader, each big name guest star really shines this season.

There were also some really great moments, such as Monk trying to figure out why he recognizes a woman he never met before, Monk becoming a bank security guard to get his wife Trudy’s bracelet back, Monk coming to terms with putting an innocent man behind bars, Julie bonding with Mr. Monk after she gets him to relate to her teenage love by asking him about Trudy, Dr. Kroger’s rebellious son realizing the difficulty of his father’s job, the Captain feeling his relationship with Monk strained after Monk suspects the Captain’s girlfriend is guilty of murder, and Natalie worrying about her daughter when it seems that someone is murdering everyone named Julie Teeger.

Even the average episodes this season still have their moments. We get to see Mr. Monk enjoy truly himself for a moment in “Mr. Monk and the Man who shot Santa” and we get to see an artistic representation of Mr. Monk’s view of the world in “Mr. Monk Paints his Masterpiece”.

The best episode this season though definitely has to be the two episode finale, “Mr. Monk is On the Run”. Mr. Monk finally catches up with the six fingered man who built the bomb that killed his wife Trudy. Unfortunately, Monk is soon afterwards accused for murder himself. He escapes from police custody, and works to find a way to clear his name, and to try to piece together the puzzle of how Trudy was killed once and for all. I love this episode so much, as it shows that most of Monk’s debilitations are due to his loss of Trudy. When Monk feels that he can finally close his most important case, he is capable of so much. He still has his neuroses, but they aren’t crippling to him. I hope they continue the series even after Trudy’s murder is solved as I really love to see Monk functioning as part of the world rather than feeling completely crushed by it.