TV Talk: ‘Monk’ back on the case; ‘Archies’ vs. ‘Archie’

TV reboots get built on ricketier foundations than “Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A ‘Monk’ Movie,” streaming Friday on Peacock.

On the 2002-09 USA cable series, Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) was known as the germ-phobic, “obsessive-compulsive detective.” So it wasn’t that deep into the covid-19 pandemic before Shalhoub, who got covid early, started to wonder how his character might fare under similar circumstances.

“People who were reaching out to me and expressing concern were also invoking this idea that, it’s a ‘Monk’ thing, and how would Monk react?” Shalhoub said in a Zoom interview last week.

Peacock asked Shalhoub and “Monk” creator Andy Breckman to remotely film a public service announcement.

“The public response to the PSA was just amazing and surprising and that triggered [the idea that] maybe there was an appetite to revisit these characters, especially given the state of the world at the time,” Shalhoub said. “Andy jumped on that idea and folded Monk’s experience with a pandemic into the main plot.”

The new movie, written by Breckman, finds Monk, who at the end of the USA series finally solved the murder of his late wife, Trudy (Melora Hardin, returning in ghost form), in a bad place. It’s present-day, but Monk’s experience of covid-19 had an impact and viewers will see some brief flashbacks to early in the pandemic.

“I did not anticipate that [Breckman] was going to go as dark as he ended up going in writing the movie,” Shalhoub said. “But I gotta say, I fully supported and embraced it. We needed to raise the stakes. We did 125 episodes over those eight seasons. We went to some interesting and dark areas but we needed to somehow step up and he came up with a great solution that I knew was going to be a little risky and a little bit tricky to pull off. But I’m glad he went there.”

Returning cast members include Ted Levine as Leland Stottlemeyer, Jason Gray-Standford as Randall Disher, Traylor Howard as Natalie Teeger and Hector Elizondo as Dr. Neven Bell.

Despite the movie’s title, Shalhoub hasn’t ruled out revisiting the character again.

“Initially I felt, well, this is going to be a coda but then we started working on it and we started finding all this new stuff and playing out how all of these characters have evolved,” he said. “So now I don’t know. It’s going to totally be up to the network. Maybe Andy’s got a couple of more tricks up his sleeve. I like to stay open to whatever might come down the pike so I’m gonna just leave it as an open question.”

‘Archies’ vs. ‘Archie’

Even in a post-PeakTV era it was bound to happen: two series with nearly identical titles debuted on the same day this week. Both are now streaming.

In one corner it’s Netflix’s “The Archies,” a 1960s, India-set musical featuring Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead from the comic books. Netflix did not make a screener available by deadline.

In the other corner it’s Britbox’s “Archie,” an engossing four-part limited series about the life of Cary Grant, who was born Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, England. Jason Isaacs stars as Grant.

“It’s not a biopic that’s just ticking off the events in the man’s life,” said writer Jon Pope (“Philomena”) in a Zoom interview Tuesday. “It’s very much a Dickensian story about what was done to a little boy in turn of the century England and how this terrible lie that he was told affected the whole of the rest of his life.”

Pope said he was unfamiliar with Netflix’s sound-alike movie: “I hope there is room for both of us.”

New WQED doc

WQED-TV will premiere the new half-hour documentary “You’re Not Alone: Pregnancy, Postpartum and the Mental Health Crisis” (8 p.m. Dec. 14) featuring interviews with individuals and families whose lives have been impacted by maternal mental health conditions including depression, anxiety and PTSD. WQED did not make the documentary available for review.

Kept/canceled

MGM+ renewed “Godfather of Harlem” for a fourth season.

NBC renewed first-year dramas “Found” and “The Irrational” for second seasons.

Ahead of its Dec. 15 second-season premiere Prime Video renewed “Reacher” for a third season.

HBO renewed “Last Week Tonight” for three additional seasons through 2026.

Max renewed “Adventure Time: Fiona and Cake” for a second season.

“Leverage: Redemption” will be back for a third season that will premiere next year on Amazon’s Prime Video rather than its current home on Amazon Freevee.

Acorn TV renewed “Harry Wild” for a third season to stream in 2024.

Apple TV+ renewed “Foundation” for a third season but canceled basketball drama “Swagger” after two seasons and animated musical “Central Park” after three seasons.

Channel surfing

“Property Brothers” stars Drew and Jonathan Scott will host HGTV’s “White House Christmas 2023” (6 p.m. Dec. 10). … MSNBC will shake up its weekend schedule, adding a new panel show and dropping Mehdi Hasan’s one-hour Sunday program. Hasan will remain at the network as a political analyst and fill-in host. … Adding to its growing roster of sports programming, The CW (WPNT-TV, Channel 22 in Pittsburgh) will broadcast the “2023 Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl” (4 p.m. Dec. 30). … Next year’s Oscars telecast, hosted again by Jimmy Kimmel, will star an hour earlier at 7 p.m. and will be followed by an original episode of comedy “Abbott Elementary.” … Designer Hilary Farr exited HGTV’s “Love It or List It” after 258 episodes. … All eight seasons of ‘80s hit “Who’s the Boss?” are streaming on Hulu. … Summer blockbuster “Barbie” streams on Max Dec. 15 including a version with American Sign Language interpretation. … Prime Video ordered a series inspired by the 1999 film “Cruel Intentions.” … Reruns of “Yellowstone” will continue to air on CBS Sunday nights with season three beginning Jan. 14.