Psych (TV)

TV Show (8 seasons, 2006 - 2014)

Premise – Shawn Spencer is smart- so smart in fact that the Santa Barbara Police Department does not believe him when he says that he can solve crimes faster than they can. So he tells them the most ridiculous lie he can think of – that he is a psychic. He and long-time best friend Bruton Gaster open up a private “psychic” detective agency to offer consultation to the police department, using the detective skills passed down to him from his ex-policeman father.

Review – This show lasted a stunning eight seasons, and maintained its quality throughout. That in it of itself is a rarity. It still took me three years to finish it, which is three thousand years in the world of binge-watching on Netflix. Nevertheless, the longer the TV show is in your life, the more meaning it holds beyond its fictional context. I have personal memories associated with this show, as do my entire family and several of my friends. So naturally, I spread it out on purpose, timing this review perfectly one month and two days before the premiere of the TV film Psych: The Movie.

Quite simply, this is one of the most enjoyable shows to grace network television. That said, it doesn’t make top 5. Top 10, maybe. It’s good enough to motivate me to watch 8 seasons and over 100 episodes. Many episodes I’ve seen more than once.

The main reason the show does not qualify itself as one of the best is because of the lack of dramatic weight it holds. The episodes are somewhat unconnected. Every week represents a new case, new mystery, with new villains. Yes, there are some recurring villains and storylines, but overall, nothing to keep you watching week to week other than sheer entertainment. The characters remain incredibly unique and hilarious, but still one-dimensional, with little authentic character arcs. What the show struggles with the most are tonal inconsistencies. Sometimes it wants to be a ridiculous comedy, completely devoid of all logic and consequence, and other times it wishes to add some sentiment and heart, or even drama. I am all for genre variability, but the execution needs to be intelligent for it to work, and this show did not build organically in its depth, rather slipping in artificial “deep” moments at random intervals. It’s disappointing, because some of my favorite scenes were the ones that held that beautiful dramatic weight, but the moments were too fleeting for them to be truly meaningful in the context of the show. Instead, where the show truly thrives is its lighthearted comedy. 

The comedy in this show is excellent, but only if one were to truly let themselves go of any reservations or inhibitions. It’s ridiculous. The show says it itself in its theme song, “Your worst inhibitions tend to psych you out in the end.” Most of the antics the characters get up to are either illegal, offensive, immoral, problematic, or all of the above. The comedy does not work if one was critical of the characters’ methods, particularly for the character Gus, the humor of which relies upon ridiculing his uptight nature. But if one were to truly let go and just laugh, the show becomes genius. That’s what is so freeing and lovable about Psych. And there are SO many jokes, that if several obscure references go over your head, it won’t matter, because you will at least laugh at the ones you catch. 

Our hero, Shawn Spencer, has an often horrendous moral compass, and is one of the most manipulative and deceptive characters on television. But what makes him so lovable is that none of his antics come from a place of malice. He is just a ridiculously immature man-child. Shawn’s juvenile nature imbues a powerful innocence into all of his mishaps that makes him impossible to judge. Instead, he makes you nostalgic for your childhood, wishing to bring that carefree essence into your adulthood as effortlessly as Shawn and Gus did. This allusion to childhood gives Psych a uniquely endearing quality that allows it to stand out from other comedies. That, and the fact that on top of all of this crazy, there manages to be a clever and well-written murder mystery every single week. (91/100)

Quote - "Always remember you treat a woman like a person, then a princess, then a goddess, and then a person again."

What to watch for -  There are SO many running gags in this show. Every episode contains a combination of these elements: A pineapple, a fist bump, "Suck it," a mention of the (dwarf) planet Pluto, "I've heard it both ways," and/or an alternate identity for Gus, as well as other repeated jokes. Use your detective skills to find them.

If you liked this show, I'd recommend Chuck!

Producer: Steve Franks
Network: USA
Distributor: Universal Studios