Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink

The series follows Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub), a private detective with obsessive–compulsive disorder and multiple phobias, and his assistant Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard).

Written by Hy Conrad and directed by Andrei Belgrader, "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink" was created following a long-time desire of the staff to center an episode on Kamel and make a vacuum bag pivotal in a mystery.

Dr. Charles Kroger arrives at his office and finds Adrian Monk and Harold Krenshaw arguing over who should get the following session.

They enter the office and find Teresa Mueller, the building's cleaning lady, dead, and the patient files scattered.

When Monk returns with Natalie to Dr. Kroger's office, they meet Francis Merrigan, who owns an importing and exporting business based in the same building.

That night, someone throws a rock with a threatening note through the window of Dr. Kroger's house, bolstering the theory that one of his patients is the killer.

Inside the truck, Monk sees a broken Turkish figurine and remembers the vacuum bag was empty.

[3] The idea of hiding the crucial piece of evidence in a vacuum bag had been on the writing table for years at the time that this episode was written.

However, the writers believed that having a maid as the victim required a main character to work with in order to give some personal involvement.

[7] IGN's Colin Moriarty said one can "have a hardy laugh at the high level of dysfunctionality" with the episode while highlighted the one-armed therapist and mainly the interactions between Monk and Harold as the responsible for its humor.

[8] On his blog Cultural Leanings, critic Myles McNutt affirmed Shalhoub did a "tour de force comic performance" and that "It features most of Monk's best qualities: his feud with fellow patient Harold, his insecurity about his mental health, his reaction to a new therapist with only one arm, and his broad comedy.

[7] Similarly, Raven Snook, a TV Guide contributor, appreciated the fact that the doctor's home life was explored in the episode.

'"[12] Chris Beachum, writing for the same newspaper, stated it was "the weakest episode" of the series to ever being submitted for the Primetime Emmy Awards, and, unlike other reviewers, considered the grief scene "just too forced and 'showy.

[9][11] However, he lost at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards to Ricky Gervais for the Extras episode "Sir Ian McKellen".