(S05E07) Dr. Kroger, Monk's shrink, typically plays a small role on the series. That isn't to say he's not important to Monk. Actually, he's very important to Monk, and Monk considers Kroeger's office his home away from home, the place where, as he tells Natalie, "it all doesn't happen."

When a cleaning lady in Dr. Kroeger's office is stabbed to death, Kroeger fears it may have been one of his patients. This becomes too much for him to bear so he decides to retire. Of course, Monk doesn't take this very well at all, and goes through all the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The difference is that Monk goes through them all in just a matter of seconds, and then repeats them over again as if stuck in a loop.

Kroeger suspects a patient named Joseph Wheeler, who once threatened him, may have been the killer. Wheeler works at Animal Crafters, a Build-A-Bear Workshop-type place, but his alibi checks out so they have to rule him out as the killer. Monk and Wheeler have a moment of solidarity when they realize they both lost someone very important when Kroeger quit his practice. They each stand clutching teddy bears and mourning the loss of their shrink.

Mark Wahlberg, one of the creators of Entourage, is working on another show for HBO. This time, it's a half-hour comedy about a shrink who is calm, cool, and collected with his patients but turns into a total nutcase when he sees his own shrink. Ah, the irony. It's called In Treatment and is based on the popular Israeli series of the same name (of course, in Hebrew it's called BeTipul).

Filming for In Treatment is scheduled to begin next month. No word yet on a cast or an air date.

I have to give props to Reuters for its headline for this story, ABC Matches Heche with "Men". As Mandy Moore would say, "that's funny."

Heche will play a shrink who moves to Alaska when she learns her husband has been cheating on her, only to discover Alaska is full of single men (it is?). Also cast in the pilot are Derek Richardson, from the movie Hostel, and Emily Bergl, who played Francie Jarvis on Gilmore Girls. We last saw Anne during an arc on Nip/Tuck where she played a woman in the witness protection program.