My wife and I subscribe to Netflix video streaming service, and periodically we discover a TV series that ran (or is still running) for a number of seasons, but that we’d never seen before (right now we don’t have a functioning TV, though we do have plenty of screens for Netflix and other “online” TV: 3 laptops and 3 desktops.

After ignoring the frequent promos for a show called Monk when we used to watch cable TV, we gave the series a try on Netflix awhile back and got hooked.  For those who’ve never seen it, it’s about a brilliant but very eccentric ex-detective whose wife was murdered years ago, pushing his OCD into overdrive (and resulting in him getting a medical discharge).  It’s sometime sweet, sometimes a fun whodunit, not much harsh violence (though always a homicide or two).  But, be warned…it sometimes spends way too much time (for our taste) on his OCD behavior (we often fast forward through those scenes).  Overall, a very entertaining and ultimately endearing mix.  And a great and very ear-wormy theme song by Randy Newman, which you can check out in this YouTube video:

And here’s a cute scene about Monk’s thrilled reaction to a “square” tomato, providing a hint of his OCD-style perspective on the world.

And here are scenes from one of our favorite episodes, where Monk’s intense OCD pattern begins to melt away as he spends time with an adorable kid he at first resists taking into his SUPER-tidy home, then comes to love, then has to say goodbye to: