I'm a big fan of Monk, but this pair of episodes did not achieve the level of quality of most that I have seen.
The assumption that you can swap one barrel for another in order to incriminate someone is flawed.
Monk's gun wasn't fired and anyone checking the gun would have found gunpowder residue ONLY on the barrel, thus proving that the gun hadn't been fired. A gun owned by Monk would have been perfectly clean, of course.
The shell from the shot would show a firing pin indentation that would not match a shell from Monk's gun since there was no suggestion that his gun had been fired by the person that set him up.
Monk knew he didn't fire the gun and he knew that the shot originated behind him, so he would have asked that the area be tested for gunpowder residue. Although this alone wouldn't have exonerated him, it might have led to an inspection of his clothes and perhaps the bad cop's clothes, etc. for gunpowder. Having no sign of gunpowder on his person might have been enough to exonerate him.
Monk would have known all of this, of course, so he would have had his pals from SFO Police look into these matters right away and they would have been brought up at the trial.
There were a lot of other flaws, but these were the most bothersome to me since they set up the entire storyline.
I don't expect Sherlock Holmes-like level of command of detail in TV mystery screenplays, but this one was far below what we have come to expect from Monk.
The assumption that you can swap one barrel for another in order to incriminate someone is flawed.
Monk's gun wasn't fired and anyone checking the gun would have found gunpowder residue ONLY on the barrel, thus proving that the gun hadn't been fired. A gun owned by Monk would have been perfectly clean, of course.
The shell from the shot would show a firing pin indentation that would not match a shell from Monk's gun since there was no suggestion that his gun had been fired by the person that set him up.
Monk knew he didn't fire the gun and he knew that the shot originated behind him, so he would have asked that the area be tested for gunpowder residue. Although this alone wouldn't have exonerated him, it might have led to an inspection of his clothes and perhaps the bad cop's clothes, etc. for gunpowder. Having no sign of gunpowder on his person might have been enough to exonerate him.
Monk would have known all of this, of course, so he would have had his pals from SFO Police look into these matters right away and they would have been brought up at the trial.
There were a lot of other flaws, but these were the most bothersome to me since they set up the entire storyline.
I don't expect Sherlock Holmes-like level of command of detail in TV mystery screenplays, but this one was far below what we have come to expect from Monk.