just saw pilot episode of Monk. new years day cast favorites marathon. and I wondered if the character of the girl with Monk changed after the pilot? no ... she was there until halfway thru third season then left for undisclosed reasons, show said the character had moved back to New Jersey. character is named Sharona, she's a practical nurse hired for Monk.

Natalie vs. Sharona (Traylor Howard vs. Bitty Shram)
11:21 PM I was awestruck at the character of Sharona. You have to be kidding me, I said. There can't be people out there with the balls to cast a REAL person, with a real person's flaws, an average physique, and a real person's reactions to Monk. To have the testicular fortitude to create a character whose youthful indiscretions come back to haunt her; THAT surprised me. An AVERAGE-looking MOTHER character whose youthful nudie shots come back to bite her in the ass? You have to be kidding me. On television, if a character did nudie shots, they must be a card-carrying member of the Beautiful People's Club.
It makes me wonder if they're trying to make a push to broadcast, and ABC demanded -- or, well, they wouldn't have to do more than hint at, depending on how ambitious the Monk folks are -- an assistant character with a "safer" appeal.

-Sharona was better because her bright appearance and upbeat character contrasted so well with Monk's worrying and drab look.

tv.com - Mr. Monk and the Red Herring
...what does work is the performances of Shalhoub (Monk is at his eccentric funniest) and Howard. There's a certain chemistry between the actors that wasn't there with Shram and it's somehow more believable both that Monk would be drawn to Natalie as an assistant (she's a much softer character than Sharona) and that Natalie would treat Monk as she does (Sharona often seemed too deferential to his eccentricities).