Ode to TV Shows: psych, from a psych-o for life
One of my favorite TV shows of all time is psych (2006-2014). And I mean of all time. I still rewatch all eight seasons constantly, and I still laugh every time. Do I know how every episode ends by now? Yes. Does it take the fun out of it? No. Do I cringe that I’m still grossly obsessed with a cop show? Yeah, f*ck them. But I’ll be damned if I am not still fully in love with James Roday (Rodriguez) and Dulé Hill (and Maggie Lawson).
When COVID had just begun to take over our lives, I had just gotten back from Paris and had to quarantine. To fill my time, I did what I always did in a time of uncertainty: I rewatched psych. I’ve wanted to start it over again many times since binging all those hours of Shawn and Gus in fourteen days of isolation, but I’ve resisted. I told myself to start new shows, which I was semi-successful at.
So instead of finally getting to and ode to Bly Manor, recapping the new Midnight Mass, or prepping for my read-and-watch-along of Hill House (look, what can I say? Mike Flanagan knows what he’s doing), let’s talk about my favorite comfort show. Let’s break down the pilot, in real time.
The 15-minute Test:
The pilot episode, like many episodes throughout the series, begins with a flashback: young Shawn and his father Henry, a cop, sitting in a diner in good, ol’ Santa Barbara. Their relationship is clearly a bit strained. Henry is tough on Shawn. Shawn wants cake, so Henry gives him a test so he can earn it. This is where we find out that Henry has taught Shawn to be hyper-observant. To notice everything—which is actually a fun callback for me for something my favorite author Ally Carter taught me in her book I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You.
Shawn is able to answer all the questions, with a little added snark. The waitress is impressed, Henry less so and he makes that known, but he still lets Shawn get his cake. And in response to the waitress telling Shawn they could use some people like him when he grows up, he gives the ultimate tell of Shawn’s character: “Oh no, ma’am, I’m never going to grow up.”
Then we get a time jump: Shawn is still in Santa Barbara, a messy apartment, low stakes lifestyle. Just by watching the local news, he calls in a tip to the police that the store manager reporting a robbery on the TV is actually the guilty party. We can see he’s still got the skills Henry instilled in him all those years ago.
Unfortunately, this time, the tip lands him at the police station as a person of interest in the crime. This is where we meet Detective Lassiter and the short-lived Lucinda Barry (whose name I definitely had to look up before typing it). Lassiter is a hard-ass, and he does not like Shawn at all from the get-go, which Shawn plays around with. Makes fun of him a little, gives him a hard time. Their dynamic is set.
When Shawn finally realizes Lassiter is serious about arresting him and he’s about to be taken away, he makes a hail mary confession: he is psychic. After noticing certain things about one of the cops and the woman at the reception desk who’s into the paranormal, and after getting his own confession out of one of the mean-looking guys in handcuffs, this seems like the only thing that will get him out of this mess. He calls out that the cop is about to get married (true), that the woman’s grandmother is worried about her from the afterlife (true?), and that they will find proof of the mean-looking guy’s crimes if they look in his left boot (true). And lo and behold, he’s free to go, much to Lassiter’s chagrin.
Upon leaving the precinct, big smirk on his face, Shawn is approached by the interim-chief Vick, who isn’t really a fan of his claims, but she’s desperate for a break in one of her high-profile cases, a kidnapping. Could Shawn and his psychic abilities keep the FBI off her back?
We cut to Shawn waltzing into West Coast Pharmaceuticals, where my favorite guy Gus is working hard or hardly working? It’s clear that the two of them have been best pals since the dawn of time. Shawn talks up this mystery dream job he’s gotten for the both of them: being private detectives. Which Gus is hardly interested in…that is, until Shawn tells him that their first case is the aforementioned kidnapping of a rich-boy heir and his dog. With this, Gus is in.
So there we have it: a jam-packed first fifteen minutes: deception, humor, a twist, a missing dog. What more could you want? All of the big (intended—sorry Lucinda) key players are introduced, we know a little bit about everyone. We have the hook, we have a mystery, and we’ve got a solid tone for the course of the show. It’s time to get the ball rolling.
We immediately get into the not-so-kosher tactics that Shawn and Gus will be using to solve crimes. Tactics Shawn is all in on and Gus is much less so. This aspect of Shawn never growing up is pertinent in all his one-liners, all his actions. You can tell he doesn’t take very much seriously, but he also knows how to get out of any and all situations that have been put in front of him thus far. Gus is clearly the more mature one, being the voice of reason to balance Shawn’s shenanigans, as well as lending his own humor and antics to their duo. Shawn is very much a leader, but Gus can hold his own, and that is what I love about him. He has such a different perspective on the cases, and many times, it’s his insights that help the mystery get solved. Got to love the Super Smeller.
The episode continues with Gus’s resistance and Shawn’s overbearing nature. We learn a little bit more about Henry, that he’s back in Santa Barbara unbeknownst to Shawn, further proving that their relationship is less than amicable.
In Shawn and Gus’s amateur sleuthing, we as an audience learn more about how they’re going to keep up the psychic charade: how they will investigate on the side and finesse visions in front of Lassiter and the other detectives. Gus’s weak stomach, Shawn’s jumping to conclusions, it’s all there. Their entire masquerade for future episodes is being built from this first case.
The show does a good job with setting up Shawn’s observations as somewhat random at first. They don’t quite add up, but they serve as clues for the audience to try and figure the cases out along with Shawn and Gus.
And unlike most hostile father-son relationships in shows, Shawn and Henry reconnect in the pilot. There is a lot to be worked on there, the two of them are more alike than either really realizes, but you can tell this is a relationship that will be prevalent in the show. That it will be on the mend in some way. Henry, being the one who taught Shawn everything he knows, will be a secret asset to Shawn and his escapades.
One of my favorite parts of this episode is an aspect of Shawn’s character that doesn’t quite make it to the rest of the series. Lucinda Barry (really, is she ever named on-screen? I have no idea) is, like Shawn, a bit skeptical about how this case is turning out, she just can’t figure out why. It’s Shawn who can take the pieces she has and put them together, but they can’t talk in the bullpen, so they go to the shooting range in the station (is that what they’re called there? Honestly, no clue about those things). They can speak candidly here, while Barry practices shooting. Then she gives the gun to Shawn for a try, and he immediately knocks off six shots. The target sheet comes back to them, and she says sadly, “You missed.”
But did he? We get a close up, and all of his shots, match exactly to hers. I mean, complete badassery if you ask me. Even though he never gets to hold a gun after that, that he’s kind of a doofus through and through after this, I think it does prove to us that there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye. He’s definitely the immature goof everyone thinks he is, but there’s something else there too.
Gus, in the climactic scene, is also the one who ends up giving Shawn his last piece of proof to solve the case, proving that he’s more than just a sidekick.
These characters are genuinely so fun to watch. The humor and antics are heightened, and it often makes fun of the police department, something I enjoy. The show has a lot of heart in it, and that’s clear from the pilot.
And in the ending scene, we find out that Shawn has named his PI agency “psych,” giving us the name of the show and its double-meaning, which Gus points out immediately. “’Psych’? as in, ‘gotcha’?” Because yes, exactly. And as Shawn and Gus are driving away from the psych office in the beloved Blueberry, we hear what will be the show’s theme song, where the lyrics are “I know you know that I’m not telling the truth/I know you know they just don’t have any proof.” Pretty on-the-nose-perfect.
Can’t wait to re-meet Juliet O’Hara in episode two. And get to season six, the best of the best.