Max Hudson

Max Hudson is the main antagonist of the Monk episode "Mr. Monk is on the Air". He was a shock jock suspected by Mr. Monk and his sister-in law of murdering his wife, despite the fact that he was live on the air. He is arguably one of the most hated and cruel antagonists on the show due to his emotional abuse towards Mr. Monk.

He was portrayed by Steve Weber, who also played Jack Torrance in the Shining miniseries and Green Goblin in Ultimate Spider-Man.

Biography
At some point, Max Hudson's wife, Jeanette, filed for divorce. Unfortunately, for Max, a divorce would have cost him around $30 million, so he decided she had to go beforehand. But he needed to get away with it despite his clear motive. Luckily, for him, his neighbor's dog needed watching while they where on vacation to Hawaii. He came up with the idea of offering to watch the dog while they were gone, training him  (being a Jack Russel, which is a very smart breed) to sneak into Jeanette's room through the ventilation window in the basement while she was asleep to turn on the gas fireplace, and leave with the door closed on a certain signal he would give on the radio during his show: "Jiggle me timbers!". It would all look like she turned the fireplace on, but forgot to turn it off before she went to sleep. He made sure the radio was on in his neighbor's house for the dog to hear, and that his cage was open. He also prescribed sleeping pills for Jeannete to make sure she would never wake up. The plan worked because the security company's diagrams show the house as being wired and monitored 24/7. Not a single person entered or left the house at any point that night. And since the ventilation window only opens about eight inches, and it was the only window open, no one would ever suspect that he simply hired someone to break in and kill her. Plus, he was at a party in Los Angeles the night before, which meant he couldn't have turned the fireplace on before he was on the air.

The day  his plan was put in motion, he and his two radio sidekicks, Little Willi (a short person) and J.J (a joke machine) were on break at the radio station  when Max got a call on the other line from a police officer. Max took the call about his wife in the back room, but before doing so, he rehearsed what he was going to say before being informed about her death.

While Jeanette's death was ruled as an accident, her sister, Linda, was not at all convinced seeing as to how she never turned the fireplace on and knew Max had the motive, as well as the kind of person he was. After she convicned Monk, he too had suspected Max of murdering Jeanette after investigating the scene of the crime himself. His assistant, Natalie, agreed seeing as to how she disliked him as well,  and would leave stores or restaraunts  any time he was on the air.

Monk and Natalie go to Max's  radio station to question him. Unfortunately, it's while he is on the air and they are both made the butt of his and his sidekicks' jokes before they can get anything out of him.

Monk tries to confront Max twice: one other time at his book signing for his novel , Max Hudson: Sex, Lies, and Radio, in which Max tries to convince him Jeanette's death was suicide, but Monk isn't buying it. And a second time on his radio show live, something Max had suggested they do. Things are not going good seeing as to how the jokes Monk had burrowed for the show have not aged well. Things get worst when the conversation leads to them discussing Monk's own marriage. Max uses his late wife's, Trudy's, death to his advantage to mock him even further, with one joke  pushing it too far (you should have called me in to help you with the case-I'm great with solving jigsaw puzzles!). Even Willie and JJ are shocked by this as if there was a line, and he crossed it. This urges Monk to to go berserk and lunge over the table at Max, only to be stopped by security guards who dragg him out. Max, unaffected by this, simply thanks Monk for "stopping by".

After Monk has solved the case, Max arrives at his house, only to find Monk, Natalie, Captain Stottlemyer, Lieutenant Disher, and Linda there ready for his arrest. Before doing so, Monk explaines how he was able to murder his wife by basically using his neighbor's dog as his accomplice. He figured it out when he noticed during the crime scene that a shoe was missing, and that the dog happened to be chewing on one while he was still trying to solve the case at Max's house for the second time. They play a recording of his quote "Jiggle me Timbers!" for the dog to hear, only to dicover that that was the signal for him to sneak into Jeanette's room and turn on the fireplace while she was asleep. The case is closed, and Max is arrested. After he was put in cuffs, Monk dared him to find a joke in the situation, and he could not.

Personality
Max was extremely vulgar, heartless, selfish, and emotionally abusive. As stated by Monk's assistant, Natalie, he was nothing more than a bully. It's briefly stated that he used Jeannete as the butt of his jokes most of the time on the radio. It's also stated by Linda that Jeannette was terrified of him as he always had a terrible temper, and had even been arrested for assault at one point-which brings the possibility that he may have physically abused her as well as emotionally done so. It was for his heartless nature that she filed for divorce. He also had a "welcome" mat that said "Go Away" versus the usual term.

Max seemed to have a complete lack of concience, which is evident not only by the fact that he was willing to kill his wife, but by his dark and somewhat twisted sense of humor. It was stated by Linda that he even went so far as to make fun of Jeanette's death on his show. He was also willing to make fun of Monk's late wife's, Trudy's, death live in the most graphic of details, which pushed Monk too far to the point of physically attacking him. It's highly possible that he did so because he wanted Monk to attack him out of anger and get pulled out by security to avoid being interrogeted any further about Jeanette's death. But either way, it was still cruel, and even his radio sidekicks felt it was a new low for him.

Trivia

 * Max is the first antagonist Monk ever attacked physically out of anger, with the second being Frank Nunn and the third being Judge Ethan Rickover. It should be noted that his reason for doing so to each of them involves Trudy in some way.