Tonight is the big premiere day of USA’s fantastic detective series – MONK and PSYCH.

Up first on the 8th and final premiere of MONK, Elizabeth Perkins, from WEEDS, stars as Mr. Monk’s favorite child star all-grown-up as a boozy kind of whore in “Mr. Monk’s Favorite Show.”  He is eventually hired to be her bodyguard and slowly comes to realize that she’s not the naive little girl she used to be.  Over the years, Monk has slowly gone from ex-cop with a few small issues that were made worse after the murder of his wife to a man with so many idiosynchrisies and difficulty is so many situations that it’s a bit unbelievable.  That’s not to say that the premiere isn’t fun, because it is.  It’s nice to see Tony Shalhoub in an afro, “fitting in” with the family on his favorite Brady-Bunch-type show.  Natalie and Monk have gotten so much closer over her seasons with the series, that I’ll be sad to see that go.  I just hope that Randy (who gets dumber and dumber each year) gets a good pay off.  Look for some awesome guest stars this season – after Perkins and Rena Sofer in the premiere, Monk gets visits from Bitty Schram, Erik “Freaking” Balfour, Reed Diamond, Kelly Carlson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (LOST’s Mr Eko), Jay Mohr, Meat Loaf, and plenty of others!  The series finale of MONK airs December 4, 2009, so  enjoy it while you can!

After the opener of MONK comes the brilliant premiere of PSYCH’s 4th Season “Extradition: British Columbia.”  After Shawn and Gus escape for some downtime on their oddly romantic vacation in Whistler, they run across Despereux, the dodgy art thief that Lassiter has been tracking forever.  Played with glee by Cary Elwes (THE PRINCESS BRIDE!), he proves a great adversary for Shawn.  What I loved most about this episode (and it’s hard to pick a favorite) is that the writers and cast and crew did the best they could with their surroundings – you can only convince the audience that Vancouver is Santa Barbara for so long before you need to do something.  So taking a break, and actually showing Vancouver for what it truly is, it was a nice break!  The emotional ramifications from the season finale (which found Shawn choosing a relationship with Abigail – Rachael Leigh Cook, who returns this season – over pursuing something with Juliet) will bleed through the season and it’s nice to see these characters start to really investigate the emotional side of their characters.  I can’t wait to see more episodes this year – I’ve already watched the premiere 4 times, and will watch again tonight!
After you tune in tonight, let us know what you think!

*Don’t forget to enter the contests for great giveaways from these great shows:  PSYCH and MONK!