Psych

Psych
File:Psych wallpaper thumb 01.jpg
Created by	Steve Franks
Starring	James Roday Dulé Hill Corbin Bernsen Stephen J.M. Sisk Kirsten Nelson
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	4
Production
Running time	approx. 43 minutes
Original release
Network	USA Network
Release	July 7, 2006 – present

Psych is an American one-hour dramedy series billed as "a fake psychic, real detective series" starring James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young police consultant whose eidetic memory leads people to believe that he's psychic. The program also stars Dulé Hill as Shawn's best friend and reluctant partner, Gus, and Corbin Bernsen as Shawn's captious father, Henry.

In the United States, the series airs Friday nights at 10 p.m. ET on the USA Network. It debuted on July 7, 2006, immediately following the fifth season premiere of Monk and was the highest-rated basic cable TV show premiere of 2006. The show uses Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for its Santa Barbara, California setting.

Characters

Shawn Spencer

Shawn Spencer (James Roday), son of a respected policeman, was trained by his father to be exceptionally observant. Shawn blends his observational powers with deductive reasoning to good investigational effect, but his sense of humor and mischief get him into trouble. He has a history of taking random jobs strictly for enjoyment. In the pilot, it is implied that he has supported himself at least partially in the past by calling in tips to the police hotline for crimes he sees on television, in exchange for a commendation and/or reward money.

Burton 'Gus' Guster

Gus (Dulé Hill) is a somewhat more straightlaced man who has nevertheless allowed himself to be dragged into multiple schemes in the past as a result of his friendship with Shawn. At the opening of the series, he is a pharmaceutical representative. He has a keen interest in safes and safecracking. (Conveniently, he seems to have a keen interest in whatever the week's script calls for. In the pilot it was forensics; in the second episode, spelling bees; in the third episode, safecracking, etc. Thus far, none of these interests has been mentioned in subsequent episodes.)

Henry Spencer

Shawn's father, retired police officer Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen) is disappointed in his son's choice to pawn off his observational skills as a psychic prank. Even so, he is proud of Shawn's investigational skills, although he chooses to conceal his pride from his son.

Detective Carlton Lassiter

Det. Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), a straight-shooting, 10-year veteran of the Santa Barbara Police Department, has worked his way to the top by conducting investigations cleanly, efficiently, and always by the book. He and his ex-wife separated five months ago. By "Pilot"'s end, Lassiter seems to grudgingly acknowledge Shawn's skill, if not his alleged metaphysical abilities.

Junior Detective Juliet O'Hara

Jr. Det. O'Hara (Maggie Lawson), a recent transplant from Miami Beach, was brought up in a family of brothers and is suited for both the rigors of police work and the demands of her new partner, Det. Lassiter, with whom she shares an encyclopedic knowledge of police code. O'Hara is very much the "good cop" to Lassiter's "bad cop." Unlike Lassiter, O'Hara is amused by the ersatz psychic, and is open to the idea that sometimes a good lead is found outside of the Standard Operating Procedure.

Interim Chief Karen Vick

Chief Vick (Kirsten Nelson) worked alongside Shawn's father, Henry, during his days on the force. While she may not be entirely sold on Shawn's strengths as a supernatural medium, she admires his moxie, as well as the fact that, like his father, Shawn brings results. Vick's status as Chief appears to be only Interim due to a pregnancy.

Episodes

See main article, List of Psych episodes

No.	Episode	Air Date
1.01	"Pilot" (90 min)	07.07.2006
1.02	"Spellingg Bee"	07.14.2006
1.03	"Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece"	07.21.2006
1.04	"Woman Seeking Dead Husband—Smokers Okay, No Pets"	07.28.2006
1.05	"9 Lives"	08.04.2006
1.06	"Weekend Warriors"	08.11.2006
1.07	"Who Ya Gonna Call?"	08.18.2006
1.08	"Shawn vs. the Red Phantom"	08.25.2006
1.09	"Forget Me Not"	09.01.2006

Casefile

• The electronics store robbery (1x01).
• The vehicle vandalism (1x01).
• The Camden McCallum Jr. kidnapping (1x01).
• The Brendan Vu poisoning (1x02).
• The Elvin Cavanaugh murder (1x02).
• The school computer theft (1x03)
• The Maxwell heirloom-ring theft (1x03)
• The Dietrich Manheim murder (1x03)

Critical Reaction and Ratings

Psych scored a 4.51 rating and an average of 6.1 million total viewers at its premier, which made it the highest rated scripted series premiere on basic cable this year in all key demos (households, P18-49, P25-54, and total viewers), according to a USA network press release, quoted from the Futon Critic.

From The Mercury News:

"James Roday (Miss Match) is utterly charming and delightfully funny as Shawn Spencer (who may not be psychic but who does have wonderful powers of observations), and he gets fine support from Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law) as his cop father and Dulé Hill (The West Wing) as his Dr. Watson"

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

"Psych" is one of those happy collisions of an intelligent script and an appealing cast. Roday's a charmer, nice looking but more charismatic than pretty, and ably paired with West Wing alumnus Dulé Hill, who plays Shawn's ultra-responsible childhood friend Gus.

From the Detroit Free Press:

"Psych," starring cute James Roday as a scatterbrained sleuth with uncanny powers of observation, is seldom more than a private eyesore. It thoroughly lacks the wit and disarming charm of Monk...Guaranteed fun won't be found in [Psych's] first outing. You can, however, experience the sensation of deadening your senses with a rolling pin.

Trivia

• The name of the eponymous detective agency derives from multiple applicable meanings. "Psych" was used as a shorthand slang by students of psychology as early as 1895, and Shawn's observational abilities and memory are as psychologicaly based as they are environmentally. As Shawn points out, "psych" also serves as a less-commonly used shorthand for psychic, which he uses his flawless recall to pretend to be. As Gus points out, the term "psych," by itself, is most commonly used in reference to the 1980's interjection, meaning "gotcha" or "just kidding," and which seems to stem from the "to outsmart" meaning of "psych out" first attested in 1934.

• Gus drives a five-door Toyota Echo hatchback (now known as the Toyota Yaris). While popular in Canada (where the series is shot), this model is not available in the United States (where the series is fictionally set), although the other cars in the Yaris family are.

• The concept pokes fun at the authentically-psychic protagonist of The Dead Zone, Johnny Smith. USA Network ran an advertisement starring Anthony Michael Hall and James Roday as their respective characters comparing the merits of their respective talents, only to realize that their lot could be worse when they overhear Adrian Monk counting out 100 individual kernels of corn (and returning the excess three). Spencer's partner and comic foil Gus also seems very much like a mirror to Johnny's friend and confidant Bruce, and Shawn's working relationship with the Santa Barbara PD mimicks Johnny's involvement with the Cleaves Mill PD.

• The series also borrows elements from the Sherlock Holmes mythos; Shawn's ability to deduce whole crimes from the most obscure details puts him firmly in the Sherlock role, with Gus as his Watson, with Lassiter, O'Hara, and Vick in the roles of the various Scotland Yard inspectors that approached Holmes for help.

International Broadcasts

• UK - Hallmark Channel and BBC (From 2007)
• US - USA Network

External links

• Psych on TV Squad
• Psych Show Overview from TV.com
• "Psych" (2006) from The Internet Movie Database
• Unofficial fansite
• Psych FanFiction Archive