gus guster

(S02E11) " I like my wine like I like my men -- white & hairy" -- Mira's mother, Phylis Gaffney, to Shawn Spencer

After a few months break (with a holiday special in-between) Psych returned to the USA Network schedule this week with a slew of new episodes that were completed long before the Writers' Strike began. This is good news because 1) it's one more scripted show in an ocean of reality programming and 2) it gives them a full episode load to air on NBC starting in March. I've always felt that this comedy has been overlooked because of the day and time it airs, and I hope that its showing on network television will give more people an opportunity to see just how good it is.

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(S02E09) So, we come to the end of the first half of the nine episode, second season of Psych, which has five letters. Other than the first episode, which I personally felt took place in an alternate universe, I thought the season overall was quite strong and actually delved a bit more into the characters. We also got to see Shawn Spencer's special abilities put to the test several times by others who questioned his powers. And, in this episode, we had a pretty significant plot point that will hopefully be carried into the next half of the season, which starts in January.

So, without more wordage, let's us push on!

(S02E07) Look, if I understood what you guys were saying I'd still be a virgin. -- Shawn

Sometime during the run of Psych I expected someone to discover that Shawn Spencer's psychic abilities were a crock of poop. I just didn't expect it to come so soon, and from a bunch of teenage super-geniuses. They were all over him this episode, saying that his powers were simply of hyper-observation rather than the ability to see into another realm. Luckily, Shawn and Gus were able to point those teeniuses (a word coined by Gus, which should be on Wikipedia any day now) in another direction. If not, the show would be over and replaced by another rerun of Law & Order:SVU.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(S01E01 and E02) Henry Spencer to his son Shawn:  How many hats?

The premise for Psych is clever and unique. Shawn Spencer (James Corday) was trained by his policeman father Henry (Corbin Bernsen) in the art of keen observation. Not only did Sean match his father's skills in this technique, but he may have even exceeded his Dad's abilities.