Monk (2002) - 29 major mistakes

Revealing: In the scene where a man is streaking, he is carefully made to look naked. But when he is running through the park, there is one shot where you can see some black underwear.

Continuity: When Mr. Monk is on the run, he steals the man's keys at the Gas Station and then drives the truck in circles and then stops. When he stops, the truck is exactly parallel to the end of the concrete slab where the gas pumps are located. However, when the police arrive, the truck is now at a different angle with the back of the truck now being closer to the end of the concrete slab than the front. The gas station attendant would not have moved the truck himself as the police would have told him not to touch anything at the scene.

Revealing: The fan letter Monk wrote to shirt Inspector 8, shown in close-up where it hangs on her work station wall, consists of the same paragraph printed out twice.

Continuity: In the scene where Willie Nelson is rehearsing, his pigtails change position depending on the shot.

Plot hole: It makes no sense why the police haven't done the most obvious thing and checked for fingerprints on the murder weapon (the knife). It would not only back up the detective's claim that he did not stab the victim (he never touched the knife) but would have given the police a major clue to finding and prosecuting the murderer.

Continuity: In the closing scene with Willie Nelson, there are a few times when the clarinet music changes notes, yet Monk's fingers do not move. There is also one point where Monk takes a breath mid-note.

Continuity: Sharona tells her sister that Monk needs the guest room because he "doesn't sleep on couches," but in "Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man," she had to stop him from taking a nap on the victim's couch.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Captain Stotlemeyer is putting one of the large snakes back in the glass container, he turns and the base of his wireless microphone is visible when his jacket gets bunched up.

Continuity: Whilst Monk is being introduced to the long standing winner on the show a stagehand is adjusting the microphone on his jacket with both hands. As he says "Are you almost done?" the shot changes and the stagehand is just using his left arm to adjust it. The stagehand then pulls his arm away but the next shot he is adjusting the mic again and using both hands to do it. It keeps changing throughout the rest of the scene.

Revealing: When the balloon goes over the cliff, a very obvious dummy replaces Monk.

Continuity: At the end, the glass of egg nog Julie and Natalie leave on the floor disappears after they stand up to talk to Monk.

Continuity: When Monk, the Captain and Disher talk to Dr. Scott during his cardio test, the doctor's hospital gown is falling off his left shoulder in about half the shots, but is pulled up to his neck in the rest. This alternates several times throughout the scene, though he never touches or adjusts the gown.

Continuity: When Monk is leaving Derek Philby's classroom, he is quite content to just pick up a piece of chalk (with his bare hands) to write on the blackboard, but earlier, he makes sure to use a chalk holder to do this and nearly has a panic attack when he gets chalk dust on himself.

Continuity: Natalie carries a large box full of house plants into Monk's kitchen and starts placing them one by one on the counter while he answers the phone. Each time the shot changes, a large red flower switches itself from the left side of one plant to the right side and back again, and sometimes disappears altogether.

Continuity: When Monk is describing the laser pointer incident to Dr. Kroger, the doctor closes his black folder and puts it on the arm of his chair. In the very next shot, it's back in his lap, and he again closes it and places it on the chair arm.

Deliberate "mistake": All the mail bombs are delivered in packages tied with knotted string. The USPO hasn't allowed string-tied packages since the mid-90s (they get caught in automated equipment), but since the knots were crucial to ID-ing the suspect in this episode, that fact had to be ignored.

Continuity: In the beginning of the episode when Ray Galardi is meeting with Steve Marriot the amount of sun between shots constantly changes between shots. One moment that is very noticeable is a shot of just Ray with the hill in the background and a lot of shade. After showing Steve it goes back to Ray and the sun is now very bright.

Continuity: As his hypnosis session begins, Monk's arms change back and forth between takes, from resting on the arms of the chair to folded across his stomach.

Plot hole: While convenient to the plot, the computer system used by the medical examiner is far too poor to be taken seriously for a high level agency. While Monk is unaware of deleting the files on the computer, why would there be a one button push to delete all the files on working cases? Even to not have some sort of password to delete files is questionable, as most systems in offices and workplaces will only have functions like this for administrators, executives etc. We find out that all the files are backed up and are slowly being recovered. However, these types of systems are primarily for emergency scenarios such as fire, flooding and so forth. With the ease that Monk is able to delete the files by accident, it seems a bit hard to believe how easy it is to do.

Continuity: When the captain receives the victim's phone record (outside at the neighbor's house) he calls a number on the bill. But the phone starts to ring (on the other end) before he presses the last digit.