The end of an era

It happens to everyone at some point in their life.  

It was Christmas Day 2006.  My family and I had opened all our presents; the Grandparents were sleeping after the Christmas dinner; my brother was playing with his new gadgets and my parents were doing the washing up.  I, however, was in the lounge, sitting in an armchair feeling a little bit sorry for myself.  Yes, I had lots of lovely new things.  Yes I did appreciate everything that my parents and family had got me, I had been very lucky.  But there was one thing missing...something I had been asking for since my Birthday.

Suddenly my Dad enters the room.
"Laura, did we give you Monk?"  I look up astounded that Dad was capable of mind-reading.  I shook my head.
"Oh..." he says and walks out.
A few minutes later both the parents come into the lounge.
"Are you sure?"  Yes, I said, of course I was sure. I'd been wanting the four season box set of Monk for a long time.  My parents looked at each other a bit bewildered and a hushed conversation ensued that I didn't really listen to.

Dad disappeared.  I heard his footsteps falling on the stairs.  A few minutes later he reappeared with a brown card-board box in his hand.  It was Monk!  Turns out they had ordered it a few months earlier and had hidden it in a different place to where presents are usually kept.  And from then, a new man entered my life.

Adrian Monk, an OCD detective, has been the main character of an American television series for eight seasons (from 2002-2009).  For the past five years I have been watching all the episodes as I got the box set of each season.  The first box set I got in 2006 was seasons 1-4, roughly 72 episodes.  It took me one month to watch during my 3rd of University.  At times I was watching four episodes a day as I used Monk to distract me from the impending doom of a dissertation and the oncoming "end of the world" as I finished my first degree with no idea what to do next.  It became a talking point as it was all I really talked about.  At times I remember becoming a bit "OCD", straightening picture frames, organising books to be in ascending height etc. 

The following four seasons saw me through my PGCE and NQT year, two years of my life that were pretty pressured.  I would leave the box set on my desk until "the right time" came for the next episode.  I even saved the majority of season 8, the last season, for when I moved to Italy, as I knew that then I would need Monk the most. 

And so.  On Tuesday the 6th of December 2011 I watched the last ever episode of Monk.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do now.  I've been thinking about it for a few days now and I really haven't got a clue...I think I'm still grieving.
  


Randy Newman wrote and performed both theme tunes and this song he recorded for the video montage at the end of the last episode.

Comments

  1. You can borrow my fawlty towers box set if you like ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm...over a week since Monk left and I'm grieving. Might have to take up the offer of Fawlty Towers :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts