Sweetness. This was the main reason Monk caught my heart forever.
Every episode use to have some moments when we feel love is on the air and we see our adorable characters being more human or giving one more step than when we could ever expect. That's exactly when Monk is perfect for me!

I was watching (again) "The Secret Santa" episode and just wanted to comment those last two minutes:
The Captain arranges for Frank Prager to go out from prison and stay with his family although he had a big motive not to do it. And what we see: Ted Levine giving us a gift of a great performance. Emotion on his face, specially on his beautiful blue eyes. Tears. Sweet little tears and we know he's happy. Captain knows he's chosen the right thing to do. And then, the family is reunited. Happy hugs. The song leads us to fell the same.

And when we think it is over, we have more.
Adrian is looking at Trudy's gift. His gift. He's a little sad. But Natalie and Julie are helping him. Christmas is tough for him and they choose to make him happy. That night they are his family.
Julie runs from inside screaming and Natalie follows her. And Adrian follows Natalie. And the miracle (and we'll probabaly see another one this year!) happens: It's snowing on Christmas night and Julie finally find out snow.

And the song makes us feel love again. And Natalie kisses Adrian (ok...on his face) and he doesn't clean it because it's not dirt. He knows it's cherish, after all, it's Christmas night and he's a human, he needs cherish too.
And he lets snowflakes, which for him, "are not perfect, but somehow are beautiful", touch him and as we see him opening his arms to feel the snow we feel it. We feel joy, after all, it's Chritmas night and a miracle has come...Perfect!
One of the most touching last two minutes for me.

There were many scenes where I was touched, but some of them are top of all touching, I would not consider them sweet though, maybe somewhat melancolic:

* In Mr. Monk Goes to the Hospital - where a nurse administers Monk tetracycline, drip drip drip goes the tetracycline in a drip, and Monk can do nothing about it, but he holds Natalie's hand so tight, willing her not to leave him, she leaves him though, but then by all the sudden she turns back and saves Monk's life like on the last second.

*In Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk - when Natalie asked: "How did you know that she wasn't really Trudy?" and Monk said: "When I went to her grave, it still hurt, so I knew.."

At the end of Mr. Monk and the Game Show when Adrian is reading Trudy's old diary, its hard in to give in to complete lachrymose, when he reads the words "no one can hurt forever" because we all know that Monk will. Despite the heart breaking nature of this scene it is still touching because Trudy's words are important to remember and can serve to help all of us through tough times.

It was wonderful to see Monk get a chance to play his clarinet with his hero Willie Nelson at the end of Mr. Monk and the Red Headed Stranger especially since he was deprived of that chance earlier because some jerk contaminated his instrument. The fact they were playing for Trudy just made it that much more heart warming.

Oh yes, those last minutes in "Goes to the Hospital" are really touching. I'd say it's also sweet, but only when Monk is relieved and looks at Natalie as if he wanted to say "thank you". I love when the characters relationships are shown like this. With few words they express the great care they have for each other. Not only between Natalie and Monk, but also between Monk and the Captain or the Captain and Randy. For me the show is more interesting when they explore these aspects.
Thanks for anwering this thread. I thought it was gone forever since there's been much time it was begun

...well, this wasn't "sweet" as in tender, but it shows Tony's awesome talent and shows the personality of Trudy though she isn't there:
In Monk takes Manhattan, the 2nd to last scene when they're in the hospital room of the man who made the bomb that killed Trudy. Monk asks everyone to leave, and the guy asks Monk if he "was" the husband. He says, "I am the husband." Then the bad guy asks for forgiveness, and at THAT moment, there is no OCD, there's no phobia of germs or dirt or the need to touch ... it's just Adrian the widower and the criminal who took his love away. "Forgive you? This is me, turning off your morphine." He turns, pauses, holds his head with his hand, then turns back with tears in his eyes (*awesome performance, Tony) and says "This is Trudy, the woman you killed, turning it back on."

One of my favorite scenes - I could watch it over & over - it's brilliant writing, gives depth to a character that is always there without being there, and also allows Tony Shalhoub's talent to shine. BRAVO!

While I can't remember which epi it was in, one scene that I think is reeeeeeally sweet is when Monk and Sharona are walking away, and Monk told Sharona that he just wants to be alone. Sharona put her hand on his back and said, Ok, I'll go with you. She knew that even if he wanted to be alone, he did still need to know that someone was there and cared about him.



meme

There is a similar thread going called Monk tear Bombs. But all of those are touching as well. Like when he finally finds the Cabbie and he realizes that she has Trudy's corneas. The cab lady is crying and Monk touches her tears, he is actually touching Trudy's tears. Wow!! From "Stays Up All Night".
"Mr. Monk and the kid", when Adrian is telling Tommy a story there is a point that you can see Tony is actually trying to supress a laugh and the tender part comes when Tommy is asleep in his lap and he talks about how he loves Tommy but Tommy could never be happy living with Mr. Monk.

When the new therapist shows up at the ship

The ending scene in Mr. Monk is on the run part two, was moving because it demonstrated how Leland & Monk's friendship has improved since the first season. The Captain was willing to break police procures and help Monk escape being arrested. How much Leland truly cares for Monk was reflected in his anguished face, his expression conveyed what a vile act shooting the man he admires so much was.

Leland's speech when he received a call from Mexico that Monk was dead, has to one of the most touching monologues in history. His statement "Considering what he had to deal with everyday he's the bravest man I knew" in reference to Monk's OCD and phobias was beautiful and tear-jerking. In this moment Leland set him self apart from the mass majority of people (scum) that do not heed the challenges of this disorder who think suffers are weak, lazy, broken and useless, or are just making up excuses. Leland's eulogy made the world a little less horrible, if only for a moment.

Tony's talent...This should deserve a different thread since it's sooo incredible. There's something I've always been thinking: if Tony chose some drama movie to perform he'd certainly be nominated to an Oscar. And he'd probably win. I'd love so see him on big screen doing.I don't know why I think that, but Tony frequently reminds me of Al Pacino. I think his way of acting, principally when he's performing a drama scene is so intense as some Al Pacino's characters.
And the scene you mentioned is still hard for me to watch. Tony is a really great actor!

You're good at that.
I'm keeping an eye on you