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(S01E14) You knew that a moment like this would eventually come up . . . a time where a father needed his son's help. I mean, even though Henry Spencer shows reluctance about his son's detective skills (especially since he masks them with a fake psychic power), inside he is extremely proud of how far his son has come. So, when an old friend of Henry's asks for help in finding his son the senior Spencer happens to drop Shawn's name. Ah, parents.

Shawn doesn't disappoint this client. In fact, he goes over the top in solving the mystery. By 'over the top' I mean going severely psychic in the presence of the father and his client. As I've mentioned in previous posts Shawn has been pretty subdued when using his psychic powers. Not this episode, though. He went whole hog just to put his Dad in an awkward position. Ah, children.

Smell that? It has the aroma of burning leaves. It must be me thinking about something again. Here's the skinny: I've noticed over the last few weeks that Shawn likes to tell people that Gus is his hero, that he looks up to his best friend. I think that most of that is just joking since it is usually preceded or followed by a false statement about Gus' skills. However, deep down, I wonder if Shawn really does look up to Gus. Gus is very intelligent (something we have just started to see), has a steady job, and seems to have his head straight on his shoulders. Meanwhile, until he began his detective agency, Shawn flitted around from job to job and girl to girl. Perhaps the younger Spencer wants to have just a bit of what Gus has. Then again, I could be blowing smoke out of my poopie chute.

I'm actually going to start off this week's review with a mention about Gus. I haven't spoken much about him even though this role on the show has expanded quite a bit over the last few episodes. I put him up top this time around because even though he was kinda, sorta missing in a few scenes this week the ones he was in he made some significant impact. One of the things I noticed is that he is starting to pick up on some of the detective skills that Shawn had drilled into him by his father. There were one or two occasions where Gus actually saw evidence first before Shawn. The other noticeable trait Gus is exhibiting is his intelligence. I couldn't really tell how smart he was in the first half of the season because he always seemed to be whining. In the second half the producers have fleshed Gus out a bit more to show his intelligence and use it in the process of an investigation.

(S01E12) Rich is off on his annual pilgrimage to North Carolina to tour the shops of various NASCAR teams. It's either that, or he's performing with his improv group. I forget. Either way, he's handed off Psych duties to me for the week. He'll return with a review of "Ready Set... Muuurder" next week.

Right off the top, I have to say this was a fantastic episode. Possibly my favorite of the series so far. The courtroom venue worked great, and really set the stage for some fun bits. As Gus said, "Man, this is fun."

Donnelly Rhodes (Battlestar Galactica) was perfectly cast as Judge Leland. His 'psychic mumbo jumbo' scene with Shawn was particularly good. The asparagus on his bench at the end of the episode was a nice touch. There has been so much serious courtroom drama on television, that it's nice to see a comedic take on things from time to time

(S01E11) Yes, the review is late. I'll apologize to each and every one of you individually. That should take a few years, and by that time you'll probably forget what I was apologizing about.

How do you connect speed dating with naked, fat guys found out in the middle of a field? I'm not too sure, but Psych did it and made it work quite well. Gosh, what a funny episode! I can't remember laughing out loud at this show so much as I did this time around.

The second half of Psych has seen a lot of changes. We've seen Shawn mature quite a bit, we've seen Lassiter mellow out, and we've even seen Henry Spencer going out on a date. This week we saw another change. This was probably one of the first episodes where all of the members of the ensemble cast were utilized. We've seen combinations on Gus and Shawn with one or two of the other players, but this week they all participated. Even Kristen Nelson was back as Interim Police Chief Karen Vick. With some of the attention off of Shawn and Gus, the show took on a different feel. The cast is really jelling together as a cohesive team.

(S01E10) I predict we'll solve it Friday at 10:01pm, then maybe watch some cable. -- Shawn Spencer

This was a very significant episode. Not because of the mystery being solved (which was very weak), but because of the character development we saw in three of the main players -- Carlton Lassiter, Henry Spencer, and our fair-haired boy Shawn Spencer.

Let's begin with Carlton. As I mentioned last week I noticed that Lassiter performance in the second-half of the first season was much more subdued than he was first portrayed. At the beginning he was shown almost like an amalgam of other over-the-top television cops. With this episode we can see he has been considerably toned down and made to be a bit more human.

(S01E09) After five long months Psych has returned with all new episodes featuring James Roday as Shawn Spencer and Dule Hill (The West Wing) as his trusty companion Gus. For those of you who watched and enjoyed this show when it aired over the summer on USA I say welcome back. For those of you who aren't familiar with this comedy-mystery hybrid (I call it a mysterdy) let me give you a brief synopsis of the plot . . .

The show follows Shawn in his role as a police psychic, solving crimes that they cannot (which are many). However, he really isn't a true psychic. In reality, he has an extraordinarily keen eye minute details, which he obtained through intense training conducted by his policeman father (Corbin Bernsen).

Got it? There will be a quiz at the end of the review, of course. With that out of the way let's move on to this week's show.

I know that we already have a 'Ask TV Squad' category to answer questions from our beautiful and intelligent readers, but that is usually meant for one question at a time. In this episode of 'The Five' I'd like to reply to a number of questions that have come to us over the last few weeks. So, without further ado . . .

1. Steph writes 'Please help! Is Psych canceled? I just discovered it and I've only seen reruns.'

Fear not, dear Steph. Psych is just taking a mid-season break, which is normal for cable shows to do. The USA Network comedy, which stars James Roday, Dule Hill and Corbin Bernsen, returns with new episodes in January of 2007.

If you were worried about the fate of Shawn and Gus, you can relax. USA has announced that both Psych and The Dead Zone will be getting another season. This comes on the heels of news that Monk and The 4400 have also been renewed. I guess that programming gig over at USA is a pretty cushy one.

While the ratings did drop somewhat after the premiere, Psych still managed over 5 million viewers a week, which is very good for a cable series. The Dead Zone didn't do as well, with an average of 2.8 million viewers. Still, that was enough to get it another season paired with The 4400.

Psych and Monk are currently away on one of those midseason breaks that the networks don't seem to realize are incredibly annoying to fans... They'll both return to finish their seasons in January.

(S01E07) They changed it up a bit this episode. We've had some pretty standard mysteries during the early run of Psych, but this time they gave us a little twist on who committed the crime. Plus, there seemed to be two crimes happening at the same time that didn't correlate to each other. Well, at least in the beginning they didn't connect.

It began with the murder of a local doctor who was a client of the pharmaceutical company Gus worked for. Shawn and Gus thought this was going to be their case until a man came into their office ranting that a ghost was trying to kill him. In a change of pace Shawn was not interested in taking the case while Gus was raring to go.

After that things got a bit weird for our duo. First, while spending the night at their client's house, the 'ghost' started a fire in the living room. Then, someone tried to slam their car into Gus' sub-compact. Nothing made sense. Then, Gus and Shawn discover an attic full women's clothes, wigs and makeup. It turns out that their client may have been housing more than one person in his head.

(S01E06) Secretary: There's a Lieutenant Crunch here to see you.

Gus: Lieutenant Crunch?

Shawn: Actually, I've been promoted. It's Captain Crunch now.

At first I thought this wasn't going to be a good episode of Psych. There was a big focus on Detective Lassiter at the beginning of the show and it looked like it was going to be one of those team-ups where Lassiter learns a little from Shawn and Gus, and vice-versa. But, that was not the case at all. Once again, it was pretty much Shawn and Gus the whole way. Not only that, but it was one of the best episodes of the series so far.

(S01E05) Let's not dilly-dally around this week. Let's get to the best scene of the episode. This would be the one where Shawn is "channeling" a recently dead singer/dancer in front of the police chief. Well, to be truthful, he's "channeling" the dead woman via a "psychic connection" with a cat (who was previously owned by another recently dead victim).

Shawn is grooving and gliding along, singing in a husky female voice, trying to prove to the chief of police that four recent suicide victims didn't really kill themselves at all. Rather, they were murdered. It was all very surreal, like a nightmare version of All That Jazz. Bob Fosse would have been proud. It was also very funny, as was the entire episode.

USA Network is so proud of its new comedy Psych that it has decided to order up three more episodes for its freshman season. Including the 90-minute pilot that would make a total of 15 episodes for the series. In addition, AOL Entertainment News reports that the show is expected to be picked up for a second season in the near future.

The premiere of Psych drew 6.1 million viewers, a record for a cable series debut this year. Since then it has retained most of the audience of its lead-in program Monk. That series, which stars Tony Shalhoub as a compulsively obsessive detective, is averaging about four million viewers a week. Psych is averaging about 3.9 million per week.

Psych, which stars James Roday as a detective who dupes the police and the public into believing his keen observation skills are actually psychic powers, will most likely follow the split-season pattern of Monk. This means that new shows will run until month's end and then return with new episodes back in January.

(S01E04) Let me just get this first little item out of the way and we can move on. There was a scene early in this week's show where Shawn Spencer and his friend/business partner Gus are talking outside of their detective agency, which is at the beach. Behind Shawn we see the continuation of the beach and a seemingly large evergreen forest looming just above the water.

I'm pretty sure that there aren't any large evergreen forests near the beach in Santa Barbara, where the show is supposed to take place.You would find that type of stuff in the Pacific Northwest, including Vancouver, British Columbia where, by coincidence, Psych is filmed. I only ask that the producers try to limit the amount of outside shots to avoid breaking the illusion that the show is based in Southern California.

There, I feel better now. So, let's get on with the review.

(S01E03) Shawn almost slipped up. Twice. Both times while talking to the chief of police. Luckily, Gus was there to move him back in the right direction; lying about his psychic abilities to everyone, including the police.

I believe that this is the way Psych will run for the time being. Shawn will slip up here and there with the people that he admires . . . people that Shawn believes (deep down) know that he's really not what he says. For others, including Detective Lassiter, he'll keep on pretending that his psychic seizures are real.

(S01E02) Now that the pilot is out of the way and we are into the regular series, we really get into the meat of some of the characters. This week we get more of the history between Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and his dad Henry (Corbin Bernsen).

In last week's pilot episode we saw a bit of the relationship between these two, as Henry taught his son the art of observation. This week, we really get to see what a hard-ass he was, and still is, to Shawn. In order to have one of Henry's friends look at a sample of evidence he found at a crime scene, Shawn must complete a dog house he started many years ago. Why did Dad keep this half-finished house for a dog that was never bought? Why, to prove a point that Shawn never completed anything.