Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I know, you know, that I'm not telling the truth, 13 Jan 2008
Actual detective shows are kind of hard to find now -- let alone a funny, well-written detective series with a hilarious twist. That's where "Psych" comes on, on the heels of "Monk." While it could use a bit more ironing, this clever series does a good job blending comedy and mystery, and gives us some lovably fradulent guys to follow the adventures of.
Shawn Spencer (James Roday) was trained to be ultra-observant and intelligent by his strict, humorless father Henry (Corbin Bernsen), who wanted him to be a cop. And though he is determined never to be a cop (he doesn't even have a steady job), Shawn can glimpse clues and details that nobody else notices -- even the police.
But it backfires when he reports his observations to the police, and is arrested as a suspect. To save himself, Shawn pretends to be a psychic -- and the gimmick works so well that he decides to do it professionally. So he drags his very reluctant pal Gus (Dulé Hill) out of a boring job, and they end up regularly hired by the police chief, despite the skepticism of Carl Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), who doesn't buy their act.
And so they set out into a variety of cases: death at a spelling bee, a haunting at a sorority house, a wedding tainted by theft and murder, a ghostly stalking, a cat used as a witness, Civil war reenactments, a comic book convention (where they mess with George Takei's head), alien abductions, speed dating, underground poker, and organizing a surprise birthday party for Lassiter.
Most shows aren't really able to strike a balance between comedy and mystery, but "Psych" does. The mysteries are light and fun, and the people making it actually seem to be enjoying themselves -- no hardcore crimes, gore and grimness. That's what makes it so enjoyable.
The mysteries are well done, but each one has enough funny dialogue ("My name is Ichabod Fletchman, Sticky-Icky to my boys") and kookiness to keep it from ever being dull. Between kooky mysteries -- usually with Shawn flailing around in his pseudo-mystical act -- we get to see what turned him into such a weirdo, and his current relationship with his sarcastic father.
There is a slight flaw, though -- a disproportionate number of the guilty parties seem to be pretty young women. Fortunately this starts lessening as the season goes on. The mysteries get progressively tighter, and the writing cleverer and funnier ("I'm never doing anything blindly with you again! I learned that at the Mexican border. Twice!").
Roday is hilarious and brilliant -- charming, funny, likable, pleasant, and completely devoid of any dignity ("IIIIII hear a voice!"), with some great full-body acting. Shawn is one of those people who is half luck and half talent; no matter how outragous he gets, things somehow always work out.
Hill is equally great as his intelligent, responsible, geeky sidekick who tries to keep them out of serious trouble, while the crusty Timothy Omundson and tentative love interest Maggie Lawson round off the cast. Corbin Bernsen also makes regular appearances as Shawn's dad, who considers his son a walking freakshow.
"Psych's" first season is a delightfully frothy mix of comedy and mystery, with solid scripting and likable characters. Definitely a good show to keep an eye on.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The funniest detective show (besides monk..), 27 Dec 2008
First of all, great price here on amazon. Cheaper here then I have seen it anywhere. The show itself is excellent, great lead characters and many varied episodes, the main premise of the show is quite simple, the main character (played by James roday excellently) pretends to be a psychic so he can solve crime without being questioned.The only thing bad I can say about the show is that season 2 is better.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Clean Fun, 29 Jan 2009
Meet Sean and Gus, two guys, one is clever at using his senses to determine what happened, and Gus has a lot of medical knowledge. They work together for the Santa Barbara police - solving cases with Sean's skills and Gus' logic.
They mainly work with Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson) who sends them off to cases where Lassiter and his colleagues can't work it out - and Sean pretends to psychically work it all out, but really he's just a very observant man - Gus usually has to direct Sean, as he often goes off track or just doesn't see the wood for the trees.
Lassitter (or Lassie as Sean calls him) doesn't really like Sean, and thinks his whole story is dodgy and doesn't really have any skills, but he cannot prove it, and finds it hard to deal with the fact Sean and Gus usually work it out before he does.
Sean's dad is a typical ex-cop, and is quite tough on him, as he thinks his psychic "skills" are tomfoolery which will probably land him in trouble one day - though he has first hand that he knows he's very aware of his environment. He secretly is quite happy with Sean finally settling down at work, but he thinks it's only a matter of time before he has another problem and causes him hassle.
This is a pretty good show, Dulé Hill and James Roday have a great rapport on screen - and the other characters are a welcome addition. I like the way we see Sean's past every episode (usually 1985 though, bizarre) and the way they zoom in on things Sean is looking at carefully. One thing I don't like though is the cases are too similar, and the script is too samey, the jokes and the goings on between Sean and Gus just seems to be the same every episode. This works well weekly, but when you have it all on DVD and watch them back to back then it can get tiring. I did like the fact towards the end of the series they started to have less murders and have the guys work on missing people, but I really think Sean and Gus' talents are being wasted by the writing crew.
The DVDs are pretty good, deleted scenes and bloopers; even a featurette on it all. All the episodes are widescreen - which is good as some shows from the US are still filming in full 4:3 frame. The bitrate on the shows are pretty good, they've not tried to cram them all on 2 disks which could have easily happened, but spread them out over 4 disks.
Worth a watch if you like Monk, Murder She Wrote or even Colombo.
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