Two years into Monk’s run as TV’s funniest and most eccentric detective series, Adrian Monk’s kindred spirit arrived on the small screen, in ABC’s comedy-drama show Boston Legal. Monk was largely alone in dealing with his own neuroses down the years, except for his loyal assistants, Sharona and Natalie. But maverick defense attorney Alan Shore would have understood him.
Indeed, the best episodes of Monk have a lot in common with Boston Legal, in that they illustrate both the advantages and shortcomings of their protagonist’s unusual characteristics. Alan Shore likewise suffers as much as he benefits from his obsessive tendencies and idiosyncratic personality traits.
One of the few legal dramas where every episode is pretty much perfect, Boston Legal is ready-made for those who enjoy Adrian Monk’s exploits as a private investigator. Like Monk, it blends a wry sense of humor and cozy sensibility with realistic depictions of challenging legal processes.
Boston Legal Is The Perfect Show For Monk Fans
Monk fans looking for another procedural comedy-drama to complement their favorite detective show can’t go wrong with Boston Legal. Its lighthearted take on weighty subject is underscored by brilliantly inventive storylines, deft comic timing, and arguably the most lovable and entertaining central character of its genre.
If this description sounds strangely familiar, that’s because Monk and Boston Legal are incredibly alike. Anyone who loves one will almost certainly love the other. Tonally, it’s hard to imagine two shows from the same era without a direct connection which are better suited to each other’s audiences.
Beyond their sense of humor and matching protagonists, the two series also share similarities in their casting of supporting roles. Just as Monk reframes The Silence of the Lambs villain Ted Levine as a long-suffering police captain, Boston Legal will completely change your opinion of William Shatner, who serves as the ideal comedic foil for James Spader’s Alan Shore.
Spader’s success as Shore in The Practice’s final season is what laid the basis for Boston Legal as a spinoff series about the lawyer, whose colorful eccentricities are ultimately what sets it apart from other legal procedurals. Likewise, Monk wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining or affecting without its title character’s broad palette of neuroses.
While Adrian Monk is afflicted by various phobias throughout the series, including fears of heights, needles, and – most prominently – germs, Alan Shore suffers from night terrors in Boston Legal. Whereas Monk is terrified of dentists, Shore is chronically afraid of clowns.
The pair of them also quickly become obsessed with the case at hand when they’re working, to the extent that it completely takes over their lives. They tend to use highly unorthodox methods in their work, too. Nevertheless, both are incomparably brilliant at what they don’t, and invariably manage to convince their colleagues that the end justifies their unconventional means.
Monk & Shore Could Have Been Best Friends If They Met Onscreen
Because Adrian Monk and Alan Shore existed in unrelated TV universes on entirely different networks, we never got to see them meet onscreen. It’s a shame, because they likely would have become the best of friends. As actor Tony Shalhoub has observed, his character Adrian Monk doesn’t have a comfort zone, something we could also say about Alan Shore.
While Adrian Monk never appeared in Boston Legal, Monk actor Tony Shalhoub did make a guest appearance in David E. Kelley’s previous legal comedy-drama Ally McBeal.
These two eccentric geniuses in their respective fields would enjoy feeling equally uncomfortable together, although there would probably be an initial period of mutual suspicion they’d have to overcome. The original series of Monk and Boston Legal may have ended almost two decades ago, but it’s never too late for a one-off crossover sketch, if Shalhoub and Spader are game.
