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May 19, 2013

Psych: The Old and the Restless

by Richard Keller, posted Jan 20th 2008 1:16PM

Gus, Shawn and Henry investigate disappearances at an adult community

(S02E12) I don't know about you, but since Psych returned with new episodes I've noticed a bit of tweaking with the format. Nothing major, mind you, just some minor things to shake it up a bit. And, because of those tiny tweaks, the show has a somewhat different feel to it. I guess that's what happens as a show, even a crime-comedy like Psych, matures.

Things were different right from the get-go. Rather than having a 'Young Shawn and Henry' moment like we normally do, we were introduced to Shawn's grandfather, played by Brian Doyle-Murray. We all know where Shawn got his keen observation skills from; now we know where he obtained his sense of imagination and adventure. It's too bad that Murray is only in the flashbacks because it would be interesting to see how Grandpa Spencer reacts to Shawn's current profession.

The other thing that was different this week was how the viewer got involved with this week's mystery. Normally, we get to see what's happening with the investigation from beginning to end. This time around, though, we were brought in during the midst of Shawn and Gus' sleuthing. I'm guessing that this was utilized in order to bring Henry Spencer into the investigation pretty quickly and establish him as the plant.

By the way, I am extremely grateful that Corbin Bernsen had a bigger role this week than just his cold open appearances and the grumbling he usually does when his son is around. I have always wanted to see an episode where father and son got together to investigate a mystery and I got my wish this week. And, even though Henry seemed very reluctant to be part of this whole set-up, you could see that he was really enjoying it as the investigation progressed. It seems you just can't take the cop out of a retired cop.

Henry's appearance with Shawn and Gus actually made this week's mystery more enjoyable for me -- probably because I wanted to see the senior Spencer at work. I also like the fact that no one really died this week; it's good to shake up the type of investigations that Shawn and Gus take on. The only thing I didn't like about this week's mystery was the reveal -- it seemed very short and sloppy for some reason and I wondered if the nutritionist was really the culprit since the facilities manager has a look on her face of getting away with something. Despite the weakness of the reveal, though, I did enjoy the fact that Henry got a fist bump at the end (or at least tried to get a fist bump).

Moving on to Lassiter and O'Hara...for the second week in a row the two detectives had a separate storyline from Shawn and Gus. The difference between this week and last was that the two plots didn't converge at the end. I wasn't really fond of this week's plot, although there were some good moments. For instance, when the hardened criminal comes clean and tells Lassiter's juvenile delinquent that prison isn't really all that bad. Another nice moment was at the end of the episode when Juliet got the young man to smarten up with only a few angry sentences. What she said will remain a mystery to all of those except lip-readers.

I'll be honest, I didn't keep track of this week's pop retro-references. I remember mention of Val Kilmer and the movie Real Genius (great movie, by the way), but that's about it. I guess you could say the biggest retro pop reference of the week was the appearance of Curtis Armstrong -- Booger from Revenge of the Nerds -- as Shawn and Gus' informant at the senior facility.

Next week -- Yo soy Shawn, el guapo

Is it me, or has the return of Psych been tweaked a bit?
I am noticing a different feel to the show.126 (48.8%)
Possibly, but the show hasn't been on for several months, so I can't tell.102 (39.5%)
The show is the same as it was in the first half of the season.30 (11.6%)

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Joe

I was laughing throughout the episode, but no doubt the reference to 'The Shining' was the best moment of all.

January 21 2008 at 1:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mgrace

My absolute favorite was Henry's image being included in the center's group photo a la The Shining. Brilliant.

January 20 2008 at 9:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Aaron

I'd have to say this week episode was not as good as I thought it was going to be, sure it had its moments, but it just feels a little "off" for lack of a better word. I've also been thinking back to the episode "Bounty Hunters" and wondering why they haven't carried on with the Shawn/ Jules situations that they had at the end of it, they have barely even mentioned it. I was kinda hoping that it we would have an episode where they did something to advance that plot-line.

January 20 2008 at 9:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bruce

There is intrinsically a problem with the setup of the show, in that the lead officer (lassiter) hates Shawn, and the Chief is reluctant, if not enthusiastic, to go running to him every time they have a problem, and Jules may secretly like Shawn and thus won't advocate for bringing him in on cases. At the same time, Shawn always solves the case. So, either shawn starts to mess up, or the cops give in and start to like him and bring him in and they all become friends. This is what happened on Monk. At first, Stottlemeyer and Disher resented Monk, hardly ever called him in on a case, and were horribly annoyed when they Mayor called Monk in on a case as a personal favor. However, as Monk proved his worth, they all began to like and rely on him. Now, the one difference is that Shawn is lying about his method, while Monk is not. But I don't see that as being relevant to this situation, shawn certainly has no problem keeping up the psychic act.

I think the show is starting to seriously suffer due to no movement, no give at all, from this situational character problem. In the first season, they did show Lassiter starting to warm up to shawn, admitting while drunk that he is "Astounded" by shawn, and helping shawn out in that murder trial. Ditto with Jules, she warmed up to shawn tremendously from the second episode of the series (in which she first appeared) to last fall's mid-season finale when they almost kissed.

Clearly the writers are unnerved with taking it the next step and having them all be friends, so they're separating the cops from shawn and gus. Big mistake, as was seen in this episode and the last. Go ahead and let them get along. Lassiter can still be annoyed, in general, with Shawn's joking and baiting, much the same way Stottlemeyer can get annoyed with Monk's quirks.

What's important for the writers to realize is that the cops liking and befriending shawn is not the same as them conceding that he is a real psychic. It can be a running joke between Shawn and Lassiter that Lassy knows he's faking it, but respects him because that means his detective skills are for real (hey, Shawn beat him on the detective's exam, so there's no reason not to believe it!).

January 20 2008 at 9:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fran

I'm just excited that Guam got a shout-out this week. They also mentioned the village of Talofofo which was very near where I grew up. I don't think I knew anyone named knick-knack though.

January 20 2008 at 5:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Fran's comment
Toby OB

Knick-Knack was the name of the character played by Herve Villechaize in "The Man With The Golden Gun", a James Bond movie with Roger Moore.

January 21 2008 at 4:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Toby OB

Did anybody notice any pineapple references in the last two episodes? I'm collecting them, but unless it was really subtle, I don't think there were any these last two weeks.

January 20 2008 at 5:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Toby OB's comment
theConundrumm

pineapples on the tshirts playing golf last week, didn't watch this weeks ep

January 21 2008 at 1:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gordon Werner

I think that y'all are missing part of the point of the show. Psych is not like Numb3rs where the FBI cannot solve crimes without a civilian mathematician.

The Santa Barbara police in this show are more than able to solve most of the crimes there ... it is only on occasion that Shawn and Gus help them ...

The rest of the time they are doing their own thing for their own clients (like this episode) that just happened to be a real case ... which is why they got paid in the end.

January 20 2008 at 4:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jordancda

I just discovered this show (thanks to the strike...I was desperate for new television so I recorded both the marathons they aired leading up to the new episodes and thus have watched about twenty episodes in the last two weeks) and I am hooked. I liked this weeks episode except for the lame story with the cops. I want O'Hara and Lassiter back to their normal level of involvement. At least last week's converged (as mentioned above) at the end. I didn't like having two separate stories this time.

January 20 2008 at 4:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BillS

Hmm.... references? Shawn used the name "Dr. Howser", as in Doogie.

Easily the thing that intrigued me the most about the episode was Gus wanting Shawn to taste blood. How funny/weird was that?

January 20 2008 at 2:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jake

This show is much better than the first few episodes of the season. They are starting to concentrate more on the characters and developing their backgrounds (especially Gus with the introduction of his parents and crazy wife). IMO this is exactly where Psych needed to go to keep things fresh. The staleness of American Duos I think showed that they needed to move in new directions, whether it be separate story lines for the detectives and Shawn/Gus or even the Chief starting to question how good Shawn really is (Psy vs Psy). Moving forward to the end of the season I would really like to see Shawn and Juliette start to get a little closer and maybe even starting to pick up that Shawn might not really be psychic. Of course I wouldn't want to see Shawn outed completely, since the premise of the show would be over, but it would definitely be cool if Shawn had to struggle to reel in another confidant out of necessity to keep his gig going.

January 20 2008 at 2:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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