Psych: Complete First Season

This show is just such fun to watch! It's the perfect companion to "Monk" on Friday nights and it always puts me in a good mood. The show takes place in beautiful Santa Barbara and is about Shawn, a twenty-something year-old guy who's developed excellent observational skills under the teachings of his retired cop father. He can't seem to hold down a regular job, so with the help of his childhood best friend, Gus, he opens a psychic detective agency. He uses his observational/detective skills to pretend that he's having psyshic visions with the purpose of mooching cases off of the police force as their 'police psychic'. Of course, not everyone believes that he's an actual psychic, such as his father (with whom he has a strained relationship) and Lassiter, one of the police detectives on the force who is somewhat of a nemesis for Shawn. (Shawn likes to call him "Lassie".) Each episode begins with a young Shawn learning a new lesson (very reluctantly) from his father that ties into the mystery/plot of the episode. Corbin Bernsen does a wonderful job as Shawn's disapproving father and Dule Hill is spot-on as his straight-laced best friend, who has the best perplexed reactions to the crazy stunts Shawn likes to pull. (The expressions on his face are priceless.) "Psych" is truly delightful and one of the few shows on television that are such light-hearted fun. I'm so glad that it was picked up for a second season and I'll definitely be looking forward to its return!

Actual detective shows are kind of hard to find now -- let alone a funny, well-written detective series with a hilarious twist. That's where "Psych" comes on, on the heels of "Monk." While it could use a bit more ironing, this clever series does a good job blending comedy and mystery, and gives us some lovably fradulent guys to follow the adventures of.

Shawn Spencer (James Roday) was trained to be ultra-observant and intelligent by his strict, humorless father Henry (Corbin Bernsen), who wanted him to be a cop. And though he is determined never to be a cop (he doesn't even have a steady job), Shawn can glimpse clues and details that nobody else notices -- even the police.

But it backfires when he reports his observations to the police, and is arrested as a suspect. To save himself, Shawn pretends to be a psychic -- and the gimmick works so well that he decides to do it professionally. So he drags his very reluctant pal Gus (Dulé Hill) out of a boring job, and they end up regularly hired by the police chief, despite the skepticism of Carl Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), who doesn't buy their act.

And so they set out into a variety of cases: death at a spelling bee, a haunting at a sorority house, a wedding tainted by theft and murder, a ghostly stalking, a cat used as a witness, Civil war reenactments, a comic book convention (where they mess with George Takei's head), alien abductions, speed dating, underground poker, and organizing a surprise birthday party for Lassiter.

Most shows aren't really able to strike a balance between comedy and mystery, but "Psych" does. The mysteries are light and fun, and the people making it actually seem to be enjoying themselves -- no hardcore crimes, gore and grimness. That's what makes it so enjoyable.

The mysteries are well done, but each one has enough funny dialogue ("My name is Ichabod Fletchman, Sticky-Icky to my boys") and kookiness to keep it from ever being dull. Between kooky mysteries -- usually with Shawn flailing around in his pseudo-mystical act -- we get to see what turned him into such a weirdo, and his current relationship with his sarcastic father.

There is a slight flaw, though -- a disproportionate number of the guilty parties seem to be pretty young women. Fortunately this starts lessening as the season goes on. The mysteries get progressively tighter, and the writing cleverer and funnier ("I'm never doing anything blindly with you again! I learned that at the Mexican border. Twice!").

Roday is hilarious and brilliant -- charming, funny, likable, pleasant, and completely devoid of any dignity ("IIIIII hear a voice!"), with some great full-body acting. Shawn is one of those people who is half luck and half talent; no matter how outragous he gets, things somehow always work out.

Hill is equally great as his intelligent, responsible, geeky sidekick who tries to keep them out of serious trouble, while the crusty Timothy Omundson and tentative love interest Maggie Lawson round off the cast. Corbin Bernsen also makes regular appearances as Shawn's dad, who considers his son a walking freakshow.

"Psych's" first season is a delightfully frothy mix of comedy and mystery, with solid scripting and likable characters. Definitely a good show to keep an eye on.

In a world where most of the new tv crime dramas are gory "how-done-it's" that strive to be "serious", Psych, like Monk before it, is a breath of fresh air to say the least.

Psych tells the story of Shawn Spencer, the tv's first "fake psychic detective", who has been trained relentlessly by his snarky, sarcastic cop father, Henry, to notice even the most minute of details. He's so good at it, in fact, he can solve police cases from watching the evening news for two minutes. That's about as close as he's willing to get to a badge, though; Henry might have liked nothing more than to see his son follow in his footsteps, but Shawn wants nothing less. But his fun hobby soon becomes his even more absurd reality when he is brought in for questioning about just how he knew what he did about a electronic store robbery. Instead of attempting to explain to annoyed police officers who don't want to hear about how some thirty year old slacker who can't even hold a steady job can do theirs better than they can, Shawn does what he does best: he lies and tells them he's a psychic. But before he can get out the door of the station to gloat, he is asked to help Santa Barbara's finest find a millionaire's missing son.

Enter Burton "Gus" Guster, Shawn's best friend and lifelong partner in crime, who is a sucessful pharmaceuticals representitive and wants no part in Shawn's scheme. Too bad he can't say no to his best bud (and only friend outside of work).

After solving the missing millionaire-turned-murder case, Shawn decides that he has finally found his calling and opens Psych, his new pet project.

The guys proceed to have all sorts of absurd adventures, from a missing wedding ring, a murderous cheater at the National Spelling bee and a lost loot from a robbery, to a murder on the field of a Civil War reinactment, a speed dating caper and a haunted sorority house. Every episode is chock full of one liners that put Dane Cook to shame, and the situations our boys find themselves in are hilarious.

Psych's characters are what makes what might otherwise have been a ratings bomb into the electric boogaloo that it is (see the psych webpage for the reference). While most of the time Shawn behaves like an twelve-year-old, he has his moments of adult insight, and there's even some angsty bits in there too, especially when it comes to his relationship with his father. As for he and Gus, despite the fact that they are total and complete opposites (Gus is responsible, organized and enjoys spelling bees and the history channel; Shawn takes the saying "by the seat of your pants" to a whole new level, can't be bothered with little things like responsiblity and ethics, and prefers sports), they still manage to be best buddies, no matter how much Shawn annoys Gus. Carlton Lassiter (affectionately known as "lassie" by Shawn and a legion of fans) is even more of a contrast with Shawn as the skeptical dectetive who can't stand their new consultant's antics, and his new partner (as of the second episode) Juiliet O'Hara is perhaps the calming influence, though Shawn clearly has a thing for the new junior dectective. Cheif Karen Vick and Shawn's dad round out the main cast, though Psych's army of supporting characters have their moments as well.

And while all of the actors on the show are great in their respective roles, James Roday is the shining star. He's certainly one of the funniest actors I've seen in a long time (keep an eye out for him in Dukes of Hazzard and Beerfest too).

The show is also good to it's fans, with plenty of fun stuff on the website to check out (not to mention Shawn and Gus's myspace profiles). I would expect nothing less from the DVDs.

If you're not already down with Psych, I would definately remcommend you check it out!

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