That’s the good news — actress Bitty Schram has agreed to reprise her very much missed role as nurse Sharona Fleming, Adrian Monk’s former and first assistant in crime, during the upcoming eighth and final season of USA Network’s Monk.
Then there’s the bad news — she’s only appearing on one darn episode. I guess that’s better than none, though.
The network announced the news earlier this week with an accurate comment from series star Tony Shalhoub included: “We couldn’t think of a better way to help wrap up the series than with the return of Bitty’s character. Bringing some closure to Sharona is long overdue.”
I’ll say. As longtime fans will recall, Sharona left the series midway through the third season in 2004 when her character reconciled with her ex-husband Trevor Howe and schlepped across the country to New Jersey to move back in with him, her son Benjy in tow. Viewers were informed of the development after the fact, in a subsequent episode, and never received a fitting opportunity to say goodbye properly.
The real reason Schram, a best comedy actress Golden Globe nominee for the series that same year, moved on was allegedly due to a contract dispute that wasn’t resolved in her favor. However, the network maintains her departure was because of a change in “creative direction.”
In any case, it’s good Schram and Sharona will return for the last leg of one of USA Network’s most successful series ever and the one that put it on the “quality basic-cable programming” map. If only she were sticking around for multiple episodes, I could be thoroughly thrilled instead of just slightly happy.
Photo: USA Network
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