Tony Shalhoub and Peacock revive Monk for the coronavirus quarantine

The A.V. Club

Seth MacFarlane's Peacock coronavirus fundraiser The At-Home Variety Show launched Monday night with Monk in Quarantine, featuring Shalhoub's germophobe Adrian Monk struggling to deal with the coronavirus crisis. Shalhoub, who revealed that he and wife Brooke Adams both recovered from coronavirus, was joined in the brief virtual reunion by Monk co-stars Ted Levine as Capt. Stottlemeyer, Jason Gray-Stanford as Randy Disher and Traylor Howard as assistant Natalie Teeger. Did the Monk reunion strike the right tone? "Monk was always kind of a sad show, but Shalhoub’s excellent performance always kept it from becoming depressing," says Sam Barsanti. "We’re living in a very different world than we were when Monk was on, though, and so it feels very different to see him struggling to wash his hands because he keeps getting distracted by a smudge on the mirror. It’s less funny-sad and more depressing-sad. Do we really want to see Adrian Monk being truly miserable now that so many of us are also miserable? Thankfully, the video gets a little brighter when Monk’s friends show up, with Ted Levine, Jason Gray-Stanford, and Traylor Howard all reprising their roles from the show, both in the sense that they’re literally playing the same characters and in the sense that they’re working to help pull Monk (and this short) away from the grim vortex of anxiety. Still, we all wanted to see Adrian Monk again, but… surely not like this, right?"