Psych: Zero to Murder in Sixty Seconds

(S02E04) I'm sensing a trend here. During the first season of Psych Shawn's abilities to solve crimes the police couldn't were nearly flawless. He was full of confidence and swagger and made everyone, including Gus, sure that they knew about it. This season there's isn't so much of that. In fact, over the last three weeks, we've seen Shawn second-guess his abilities and whether they were really good enough or not.

It began two weeks ago when Shawn had a hard time convincing the detectives of the Santa Barbara Police Department that the killer of a man found on a beach was a dinosaur (it didn't help that Carlton Lassiter was on a hot streak at the time). Last week Shawn had to deal with another 'psychic' who seemed to be better than him. This week we found Shawn doubting his investigative abilities in a crime that seemed a bit too easy to solve.

For some, this would be considered a bad direction to take the show since this presents Shawn as someone who has faults just like the rest of us. However, for your trusted reviewer, I consider this great progress in the way Psych is going. Sure, the writers and producers could have had Shawn be nearly perfect week after week, but it would have gotten a bit dull as the series progressed. By having Shawn exhibit these qualms about his abilities we get the chance to see the character grow. And, just because it's a comedy doesn't mean the characters within shouldn't change (See Friends, Scrubs, The Office, or Joey for further confirmation).

Okay, enough of that. Time to get to the meat of the programme. Overall this was a good episode. It was a bit soft after coming back from last week's fine performance (with a great Lou Diamond Phillips guest spot), but I expected that. One good thing that came out of this week's show is we finally got to see some interaction between Shawn and Lassie. Some of you have mentioned in the comments that these two really haven't had any good meetings since the season began, and I agree. This week, though, we were treated to several minutes of Lassiter berating Shawn and Gus.

I find the relationship between these two interesting. On the one hand you can see that they both love to nip at each other. On the other hand, you can definitely see the begrudging respect they each have for one another's skills. I see Shawn actually having more respect for Lassiter than he really lets on. Maybe this is due to the fact that, since Shawn's Dad was a cop, he honors what Carlton does on a daily basis no matter how much of a prat he thinks Lassiter is.

I thought this week's mystery was okay but not as intriguing as last week's. I had an issue with Lassiter's car being stolen from the police department's parking lot. I mean, with so many cops hanging around you would think someone saw something strange when Carlton didn't get into his car. If anything good came out of this week's crime is that Gus's car got all pimped out. I wonder if they'll keep it that way from now on.

That's all out of the way. Now let's talk about this week's retro references. One good thing about Psych is there is always something to watch out or listen for even if the plot is weak. This episode featured references to Lionel Richie (twice), Blue City, Judd Nelson, Scarface and Traffic. In addition to all of the retro references the show is also good for at least one cultural reference per show. Last week it was the mention of playwright David Mamet. This week it was the book Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes.

Before I leave I wanted to remind you that we have a weekly Internet Radio broadcast where members of the humongous TV Squad staff talk about what is going on in the television world. We also take your calls as well. So, if you are interested in talking about Psych, or any other television related question, please call us at 10 PM next Thursday at 646-716-7977. We're ready to hear from you.