Psych

I had heard about Psych when it first came out because of Dule Hill. I had loved him as Charlie in The West Wing and was excited to see him in something else, however I never really got around to watching it. My sister started watching a few episodes on Netflix and when I finally sat down to watch one I knew I had to start from the beginning and I've made it all the way through.
The show itself is pretty formulaic but I do love a good detective show with a twist. The twist for this show is that Shawn Spencer is not really a psychic but only pretends to be because he keeps calling in too many tips which turn out to be right and he falls under suspicion. For the head detective, Lassiter that suspicion never really goes away and for the most part Shawn is able to keep up the charade with the help of his trusty sidekick Gus and the various names Shawn introduces him as. The story is good enough to sustain itself although doing too many marathons takes some of the magic away.
The cast is perfect together, a great ensemble. Shawn and Gus have great chemistry together and are believable. In a strange way, Lassiter somehow grows on you and you find yourself really liking him. I can't explain it but you get use to him as a character and feel sorry for him when his love get put behind bars or Shawn finds a way to make him look like a fool. Juliet is a great companion to Lassiter and finally she and Shawn got together after years of banter. I enjoyed the relationship between Shawn and Rachel Lee Cook but not as much as the relationship between him and Jules. It's the kind of relationship that builds and builds until you think maybe they'll never get together but then they finally do. The only problem is that after all the building it becomes rather anti-climatic and nothing too big comes of it. They have their problems. The weekend away episode was a fun example but there isn't as much tension as there used to be now. It's a fact which I can overlook since they are together. Shawn's father is always good for a laugh and its even better when he gets back at Shawn. Their relationship has been fun to watch grow. At first it was a little awkward trying to figure out they could keep his part going but since they brought him into the force as the consultant liaison it brought a whole new dimension to the show which really worked. It brings Shawn down a bit to act more childish as in the time when Lassiter is telling Shawn that he can't be on a case because he wasn't hired and Shawn whines at his dad who says your hired. Really the show had some great comedy and the writing is a major part of that, the other being the actors.

Overall, the show is a comedy with, for the most part, stand alone episodes but at times it does try to spread its wings and do some dramatic episodes, most notably, the Yin and Yang serial killers. It gave James Roday greater acting potential which he lived up to with no problem but it didn't fit the fun atmosphere of the how. Shawn was really loosing his cool which we had not seen before when both his girlfriend and Jules were taken along with his mother and the death of the profiler. It showed great growth in the characters and the show but nothing that was continued in later episodes which made it seem misplaced.
So far one of my favorite episodes has to be where Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, Henry and Woody all wake up having no idea what they had done the night before. It allows you to see Lassiter in a different light and there is a lot of comedy to the episode.
The last season finale has me worried though as Henry has been shot and may be near death. I mean it is a great cliff hanger episode, something the show hasn't been particularly good at but at the same time I can't see how the show could progress without Henry. It was hard to see him decide to quit the force for a second time as he worked so well on the team but there are other ways to involve him if he survives the shooting. The promising thing is that Shawn realizes right away that the guy Henry is going to see isn't on the side of good. We'll know more once the season comes back.