Monk insider?

If you didn't see the season premiere of Monk this past weekend, you have one more chance tonight. I must say, I had no idea that there was going to be a new assistant because Bitty Schram quit. They announced the casting change last August, but since I don't follow Monk news, I was totally surprised.

I went to the Jump the Shark site to find out what other Monk viewers think of this change, and saw the following comment, from what sounds to me like a Monk staffer:

What discriminating viewers have realized for a while was that Monk and Sharona had a dead end relationship that wasn't quite a friendship nor an Employer-Employee relationship, and that their interactions were increasingly shrill and unsympathetic. It wasn't growing and it wasn't going anywhere. On top of that Ms. Schram increasingly would spend far too much time on the sets arguing about how her character should be involved with each scene and it was becoming a drain for all the other actors to try and politely accommodate her. The show is actually quite odd to work on in that most of the principal actors confuse themselves into believing that they (and they alone) are the actual directors of each scene. The classic cliche of the Director having to sweetie/baby accommodate each inane comment has never been so pronounced in recent years as on this set. Don't get me wrong, these folks are all good and generous people, but the delusions of artistic importance are fairly stunning to watch on this set. If it didn't earn me such long and lovely overtime hours I'd probably be upset, but as it is...