The Fast Demise Of Psych Comes With The Erratic Eighth Season Of The Show!

The Good: Ends well
The Bad: Terrible stories, Lackluster use of characters, Some mediocre use of actors
The Basics: The final ten episodes of Psych are almost enough to ruin anyone's love of the comedy detective series.


You know a television series has lost all of its spark when it takes multiple attempts to muster up the enthusiasm to get through the final episodes of that series. Sadly, that is where I fell with Psych. Psych had some decent seasons, became repetitive and took a big and important narrative leap in its seventh season (reviewed here!). Unfortunately, the showrunners wrote themselves into a place from which they had no idea how to proceed and the eighth season of Psych dropped like a particularly fetid dump on an otherwise good series.

With only ten episodes, the eighth and final season of Psych is a mash-up of concept episodes that largely fail to land or add up to a cohesive story that does any justice to the characters established throughout the prior seven seasons. Instead, the show's executive producers seemed to have no idea how to keep the bulk of the characters engaged and part of the ongoing narrative and they instead jettison most of the familiar characters, focus intensely on Shawn and Gus and hope viewers aren't actually watching the opening credits to notice how most of the cast is not in the episode.

With the Santa Barbara Police Department in the hands of Interim Director Trout, Shawn and Gus find themselves nearing bankruptcy from lack of use. The pair heads to the UK for PotterCon where they become embroiled in an INTERPOL investigation that puts them once more in a scheme from Desperaux. Returning home, Shawn tries his hand at becoming a motivational speaker. The show then remakes a first season episode with some new twists, before Woody is taken hostage.

After Gus investigates a murder of a man whose life is very similar to his own (meeting his ultimate romantic interest of the series in the process), the guys help Lassiter solve a murder that will allow him to get appointed Chief Of Police. Lassiter takes his new position as Chief seriously, while at the same time becoming a father, and is forced to rely on Shawn and Gus to solve the murder of a food truck owner. After Shawn participates in a police consultant convention, Gus has nightmares that lead him to seek the counsel of a sleep therapist. The series climaxes with Shawn deciding to pursue Juliet to San Fransisco . . . even if it means leaving Gus behind.

The final season of Psych is tight on Shawn, Gus, Lassiter and Woody. Woody, the coroner, gets more airtime than credited cast members who play Henry, Juliet and Vick! Kurt Fuller is hilarious, when possible, as Woody, but even he is unable to save the bulk of the episodes. The reason for that is that the tenth season relies almost exclusively on gimmick episodes: freestanding concept episodes that have a case that exists largely in an alternate reality. So, for example, "1967: A Psych Odyssey" recasts most of the characters to tell a story of a cold case that Lassiter needs Shawn to crack in order to get his promotion. "Remake A.K.A. Cloudy . . . With A Chance Of Improvement" is a lampoon of remakes of well-established pop culture classic films, but it does not actually fit into the Psych timeline. The series wastes the penultimate episode with a confusing dream-riddled episode that never firmly establishes a sense of reality to justify its end.

Because the season is so plot-focused with gimmick episodes, there is no real character development until the series finale. The episodes do not add up to character growth for any of the main characters: they are reshuffled and moved around, but until "The Break-Up," none of them really develop. The first half of the season is preoccupied with getting rid of Interim Chief Trout, but the there is no real catharsis to all of the efforts the guys go through to get rid of Trout. Vick returns for a blink before leaving, taking Juliet with her and the few scenes that feature Corbin Bernsen feel like Contractually Obligated Use Of Actor, as opposed to any reflection of the performer's talent or organic use of the character.

The performing in the final season of Psych oscillates between familiar and goofy. Episodes like "1967: A Psych Odyssey" hardly make good use of the acting talents of the primary performers while putting them in entirely different roles. None of the acting moments in the final season evoke strong emotional reactions in the viewers.

In fact, the final season of Psych is a particularly laughless season. While I loathed "A Nightmare On State Street," it was the source of the season's only memorable moment of humor. When Gus is in his mother's house in a dream, he calls out for his father and there is a picture of Martin Sheen (probably as President Bartlet) on the mantle!

Ultimately, the last season of Psych feels poorly tacked on, like there were contracts that needed paying and the USA Network decided not to take a total loss by paying them out without producing something. For the history of the series, it might have been better if the producers had ended on a very different note.

For other shows from the 2013 – 2014 television season, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Modern Family - Season 5
The Big Bang Theory - Season 7
Game Of Thrones - Season 4
New Girl - Season 3
The Walking Dead - Season 4
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 1
The Newsroom - Season 2
Breaking Bad - Season 5
The Clone Wars - Season 6
Orange Is The New Black - Season 2
Parenthood - Season 5

1.5/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Juliet Finds Out In Psych Season Seven!

The Good: Good character development, Decent continuity, Good performances, Very funny
The Bad: Cases continue to have a repetitive/predictable quality to them, Unfortunately obvious product placement
The Basics: Just as Psych was in danger of getting completely stale, it shakes up the formula with Shawn telling Juliet the truth about his abilities.


I’ve been waiting for almost a year to see the seventh season of Psych and the joke, having now watched all fifteen episodes of the season, is that I am psyched to be able to review it. After the extended wait to see the season, I was thrilled that the season was actually one of the funniest seasons of Psych yet. Perhaps as cool as the fact that the show was abruptly funny again in a way that it had not been for the prior ones (at least, not in any memorable ways), is the fact that the show has managed to successfully reinvent itself. The penultimate season of Psych shakes up the familiar formula of the series with genuine character development and continues the series moving forward with a climax that shifts the direction of the series to set up the final season.

Halfway through the season, Juliet learns the truth about Shawn Spencer and that changes the tone of the latter half of the season. In its seventh season, Psych is largely about relationships. Carlton Lassiter has a real shot at love when Marlow is released from prison and they find themselves at the mercy of a vindictive parole officer until Lassiter decides to commit to her. Gus has yet another relationship that seems doomed to failure when it turns out Rachael has a seven year-old son and she needs to take him to Europe for months. But the big relationship changes come with Shawn and Juliet. The two move in together and when Shawn tells Juliet the truth, she pushes Shawn away.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, Psych follows Shawn Spencer, a super-observant young man who fakes being a psychic in order to assist the Santa Barbara Police Department on hard-to-solve murder cases. In the seventh season, Shawn and his partner Gus go rogue in order to find who shot Henry. They get embroiled in a case that finds a charity sending weapons to war-torn areas worldwide. With Henry wounded and in need of convalescence, Shawn considers moving in with him, which appears to push Juliet away as she gets involved with a case that involves an internet dating service that is the common link in a string of murders. Shawn and Gus help a pair of college students in their attempt to prove Bigfoot is living in a nearby woods and Juliet’s new stepfather turns out to not be the milquetoast accountant he appears and Henry gets embroiled in a Mexican mob case that nearly leaves him and the rest of the team dead. After a parody of Clue (or And Then There Were None), Gus’s relationship with Rachael is put on the rocks when he takes her to the Cirque where they witness a murder.

At Lassiter’s wedding, Shawn tells Juliet the truth about his investigative technique. In the wake of her learning the truth, she pushes Shawn away and Psych does an experimental episode (a la Sliding Doors) wherein Shawn solves a case split into two different universes (one where he reacts to telling Juliet the truth and another that denies that event occurred). When Juliet kicks Shawn out of the house, Shawn becomes convinced that Juliet’s new roommate is a killer. With the two estranged, Shawn begins to take bigger and bigger risks, like running for Mayor in order to delay a mayoral candidate from succeeding the murdered Mayor of Santa Barbara. Gus accidentally fouls up a crime scene when his terrible boss dies and Shawn only makes it worse when he tries to help. The guys become DJs to try to solve a murder of a DJ and Henry finds a dead body that seems to implicate a plastic surgeon friend of his. The season climaxes in an episode that finds the Santa Barbara Police Department investigated and Juliet has to choose between exposing Shawn or protecting the SBPD!

There is an awkward second climax to the seventh season of Psych. After the season finale of the seventh season, Psych did a musical episode and it is an awkward addition to the season for several reasons. First and foremost, “Psych The Musical” seems to occur before Shawn came out to Juliet and before the end of the season (as climactic events in that episode change the balance of power at the SBPD). While the episode is hilarious, it is an irksome discontinuity in the seventh season.

Far less plot-centered than the prior seasons, Psych Season Seven contains a ridiculously high number of funny lines (most often delivered by Kurt Fuller’s Woody the coroner), but it also contains genuine character development. The characters in Psych actually evolve in the seventh season. To better understand the seventh season of Psych, it helps to know who the characters are:

Shawn Spencer – The fake psychic continues to solve cases with incredibly few initial clues. He becomes protective of his father after Henry is shot and he is even willing to move back in with him . . . until his mother moves in and Shawn walks in on the two in bed together! He decides in a critical moment to be honest with Juliet. When she takes the news poorly, he fights for her at every opportunity, even when it embarrasses her,

Burton Guster – Shawn’s right hand man, he tries to develop a relationship with Rachael, even when he finds out she has a son. He tries to develop the relationship, despite the fact that he is very uncomfortable with Max and Shawn is super-uncomfortable with what he sees as Gus’s legitimate chance at happiness and a good relationship. When that relationship falls apart, he takes care of Shawn as Shawn struggles with his estrangement from Juliet,

Carlton Lassiter – Loosening up significantly, he helps Shawn track down the man who shot Henry. He becomes enthralled with Marlow and happily marries her in order to take the power away from a vindictive parole officer he briefly dated in the past He remains vigilant and gun happy even after his marriage,

Juliet O’Hara – She acts largely as a sidekick though she is much more in tune with Shawn’s sense of humor. But when she sees some of the clues Shawn collects during the case that precedes Lassiter’s wedding, she questions Shawn point blank and learns the truth. Devastated at being lied to for more than six years, she pushes Shawn away. But as she sees the consequences of Shawn stumbling and realizes what it could mean if the truth ever got out, she faces a much bigger decision than what to do with her relationship with Shawn,

Henry Spencer – Having been shot at the prior season’s climax, he finds himself bedridden at the outset of the season. After casting off the annoying woman who plagues him in the hospital, he reconnects with his ex-wife and forges a new friendship with Juliet’s stepfather, despite the fact that friendship gets him shot at. He tries to protect an old friend even when evidence piles up against her and he gives Shawn the emotional kick he needs to tell Juliet the truth,

and Karen Vick – After giving Shawn the off the books encouragement to go after the men who were involved in shooting Henry, she sits out most of the season, save for exposition purposes. She does a ton of shots at Marlow’s bachelorette party and ends the season in her most precarious position yet.

On the acting front, James Roday and Maggie Lawson give the most intense performances of the season. Roday directs the critical episode of the season, but when Shawn and Juliet have their falling out, it gives Roday the chance to play with much more dramatic range. He is intense and plays the wounded man exceptionally well. With an equally wonderful level of skill, Maggie Lawson plays Juliet as hurt, angry, and confused. Lawson plays Juliet with a realism that makes her compelling to watch for the entire second half of the season.

Ultimately, the seventh season of Psych completely reinvigorates the sagging series. Moving beyond the episodic nature of the show’s usual formula, Psych becomes more serialized and intense, making it one of the best seasons of the entire series.

For prior seasons of Psych, check out my reviews of:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6

8/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Movie References Abound For Psych Season Six . . . But It Doesn’t Have Much Else Going For It.

The Good: Great guest stars, Character progressions
The Bad: Exceptionally predictable plots, Formulaic, Relies upon the guest stars, ?! Chief Vick!?
The Basics: The sixth season of Psych is fun, but objectively underwhelming, especially for fans of the series.


I can always tell when a series is in decline. The moment in any formulaic show comes when the formula is stale enough that the series relies almost entirely on guest stars to carry the show. For Psych, that hits with the sixth season. The show is not unenjoyable, but it is completely predictable.

In its sixth season, Psych continues its formula and of starting an episode with a murder and Shawn and Gus finding a way to get assigned to the case. Shawn then, by pretending to be psychic but really just observing clues that others are oblivious or not privy to, solves the case by finding the murderer. In the sixteen episodes that make up Psych, the show modifies its formula to do theme shows based on famous films or television series’. In fact, this season, all of the episodes are based on movies or television shows, following the season premiere involving a murder at the British embassy after Shawn breaks in to steal a Darth Vader figure away from the son of the Ambassador.

Psych Season Six is essentially made up of episodes that are parodies of The Hangover, vampire films, comic book movies (most notably Superman), Girl, Interrupted, The Sting, Wanderlust, the Indiana Jones franchise, the works of Neil Simon, The Shining, The Bachelorette, and Chinatown. Other than the individual episode themes, which is continuing with themed episodes like Season Five’s parody of Twin Peaks, Psych is a pretty predictable series of formulaic episodes in Season Six.

In the sixth season, the primary characters are:

Shawn – Experiments with diplomatic immunity when he takes a case at an Embassy when he discovers a dead body after crashing a party there the previous night. He relives a childhood dream by taking the case of a baseball coach he helped as a kid and becomes a batting coach. He fakes being crazy to try to prove a man guilty at an insane asylum and then tries to reunite Juliet with her father. He and Desperaux hunt down an art collector’s work until Desperaux appears killed, forcing him to accept death for the first time in his life. After Lassister moves into his own new apartment, he and Gus are excited to get hired to figure out how the apartment is actually haunted. His appendix bursts when he is performing with Gus’s a capella group. He comes to aid Woody when it appears Woody made a mistake in an autopsy. He and Juliet come into conflict when one of Juliet’s old cases is freed from prison and Shawn works to exonerate him. Shawn also has the opportunity to solve a case his father worked on, but never solved,

Gus – Inadvertantly dates the daughter of a notorious killer! When stalking a potential vampire, he dresses as Blackula. When Shawn becomes a first base coach for the Seabirds, he gets stuck as the team's mascot! He dates a patient at the mental facility. He eagerly adopts the life of a hippie when the guys investigate threats made against members of a commune. He falls for one of them and ends up lonely when Shawn and Juliet go for a lover’s weekend. He becomes the token black guy on the reality dating show when a candidate on it is almost murdered. His friends from the a capella group come back and need his help when their mentor is shot and Shawn is hospitalized. He helps to champion Thane when he is released from prison,

Juliet – Thrilled that Shawn wants her to move in, she is disappointed when she learns the truth. She completely disbelieves the possibility of vampires in the vampire case. She is irked by Shawn when he brings her conman father back into her life for a complicated series of heists that he may or may not be in on. She is upset when Shawn tries to get Thane exonerated,

Lassiter – Furious that Juliet is dating Shawn, he hooks her up to a polygraph and requests a new partner. He hooks up with a vampirelover whose roommates are involved in a crime. After a murder victim is found hanging in a real nice apartment, he moves in in order to have a place for them both to live,

Chief Vick - Is she actually in this season?! Even Woody the coroner gets more airtime this season,

and Henry – worried that the case at the British Embassy may be too much for Shawn to crack on his own, he does some actual detective work to aid his son. When a murder victim whose body is finally recovered reveals to him that his coworkers twenty years ago were corrupt, he becomes deeply disillusioned.

In Psych Season 6, the acting is flawless, with Kurt Fuller getting more airtime, almost enough to make him a regular. The main cast is so seasoned by this point that they have nothing unsurprising from them in season six. The show dilutes its regular, well-gelled cast with the likes of Malcolm McDowell, William Shatner, Polly Walker, Danny Glover, Brad Dourif, Tony Hale, Cary Elwes, Madchen Amick, John Rhy-Davies, Sarah Rue, and Anthony Anderson. The prevalence of big name guest stars overwhelm the show.

Ultimately, Psych Season 6 is not as funny as prior seasons, but they make up for that with a higher caliber of guest stars. The show seems far more familiar than fresh than ever before, even though it is not unenjoyable.

For prior seasons of Psych, check out my reviews of:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5

4.5/10

For other television reviews, visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Psych Season Five Is Mediocre Until A Concept Episode Outshines The Rest!

The Good: “Dual Spires” is brilliant, Funny
The Bad: No superlative performances, Greater character development is sacrificed for plot convenience.
The Basics: Psych is good television in its fifth season, though there is a lone, truly great episode for fans of Twin Peaks.


Concept shows are harder for me to bear with when the series shows fidelity to the concept, as opposed to organic character development. Psych is one such concept show. The idea behind the show is ridiculously simple. Focusing on a fake psychic who wanders around playing detective, with his trusty sidekick, Psych spent the first four seasons with Shawn (the fake psychic) flirting with the chief detective in Santa Barbara, Juliet. But, with the climactic events of the fourth season finale, it seemed like there would be real changes in store for the characters of Psych.

The fifth season of Psychcould have led to some real development and conflict, namely between Juliet and Lassiter. The final episode of the fourth season had Juliet being victimized by a serial killer and in resolving that episode, Lassiter actually rose to the occasion of being heroic in relation to her. The writers and producers of Psych completely abandon that potential in favor of a return to highly episodic works that quickly return Juliet to work and have only the use of Harry in a new job as a serious change between this and prior seasons.

Cases include a Chinatown kidnapping that involves gangs and two brothers, one who fights for love and one who just wants to fight. Gus and Jules switch partners which allows Lassiter to benefit from Gus's knowledge. The pair investigates a UFO abduction and find a true gentleman as a most dangerous adversary. Gus and Shawn investigate a car thief ring. Shawn and Gus join forces (and, alternately, combat) their geriatric dopplegangers when a retired police chief is killed.

The pair happens to be on a boat when four inmates on a furlough make an escape attempt, which Shawn makes worse, resulting in a hostage situation! The duo competes against a fake profiler when people on an organ donor list get killed off! That profiler quickly makes the move on Juliet that Shawn has not in the prior years and Shawn complicates their budding relationship when he helps a superspy complete her mission. When Despereaux returns, Shawn and Gus go to Canada to extradite him, leading to a change in the Shawn/Juliet relationship.

Gus learns about Shawn’s relationship when they investigate a murder at Scare Fest. After a concept episode that is an homage to Twin Peaks (reviewed here!), Shawn and Gus are sent to Police Academy. Psych does its annual Christmas episode that shows Shawn what life would have been like for those around him had he not returned to Santa Barbara five years prior. After another random mystery, the season ends with the return of Yang as the hunt for Yin reaches a climax no one expected.

Fundamentally, Psych Season Five utilizes the characters from the prior seasons in very familiar ways. In the fifth season, the principle characters are:

Shawn Spencer – He continues to play the fake psychic detective and is thrilled when Juliet returns to work, though he does not make any advances on her until she expresses interest in the fake profiler. Catching a glimpse of what might be in store for him if he comes clean with her, he continues his charade,

Gus – He continues to act as Shawn’s sidekick and hampers him slightly when Shawn witnesses a murder, but he does not. Never seen this season using his “super sniffer” or doing his pharmaceutical sales work, he is committed to the Psych agency now,

Harry Spencer – Now determining which cases the Santa Barbara Police Department will contract out to Psych, he takes a perverse joy in making Shawn work for his money. Otherwise, he just shows up,

Lassiter – Back to his usual, arrogant self, he only really rises to the occasion when his sister arrives to make a video of how the detective bureau works,

Juliet - Begins the season at a desk job away from the detectives, working to find her equilibrium after her capture and torment. She falls for the rich fake profiler before hearing Shawn reveal his true feelings over a wiretap,

and Vick – A complete nonentity for the season, she is only truly memorable for her position of authority in investigating the murder of her predecessor and Henry’s former boss.

Gus seems sillier than before. Ironically, he also seems more faith-motivated than in prior seasons. Psych is also more overtly addy in the fifth season than in prior seasons. There are noticeable references to Snyders of Hannover, Snickers bars, and several other products throughout the season. There are no superlative performances in the fifth season of Psych. Instead, these are all the familiar characters and performances that James Roday (Shawn), Dule Hill (Gus), and the rest of the actors have played for the prior years.

The lone episode that makes me recommend bothering with the season (the fifth season of Psych is not bad, just familiar in a way that feels more monotonous than original) is “Dual Spires.” “Dual Spires” is a parody/homage to the David Lynch cult television favorite Twin Peaks. As a fan of that series, “Dual Spires” is a treat to watch and one of the most entertaining hours that Psych pulled off.

In the end, though, Psych is largely average and familiar, leaving little reason for viewers to be enthusiastic about continuing to watch the series.

For prior seasons of Psych, check out my reviews of:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4

5/10

For other television reviews, visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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The Best And The Most Mundane: Why Psych Season Four Is Worth Sticking With!

The Good: Some great lines, Moments of story, Moments of character growth and continuity
The Bad: Nothing new or extraordinary on the acting front, Very repetitive plot format
The Basics: A few shakeups in character and plot format make a season of Psych, which is otherwise surprisingly familiar more than simply watchable.


Lately, I've been watching quite a lot of Psych. My wife is a fan and I have been spending quite a bit of time with her. She and I have been going through so much of the series and it has been delighting her. With the fourth season of Psych, I figured the show was simply going into the same territory as the fourth season of Weeds (reviewed here!) where the series just kept doing the same essential plot in a different locale. The fourth season of Psych mixes up the formulaic plot episodes with surprisingly audacious plots and a few character moments that actually resonate for viewers.

While episodes like "You Can't Handle This Episode" and "Think Tank" have familiar forms and will not surprise viewers who have been watching Psych, "Shawn Takes A Shot In The Dark" and "A Very Juliet Episode" shake up the formula. Even "The Head, The Tail, The Whole Damn Episode" has an amusing character reversal wherein Lassiter tries to beat Shawn to the punch by coming up with a radical theory while Shawn does actual detective work on a knife wound.

In this season, the detectives of the Psych agency, go to British Columbia to go after an international art thief and come home to solve the mystery behind a plane crash. When a Catholic school needs an exorcism, the guys are called in to investigate the demonic possessions and weird gets weirder when a man who believes himself to be a werewolf turns himself in. When the police are shot at while in a bar together, Shawn must piece together who the target was and why they wanted to kill one among them.

A medical scientist's attempt to get a cure for a deadly disease goes awry and leads to murder and a shark attack is pegged by Lassiter as being a murder. Finally, the sidekick of Shawn and Henry's most deadly adversary pops up to menace them.

Psych in its fourth season is mostly plot-centered, though when it shakes up the plots, the characters actually develop. Fortunately, the principle characters are fairly interesting. For the main characters in season four, Psych features:

Shawn Spencer - Faking being a psychic, he is abducted by a murderer and shot. While he tries real hard to negotiate with Abigail, whom he is now in a relationship with, he discovers it awkward to be around Juliet. Still, he reaches out to help her when her old boyfriend goes missing,

Burton Guster - Continues to pal around with Shawn with only a few references to his pharmaceutical job or his super nose. He funds a surprising number of the Psych adventures. He loathes going to the brand new, quirky, coroner,

Karen Vick - She shows up and assigns the cases, but does nothing significant this season,

Carlton Lassiter - Continues to try to thwart Shawn and re-establish Santa Barbara's actual police force. Even so, he tries to use Shawn to exonerate an old friend of his who runs an Old West theme park,

Juliet O'Hara - Having gone out on a limb and made a move on Shawn, she finds it difficult to be around him. She has a few chances for love and quietly thrills when Shawn's girlfriend moves away and she has a visit from her Special Forces brother,

and Henry Spencer - Aids the police and Shawn in solving crimes. He hits on an ichthyologist and tries to come to Shawn's rescue when he is captured.

At this point in Psych, the acting is so honed as to be unworth mentioning. Dule Hill, James Roday, Corbin Bernstein, Timothy Omundson, Maggie Lawson and Kirsten Nelson are all spot on with their characters. They approach the detective stories with confidence and clarity that actors in their fourth year of doing the same thing often do. The real challenge is for new characters to fit in. Kurt Fuller, amazingly, steps in to play a zany coroner amazingly well. Outside him, the rest of the guest stars are come and go, with none distinguishing themselves beyond the talents they came into the series with.

On DVD, the fourth season of Psych includes a wide array of deleted scenes, commentary tracks, featurettes, and bloopers. More than any of the other gimmick shows on the air now, this season sells me on the idea that they can be worthwhile instead of beating their one trick to death.

For other seasons of Psych, please visit my reviews of:
Psych - Season One
Psych - Season Two
Psych - Season Three

6.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Growing On Me With Character Growth, Psych Season Three Is The Best Yet!

The Good: Actual character development, Decent writing, Generally-good plots, Great DVD bonus features!
The Bad: Short season, Repetitive plots
The Basics: The sixteen episode third season of Psych is funny and has some actual character development that makes it a much stronger buy than the two prior seasons.


The last few weeks, my wife and I have been doing a lot of computer work. That has led us to have Psych on quite a bit. We get the seasons out from the library and I do editing while she plays her video slots and that has been working for us. I had seen a few random episodes of Psych before I saw Season 1 (reviewed here!) and Season 2 (reviewed here!) and while I was enjoying it, it was not the stellar show my wife made it out to be. That changed with the third season of Psych.

In the third season of Psych, the characters are given the opportunity to genuinely grow and develop and that makes it a worthwhile season to buy. While some of that character growth seems oddly contrived, the effort goes an astonishingly long way. But for the moments of character that the show illustrates in Season Three, it is still a gimmick show. For those unfamiliar with the gimmick, Psych focuses on Shawn Spencer, a very smart private detective who helps the Santa Barbara police department in solving crimes by pretending to be psychic. With his best friend, Gus, he earns money and the respect of his father.

Opening with the return of Shawn's mother, Season Three of Psych follows Shawn and Gus on cases that frequently put them in danger. While Shawn wrestles with the return of his mother, Gus finds himself fighting to keep his pharmaceutical job. As Gus fights to keep his job, Shawn helps Gus foil a ghost case when Gus's boss is haunted. The cases take the pair to their own high school union, a daredevil show, and on the hunt for pirate treasure. When one of Henry's cases is reopened, Shawn must solve the case and when Chief Vick's sister brings in a case involving a murder on an oil rig.

Family is also involved when Gus's parents return and Shawn and Gus's sister reignite a romance they have around Christmas. The guys take to the open sea to solve the murder of a sea lion and Gus is trapped in the bank in a hostage situation. Shawn and Gus return to a summer camp they once loved to solve a murder mystery a la Friday The Thirteenth and a serial killer from the past comes back to terrorize Santa Barbara with only Shawn to stop him!

The third season of Psych has a greater sense of serialization than the prior two seasons. So, for example, the second episode features the high school reunion and the season finale revisits Shawn's love interest from that episode. As well, it calls back to the treasure hunting episode.

The problem with the serialization in the third season of Psych is that it robs the two big emotional moments of the season of their impact. Without ruining either, the revelation that Henry was left by his wife, not the other way around, is no surprise for those who have been watching the show. Henry has always seemed like he is trying to hold the family together and when he said in the second season "Your mom is not coming back" to Shawn, the fact that Shawn didn't say anything in response, indicates that she left him. So, when she admits that to Shawn in Season Three, it is not actually a surprise.

The second big character moment actually comes for Lassiter and it's similarly predictable.

Even so, the effort is appreciated and it generally pays off. The character development, like the movement on Shawn and Juliet toward one another, gives the actors something real to challenge themselves with. The final two episodes of the season, for example, are much darker and legitimately frightening than anything else the show had produced before that. James Roday plays the serious elements extraordinarily well. He has done zany well up until this point, but as the season winds down, he comes into his own with a serious disposition that sells the viewer on his character's brilliance. In the final scenes of the season, he gives a performance that is actually heartbreaking. Shawn's only superpower seems to be an exceptional sense of sight, which allows him to observe details most people cannot perceive as quickly and Roday continues to play that with a straight face.

In the third season, the cast remains stable with Dule Hill proving once again to be the best actor on the cast. I write that because the blooper reels on the DVDs are mostly bloopers involving Dule Hill messing up his lines. But, in the finished product, Hill is as focused and well-presented as he was when he was on The West Wing (reviewed here!).

Instead of going through the usual character arcs for the season, it bears repeating that despite the progress in the third season of Psych, it is still, largely, a formulaic, repetitive episodic television series. This is by no means all bad, but the mystery aspect becomes an occasionally tedious vehicle for humor or character interactions. While the viewer might desperately hope for some of the key character moments, they do not come quick enough because the show is more preoccupied with solving the case of the week.

And in its third season, Psych becomes problematic in that the caliber of the guest stars begins to telegraph the cases. To be more clear, in the third season of Psych there are more reasonable suspects who pop up played by recognizable character actors. This becomes distracting when watching in some cases because the red herrings become more annoying because the big guest star is always the one who is guilty. This season continues the trend of great guest stars for the show, like Jane Lynch, Keith David and Phylicia Rashad.

Ultimately, Psych Season Three has the show truly reaching its stride and on DVD, it includes so many bonus scenes, bloopers and commentary tracks to make it worth buying.

For other third seasons of note, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Three
Boston Legal - The Complete Third Season
Gilmore Girls - Season Three

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Second Season Of Psych Progresses The Characters Some, But Is Mostly Just Repeating The Gimmick.

The Good: Very funny, Solidly entertaining, Decent acting, Enjoyable plots.
The Bad: Repetitive plots, Moments the characters do not seem as smart, Somewhat more predictable.
The Basics: Psych returns in its second season as a repetitive, episodic show with fun guys who solve crimes using the powers of observation while pretending to be psychic.


My wife has an appreciation for Psych, which is why - in rapid succession - I have seen Season 1 (reviewed here!) and now Season 2. The show is entertaining and I am trying to differentiate between quality and enjoyment. In the second season of Psych, the show is fairly repetitive in that the plots are episodic, not serialized, with often ridiculous cases and fun dialogue. But because the characters seldom develop and the show is so plot-based, it is more enjoyable than it is great. In fact, the show is fun, but it is hard to recommend anyone add it to their permanent collection, as opposed to just watch the episodes.

Psych, like Bones, Monk and Wonderfalls, is a series with a simple premise - man solves crimes by being exceptionally observant and smart while pretending to be a psychic - with episodic plots whereby the characters find themselves in ridiculous situations that are resolved by the episode's end. There is no sense of consequence or growth and instead, the show is more about "this is the situation the characters get in this week." Gus and Sean find themselves involved in cases for the Santa Barbara Police Department that involve ridiculous circumstances or predicaments. In its second season, Psych is pretty much a typical detective show with a comedic undertone that is entertaining.

In the second season of Psych, Shawn and Gus try to save the life of a judge on American Duos who is hated by everyone. Shawn appears to have gone off the deep end when he accuses a dinosaur of killing a man and has to go up against a Treasury agent and psychic who are breaking up a counterfeiting ring. When a jockey is killed, the team has to figure out who committed the murder and why, as well as when a model is killed. The pair has to try to prevent a murder when a student at a prep school overhears a teacher planning a murder.

The families of Gus and Shawn become more embroiled with their cases when Gus's uncle, whom Burton (Gus) is named after comes to town and Gus has to pretend to be the psychic. Burton's parents are implicated in a murder and blackmail in their neighborhood. And the pair has to use Shawn's father, Henry, to break a missing person's case at a retirement home. The cases are esoteric, like involving a mummy and Henry's secret lodge of dueling philanthropists.

Throughout the sixteen episode season, Shawn and Henry verbally spar frequently and their relationship begins to progress with excruciating slowness. So, for example, in the penultimate episode of the season, Henry reveals to Shawn that he is ready to start dating again and Shawn becomes flustered by that. But, it has taken almost thirty episodes before Henry is comfortable enough to let his son know he is ready to move on from the woman who abandoned him. More often than not, though, the jokes becomes plot-convenient character revelations as opposed to something genuinely within the established character. So, while a feud between Henry and Gus's parents might feel organic, Henry religiously watching a Mexican telenovela religiously and mixing up Shawn and his character on the show just seems cheap. It's also much more predictable.

In fact, the second season of Psych is quite a bit more predictable than the first season, though it is generally more enjoyable. While the show hinges on any number of reversals, in this season the show begins to truly telegraph itself. In "There's Something About Mira," the 1987 clip that opens the show has the young Gus and young Shawn swearing off marriage in perpetuity, so it is not at all surprising when a terrible private eye following Gus reveals that he was hired by Gus's wife and a lost chapter in Gus's history is suddenly exposed. The show is fairly smart about such things, trying hard to make them work, but the more backstory that gets filled in, the less likely it seems that Gus and Shawn would have remained such steadfast friends.

That said, the cast of Psych is remarkably stable in the second season. The main characters are the same from the first season and are:

Shawn Spencer - He continues to pretend to be a psychic in order to make money off the Santa Barbara police department. His investigative skills are hot, but he is challenged by a woman who claims to be psychic and children who do not believe in psychic powers. He continues to get Gus into trouble, but when Gus's psychotic ex-wife seems to be taking control of his life, he risks everything to save his best friend,

Burton Guster - tries to escape Shawn before giving in and accepting that being a sidekick sleuth is pretty cool. He charms his way into several situations, though he is irked when Shawn gets a role on the telenovela that he enjoys watching. He tries to keep his family together by proving to his uncle that he is pursuing a worthy life and exonerating his parents from a murder. He poses as a model and uses a murder at Henry's lodge to network as he is still a pharmaceutical representative,

Carlton Lassiter - Starts the season on a real streak of closing cases. He is more authoritative and in charge in the workplace as head detective and much less of a buffoon than he was characterized as in the first season. He takes Juliet under his wing, though he becomes very competitive with her when he learns she broke his Detective Exam record by .2 points,

Juliet O'Hara - The detective who is not disappointed when Shawn is called in on a case. She believes in psychic phenomenon and helps to interpret the zany clues Shawn gives to find hard leads in the cases they work. She and Shawn get closer and closer, almost kissing, though Juliet is embarrassed when her attempt at friendship in the office is interpreted as sexual harassment,

Interim Police Chief Karen Vick - Is not getting any sleep with the newborn around, so she hires Shawn and Gus to find her a credible nanny. She is faster to include and cut out the detectives and tries to set Henry up with a friend of hers,

and Henry Spencer - The retired detective finds himself more and more frequently at crime scenes that his son is investigating. His rigid exterior begins to soften and he tries harder to bond with his son.

On DVD, the second season of Psych is rich with commentary tracks and has great guest stars. The four-disc set features deleted scenes and featurettes as well and they, like the show, are very fun. But having anticipated so many of the criminals and the jokes the first time around, I have serious doubts as to whether even a second viewing of Psych Season Two would be worthwhile. This is a good, fun show, but it is not enduringly great.

For other worthwhile second seasons of comedies, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Frasier - Season Two
Gilmore Girls - The Complete Second Season
Friends - The Second Season

7/10

For other film and television reviews, be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Entertaining From The Concept, With A Decent Execution That Already Wears, Psych Season 1

The Good: Funny, Acting, Moments of character
The Bad: Predictable/repetitive plots
The Basics: When Shawn Spencer exonerates himself from suspicion of a crime by pretending to be psychic, he and his friend Gus form a detective agency to aid the Santa Barbara police in the first season of Psych.


There are very few "concept shows" that I enjoy enough to actually stick with. "Concept Shows" are ones with a very simple, direct premise that is forced to milk that premise. It's a show with a gimmick, basically. Shows like Bones, House, M.D. and Monk all fall into this category. Mismatched genius and loose F.B.I. agent, Snarky Doctor, a detective with an obsessive compulsive disorder, they have a strong premise, but it is hard to truly go anywhere with them without creating a series that repeats itself or becomes quickly plot-oriented. Psych is one such show and I had seen a few episodes and enjoyed them. My wife, on the other hand, is a big fan of Psych and while we were working recently, she asked if we could put on Psych. So, I picked up the first season of the show, largely because I was a big fan of Dule Hill's role on The West Wing (reviewed here!) and I figured it had to be more consistently good than Homicide: Life On The Street (reviewed here!). And the first season surely was better than the serious cop show, but Psych is a gimmick show and even in the first season it begins to feel repetitive.

In its first season, Psych establishes the simple premise of the series and then milks it to the point where I became able to call much of the show, even though I am not a fan of the mystery/detective genre. Seldom do I watch or rewatch (or reread) detective shows or stories because once one knows "whodunit," there is little to the work. If the journey is especially interesting or unique, it could be worth watching a second time to enjoy the process. But with Psych, the process is predictable enough to start calling not only the plot points for the cases, but the jokes made by the two principle characters.

Shawn Spencer is a very observant young man, son of a prominent police detective. He was taught tough lessons from his father, Harry, and remains exceptionally observant. He sees tells in people and calls in tips to the police department to help them solve crimes. One day while trying to help the police, Shawn is accused of being an accomplice on the crime he is helping the police, notably Detective Carlton Lassiter, solve, Shawn declares that he received the knowledge of the case psychically. Fooling the local police, Shawn continues to impersonate a psychic in order to get into crime scenes and make money. While his father dislikes the idea, he is not unimpressed by Shawn's actual abilities and he does not rat him out.

Needing help, Shawn employs his childhood friend, Gus. Gus works for a pharmaceutical company and has a knowledge base that Shawn lacks. As well, Gus is able to communicate with people in ways that makes Shawn seem much more plausible as a psychic. Between the two of them, they solve crimes like a kidnapping of a billionaire, the ruining of a forthcoming superhero film and murders that tend to be more from happenstance than actual vengeance.

The show is mostly episodic, which is not something that wows me. In fact, in the first season of Psych, the most serialized elements happen with peripheral characters, not Shawn and Gus. So, for example, Carlton Lassiter loses his original partner and he is struggling with being separated from his wife. Despite having an antagonistic relationship with Shawn, Carlton actually confesses elements of his marital relationship to Shawn. In "From The Earth To Starbucks," Shawn arranges to have a case appear to be solved by Carlton while he feeds his entire case to him. Lassiter spends most of the first season getting over his losing streak on the force and in his personal life.

Psych in its first season is working most on establishing relationships. Gus and Shawn have a relationship, which is frequently detailed through flashbacks at the outset of the episodes which play into the current episode's themes. So, for example, in "Forget Me Not," Shawn takes on a case from a former police captain because he once believed Shawn when he was not lying on a field trip about who harmed an ostrich. He cares about Shawn and Shawn feels a sense of debt about their past.

The best episode of the season is "Who Ya Gonna Call?" In that episode, Dule Hill and James Roday come perfectly into their own as performers. They have amazing chemistry and they play off one another best. So, despite the fact that I guessed correctly how their case involving a man stalked by his ex would go, the episode is funny and the acting is extraordinary. Roday is funny and Hill is pretty extraordinary as the straightman.

In the first season of Psych, the primary characters are:

Shawn Spencer - A brilliant, but somewhat selfish young man who impersonates a psychic to make money and pass the time. He is exceptionally smart and is estranged from his father, especially considering he was not aware his father even moved back to Santa Barbara. In the course of the first season, he relies a lot on Gus and more and more on his father for his father's police contacts. He relies upon Gus to smooth over several of his conflicts and to understand people better,

Gus - Smoother with the ladies than Shawn, he works for a pharmaceutical company while taking assisting Shawn. He uses more traditional investigative methods than Shawn and has some old issues with Shawn that come out as the season goes on,

Carlton Lassiter - Nicknamed "Lassie" by Shawn, he is a generally ineffective police detective. He does, however, have the fundamentals to be a decent detective and he tends to have information Shawn needs in order to solve his cases,

Juliet - Lassiter's new partner, she is younger and has a flirtatious relationship with both Carlton and Shawn,

Karen Vick - The interim head of the the Police Department. She sees use in Shawn's "powers" in order to solve cases and continues to authorize his presence in police investigations,

and Henry Spencer - Shawn's father, a retired cop. He is rougher around the edges than Gus or Shawn and he helps the detectives after the Psych Agency is opened up. He takes in a dog from Shawn and cleans his house, getting rid of many of Shawn's old stuff.

But at the end, the first season of Psych is an interesting formula, but a formulaic show nonetheless. The humor is mostly verbal and in the first season where it excels is in the acting. The characters are interesting enough to want to see what comes next, but the way the first season goes, the plot-based nature of the plot does not give me much hope that it would be either better or truly advance the characters much.

For other shows with quirky characters or detective stories, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Veronica Mars
The Big Bang Theory - Season Three
Millennium

7/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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