Know Your Show: Psych #AtoZChallenge

This post is part of my #A2ZChallenge for April 2016 where my theme is TV Sitcoms.

For the letter P, I choose Psych.

Premise:

In this comical detective show, a guy and his childhood friend manipulate the police squad into letting them solve cases by pretending to have psychic abilities.

10 reasons you will love it:

1) The very premise is a goldmine for comedic moments. When he uses his heightened skills to provide information to the police, they accuse him of being the killer in a case since noone else could know the details. To get out of it, Shawn uses his guile to fool the police into believing he has psychic abilities and can assist them in their cases.

2) The concept of a man using his heightened senses of observation  has been done before with the equally successful Mentalist. The difference here is in the tone of the show. Psych never allowed itself to get serious and that helped it stand out in a sea of crime solving shows.

3) This was pure goofy fun. As the viewer, you were privy to the tricks and shenanigans the lead pulled on the other stern officers of the law, making for some really fun moments.

4) James Roday & Dune Hill as 'psychic ability wielding' Shawn & his friend 'Gus' Burton have excellent chemistry together, having you in splits with just a mere change in facial expression.
Like childhood friends do, these two regularly look to put the other down and get the upper hand, often at the most inopportune time. Driving a tiny blue Toyota Echo, they make for one of the most comical dynamic duos in the last decade. Their bromance is one of the USPs of this show.

5) Dear God! The fake names! That alone warrants a separate section here.
During their cases, Shawn often riles his partner up, introducing him to witnesses and clients with the most insane fake names.
This is just a sample of them -
Ghee Buttersnaps, Chocolate Columbo, Felicia Fancybottom, Lavender Gooms,
Lemongrass Gogulope, Ernesto Agapito Garcés con ya de Abelar, Hummingbird Saltalamacchia,
Hollabackatcha, Trapezious Milkington, Immaculate Conception. I could go on and on!

6) You need a straight faced stern character in such a comedic set up to heighten the insanity and the highly underrated Timothy Omundsun as head detective 'Lassie' Carlton does that brilliantly. Often left exasperated by the 'psych' team, he grows to respect them even if he does not trust them. Maggie Lawson & Corbin Benson play Shawn's love interest/junior detective and his ex-cop father respectively and add a nice balance to the show, one admiring his 'talents' while the other is left grimacing at the monster he has created.

7) You can just see and feel the whole crew having fun. In keeping with the creative nature of the show, there would be frequent special epsiodes and styles, often changing the style of the title track to suit the nature of the episode. So for a Bollywood based murder epsiode, you had the lyrics and tune sung as a Bollywood number! Bloopers would play off at the end of each episode.

The original theme song


Now sample the Bollywood theme song!

8) 8 seasons. 121 Episodes. A complete show. Very re-watchable (rare for a crime show once you know the killer!) Moderate continuity issues, which should not affect your viewing experience even if you jump in mid-way. 

9) After being nominated twice earlier, Psych finally won the People's Choice Award for "Best Cable TV Comedy" in its third consecutive year of nomination. Psych was also the winner of the Independent Investigations Group Annual Award for "Excellence in Entertainment" for advancing the cause of science and exposing superstition.

10) Personal opinion: I didn't think much of the show until I caught a random episode on television. That led to me binge-watching the show from the very beginning and the truth is: I loved the humour and creativity that the show provided. 

If aliens were to judge us based solely upon this show:

They would know not to trust anyone who claims to have supernatural powers. India, are you listening?

P.S. They would change their intergalactic ringtone from the theme song of 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' (as I had adviced earlier) to that of Psych. It's just so much fun.

Trivia:

• Psych was based on the creators' two favorite TV shows, Moonlighting and Remington Steele. They even got Cybill Shepherd - the lead actress in Moonlighting - to play Shawn's mom.
• As a running gag, in every episode you'll find a pineapple, the word "delicious," a fist bump, the phrase, "I can't do this right now," and the question "What?"

To see all the shows  I have talked about till date, please CLICK HERE.