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Media musings: No mystery behind appeal of 'Psych'
By Rob Thomas
"Something's coming to me!" exclaims Shawn Spencer, jerking backward as if some unseen force has literally grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
Then he closes his eyes and screws up his face in concentration, as if faint letters are forming on the underside of his eyelids. "I'm seeing a name. An L?"
"Lou!" a woman screams excitedly. "That was the name of his dog."
We've been seeing this sort of thing a lot on television lately. "Crossing Over with John Edward" is the big one, of course, as psychic Edward claims to be able to contact the departed relatives of members of his studio audiences, provided they're "receptive" (i.e., gullible) enough. But from "Ghost Hunters" to "Mindfreak," television shows everywhere accept the paranormal as normal.
I suppose that's fine. The supernatural has been part of popular entertainment since "Hamlet," although I'm not sure Shakespeare's audience at the Globe actually thought the guy playing Hamlet's dad was a real ghost. (And the king of Denmark never pretended to have a message from an audience member's dead uncle.)
Also, on this Independence Day, we should celebrate that one of the great things about America is that there's room for everybody to believe any crazy thing they want to.
But what's in short supply on television is programming for the skeptics. Showtime's "Penn & Teller: Bull----!" gleefully skewers fortune tellers, late-night infomercials and other peddlers of that substance named in the show's unprintable title. And now, with USA's "Psych," premiering at 9 p.m. Friday, we have a detective show for those back-row snickerers at the seance.
Because that guy in the first paragraph, Shawn Spencer? The one with the vision of the letter L? He is a total and unabashed fraud. That's what we like about him.
Shawn, as played by James Roday, is a private detective with a special gift. That gift is not psychic ability. Instead, he has phenomenal powers of observation that seem to approach the supernatural. In the prologue to Friday's premiere episode, we see Shawn as a boy, eating lunch at a diner with his police office father (Corbin Bernsen).
Before his father will let him have dessert, he tells Shawn to close his eyes, and then quizzes him on everything in the diner. What's the name of the manager? Which letter is burned out in the lit "EXIT" sign? How many hats are in the room? Shawn nails them all.
Shawn's father is hoping that his son will follow him onto the force, but we learn that Shawn rebelled, becoming a kind of slacker odd-jobber. But he still has this incredible eye for give-away details, and occasionally phones in crime tips to the police. The police, who don't believe in his powers of observation, get suspicious and threaten to arrest him as an accomplice in one crime.
That's when Shawn gets his brainstorm. He'll pretend to be psychic! Suddenly, once Shawn is staggering around the squad room pretending to get signals from the Great Beyond, he gets some respect. That otherwise rational people have an easier time accepting clues from beyond than from a run-of-the-mill mind like a steel trap is just one of several delicious twists in "Psych."
In some ways "Psych" is a cheeky retort to all the supernatural-themed detective shows like "Medium" and "The Ghost Whisperer," but it has a goofy charm all its own. It's great fun to watch Shawn's delight as he fools one person after another into thinking he's psychic and, incidentally, solving a big crime like a kidnapping in the pilot episode.
Roday's performance is just a shade too wise-ass for me, but he does make Shawn's enthusiasm infectious.
The show's also got a raft of funny lines, such as when a sneering detective who wants Shawn off the case complains that he's "waltzing around like a kid in a candy store."
"Let me tell you something, detective," Shawn retorts. "I worked in a candy store. And it is nothing like this."
"West Wing" fans will be pleased to see that Dule Hill, who must have had his resume updated the day that show was canceled, has a supporting role as Shawn's skeptical partner (and childhood friend) Gus. Gus doesn't have a whole lot to do other than throw slow-burn glares in Shawn's direction, but Hill does it awfully well, and there's potential here for chemistry in the vein of USA's other hit detective show, "Monk."
"Monk" starts its fifth season Friday night, and I predict that fans of television's favorite obsessive-compulsive Sherlock will also dig the loopy sleuths of "Psych."
But, of course, if you believe in predictions, "Psych" might not be the show for you after all.
E-mail: rthomas@madison.com
Published: July 3, 2006
A detective fakes supernatural powers in Psych
by DEAN ROBBINS, Up & Coming Weekly, July 5-11, 2006 July 05, 2006
USA perfected the droll detective series with Monk, but the network's new Psych (Friday, 10 p.m.) is even better. From concept to casting, it's a beautifully realized comic crime drama.
Shawn Spencer (James Roday) has a supernatural ability to read clues - except that it only seems supernatural. Shawn's police-detective father (Corbin Bernsen) raised him to make Sherlock Holmes-level observations, and now he can't help himself. He solves crimes even when he's not trying to.
With a puppyish enthusiasm, Shawn realizes he can set up shop as a private investigator by passing himself off as a psychic. He drags his friend Gus (Dulé Hill) into the scheme - the eye-rolling skeptic to Shawn's blustering con man. Roday and Hill have chemistry to burn, and their debut caper is both suspenseful and hilarious.
I predict that USA has a hit on its hands.
Hey, I'm a psychic!
It's hard to get psyched for main character in 'Psych'
Luckily, sidekick Dule Hill delivers a smooth performance.
Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Columnist
Posted July 2, 2006
Can you enjoy a show without liking the main character? Psych puts that unnecessary challenge to viewers.
This screwball mystery, which debuts Friday on USA, starts with an engrossing premise. Shawn Spencer (James Roday) has developed awesome powers of observation under the tough tutoring of his no-nonsense father. The series opens in 1986, and police officer Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen) tests his young son's skills while they sit in a restaurant. Without looking, the boy can tell which letter is out in an EXIT sign and how many people are wearing hats.
"Amazing," a waitress says. "Adequate," Henry says.
Twenty years later, the estranged father repeats the drill and checks his son's gift. Shawn remains sharp. He also has upheld his boyish vow never to grow up, and he annoys his dad.
Shawn could have the same effect on viewers.
He's unemployed after holding 57 jobs since high school. He swaggers through crises with oblivious chattiness. Although handsome, he mistakenly sees himself as a ladies' man. His cocky manner grows tiresome in the 90-minute premiere. He could be easier to take at 60 minutes, the show's regular running time.
Shawn's talent lands him a police consultant's job in Santa Barbara, Calif. The police initially consider him an accomplice in store robberies after he phones in an on-the-money tip -- just from watching the local TV news. He quickly goes from suspect to colleague, helping solve a kidnapping case and pushing to find the truth.
He bowls over his colleagues, but he has to lie. He pretends that his laserlike attention to detail is actually psychic ability. He embellishes the ruse with fake trances and visions.
Shawn's psychic shtick should offer an enjoyable fraud, but Roday overdoes the quirky charisma. Maybe we're supposed to savor the irony: The observant hero doesn't recognize his effect on others. But series creator Steve Franks gives Shawn too much leeway to show off. More limits on the character would help the actor and show.
Luckily, Psych benefits from Shawn's best friend, Gus (Dule Hill of The West Wing). Gus often grows exasperated by Shawn's tactics and becomes a conduit for the audience's frustrations.
Hill delivers a smooth comic performance, registering incredulity and squeamishness. He displaces Roday as the most relatable figure; it's as if Vivian Vance became the main reason to watch I Love Lucy, rather than Lucille Ball.
That development throws off the show a bit, but Psych is lucky to have Hill. L.A. Law star Bernsen provides steady support as the father who hates Shawn's lies but admires his gift.
"Are you going to continue with this little charade?" the dad asks Shawn.
Well, of course, Shawn has to keep it up or there's no show. Shawn and Gus will set up their own detective agency, called Psych, and help the police.
At first meeting, Shawn is no standout like Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub), who begins his fifth season Friday on USA. Fortunately, though, the Psych hero has sidekicks to help him get a clue about himself.
Hal Boedeker can be reached at 407-420-5756 or hboedeker@orlandosentinel.com.
Reviewing key:
***** excellent, **** good, *** average, ** poor, * awful
TV Review: 'Monk' gets viewers 'Psych'-ed up
Sunday, July 02, 2006
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Television executives try to find complementary shows to pair with established hits. For USA Network, successful comedy-mystery hour "Monk" offers a perfect springboard for something new -- or at least younger and slightly repackaged.
Some critics will complain that "Psych," the new series that follows "Monk" at 10 p.m. Friday, is too similar to its lead-in -- both shows follow oddball crime-solvers -- but, despite the inevitable comparisons, the lighthearted "Psych" charms even as it duplicates the structure and tone of "Monk."
Premiering Friday with a 90-minute opener, "Psych" follows the exploits of Shawn Spencer (James Roday), the son of a police officer (Corbin Bernsen), who taught Shawn to be super-observant. Shawn spent years resisting this talent, slacking his way through life in a series of short-lived jobs.
But in a bind, he convinces the local police force that his ability to spot details others miss, and thereby solve crimes, is derived from his psychic abilities.
"If this psychic thing is a scam, we will prosecute," warns the interim police chief (the always winning Kirsten Nelson of the short-lived CBS pilgrim comedy "Thanks").
So Shawn has that threat over his head as he embarks on his detective work as a phony psychic. He doesn't put all the pieces of the puzzle together properly on first glance, but he does at least gather the pieces. With the help of best friend, pharmaceutical sales rep Gus (Dule Hill), Shawn goes about solving crimes, rubbing his temples to help recall the clues he's seen in plain sight.
As Shawn, Roday is a winning lead. He's charmingly off-kilter, a likable schemer who avows, "The best way to convince people you're not lying to them is to tell them you are." Roday is not above silly behavior -- shaking, taking a tumble -- when Shawn has to convince the police he's having visions.
Hill, so serious for all those years as uber-professional presidential aide Charlie Young on "The West Wing," gets to cut loose as Gus, a more uptight character who's not above running from a room, screaming in fear. Those shrieking moments are a little over the top, but Hill's characters is not as eye-rollingly obvious as the by-the-book cop (Timothy Omundson) who's constantly snarling at Shawn.
That crummy cop character needs to be made more multidimensional, and perhaps he will be in future episodes. In the pilot, actress Anne Dudek plays his partner -- in crime-solving and in the bedroom -- but her character will be transferred out and a new female detective, played by Maggie Lawson ("Crumbs"), will arrive in future episodes.
The relationship between Shawn and his father, introduced in the pilot as loving but strained, will also need further refinement in subsequent episodes for Bernsen to remain relevant to the series.
Created and written by Steve Franks, "Psych" cribs many elements from "Monk." But in mixing these with the contributions of Roday and Hill, the resulting series manages not to play like a total retread.
(TV editor Rob Owen can be reached at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Ask TV questions at www.post-gazette.com/tv under TV Q&A.)
New USA series plans to 'Psych' viewers out
By KATE O'HARE
Zap2it
7/2/2006
With three successful dramas featuring psychics on the air - USA Network's "The Dead Zone," NBC's "Medium" and CBS' "Ghost Whisperer" - it's no surprise that somebody has decided to put a twist on the concept.
So, take these shows, toss in a bit of Court TV's "Psychic Detectives," stir in a little Sherlock Holmes, turn the whole thing around 180 degrees, and you've got "Psych," premiering with its 90-minute pilot at 10 p.m. Friday on USA.
Created by Steve Franks ("Big Daddy," "I Dream of Jeannie"), the lighthearted mystery drama stars James Roday ("The Dukes of Hazzard") as Shawn Spencer, whose father, a Santa Barbara, Calif., police officer (Corbin Bernsen), has drilled him in the fine art of observation - for example, knowing how many people are wearing hats in a room and what kind - in hopes that his son will grow up to go into the family business.
Shawn drifts away into a series of random jobs, but all the while he's employing his father's lessons by studying crimes and calling in tips to police. When one of his tips strikes too close to the truth, Shawn is arrested as an accomplice. Using his charm and talent - and with some help from his childhood best friend, Gus (Dule Hill), a pharmaceutical sales rep - Shawn convinces the cops that his information came from psychic abilities.
After this success, Shawn decides to exploit his allegedly supernatural skills and recruits Gus for a new detective agency called Psych.
"My dad and his three brothers are all police officers," Franks says. "The only job in the world was to be a police officer, so I chose a different path. I thought about taking that a little further. When I was a kid, (my dad and I) would be in a restaurant. He would actually ask me how many people were wearing hats in the restaurant. He was training me in his own way to follow his footsteps. Then, of course, I chose the one profession he has no concept of in the world.
"So I brought that idea forward. I always wanted to do something with a guy who is pretending to be psychic and had no psychic abilities, but just had a great grasp of details and has basically been trained to see and read people in such a way that he can just pass that off as psychic ability."
Coming off the critically acclaimed drama "The West Wing," Hill faced the challenge of finding a new show that lived up to that.
"Being educated as to what good writing was," he says, "I've gotten to a place where I'm able to recognize it. This was like, "This is good. It's different, but it's good.' I didn't feel like I was taking a step down . . . as an actor. I'm definitely excited about it."
Just don't call Gus a "sidekick."
"He gets offended by anything that alludes to him being a sidekick," Hill says.
"I don't think Gus is a sidekick at all," Roday says. "Without him, Shawn can't do what he does."
For example, in the pilot, Gus provides a crucial bit of pharmaceutical knowledge.
"In each case," Hill says, "he somehow has a piece of it."
"He's like an encyclopedia of useless knowledge," Roday says, "that oddly becomes useful every week."
"Because Gus is a big undercover nerd, he's like a walking oxymoron," Hill says. "He's cool, but when you start talking to him, you're like, "That doesn't really add up.' He's like, "Everybody knows about that.' "No, no, nobody knows that.' "
"It's that Gus thing," Roday says. "With each episode, we're learning about another kind of subculture that Gus is into."
For all the usual financial reasons, "Psych" shoots in Vancouver, British Columbia, even though it's set in Santa Barbara, Calif. This sort of reverses a common problem of shooting in Los Angeles, which is avoiding palm trees if you don't want them. In this case, you're adding palm trees where there aren't any.
"We have eight (palm trees)," Franks says, "and they go to every set. And when I say that, I mean that literally."
"They just got worse," Roday says. "They were literally becoming more and more dilapidated as we went along. Everywhere we went, they flew in the palm trees."