"Mr. Monk and the Leper"

Virtually everything’s in repeats tonight, so not only should we be grateful to the USA network for uncorking an original episode of “Monk� tonight, we should be doubly (or trebly, or quadruply) happy that it’s actually a very good episode.

For gimmicky reasons, the show’s producers have decided that the episode should be shot in black-and-white, like a film-noir flick from the ’50s. Tonight’s installment is entitled “Mr. Monk and the Leper,� and opens with Monk (Tony Shalhoub) tremulously entering a seedy bar, where a shadowy figure offers him $25,000 for one night’s work. Monk soon realizes that his client suffers from leprosy, severely elevating his level of panic as he realizes he shook hands – and Monk doesn’t like shaking hands with anybody – with a leper.

Of course, the leper’s reasons for wanting to meet Monk are suspicious, as is much of the rest of the story: You could likely solve the mystery faster than alleged super-genius Adrian Monk does.

Still: “Monk’s� mysteries generally take back seat to the comedy and the clever character developments. A throughline tonight concerns how much people who even realize how minor a concern leprosy is these days over-react to being around such a patient: Traylor Howard’s Natalie has a priceless moment when she realizes her date – with whom she’s been swapping spit – once suffered from the heartbreak of leprosy. She’s not the only character to have such a moment, but it’s amazing how easily Howard replaced Bitty Schram, who initially seemed irreplaceable as Monk’s endearing foil.

At any rate, tonight’s episode has a lot more gratifying laughs and inspired plot twists than other recent installments, so much so that the noir aspect emerges as an almost pointless gimmick: No matter how this episode was shot, it would’ve been memorable.

- “Monk:� 9 tonight on USA Network.