Mr. Monk And The Season Three Packaging

One of the gifts I gave my wife this Christmas was seasons 1-5 of Monk on DVD. Like any good OCD gift, I individually wrapped each season in its own box, then bundled the sets together with ribbon. To make sure the presentation was really nice, I then put the bundled boxes inside another box, which was wrapped identically to the bundled packages, complete with a ribbon. It was a lot of fun to wrap, and even more fun to watch my wife open.

Once all the seasons were placed together on the shelf, I noticed something that had apparently passed quality control: For seasons 1, 2, 4, and 5, the “front” of the DVD had the spine of the set on the left, and the opening where the slim cases were kept on the right. For season three, however, the spine is on the right, and the opening is on the left. This means if all the seasons are facing the same direction, you see four spines and an open end, or four open ends and a spine. The packaging for season three is backwards.

How did this possibly happen? We’re talking about a series about a brilliant detective who would go absolutely nuts if he ran into this, and it’s being done with his own DVD sets. Sure, they can all be faced the same direction, and currently I’m looking at the spine of all five boxes, which looks nice, with a red/white alternating color scheme, but I know season three is facing the wrong direction. It bothers me, and it sure as hell would bother Adrian Monk.

Someone at Universal should be fired over this. Not just fired, but they should have to print up a batch of new season three cases, faced the right direction, and the person who signed off on the misdirected packaging should have to go hand deliver the new packaging with a face-to-face apology for all the OCD fans out there who have a set that looks good, but clearly is wrong.