Psych: Black and Tan: A Crime of Fashion
By fred | February 9, 2008
(S02E15) It’s Friday, and as every Friday there was another crime that needed to be solved by our expert duo Shown and Gus. And I was looking forward to it, as I always do with this show, because I really like it. And I have said this before, but for me this show isn’t so much about the actual crimes, the mystery that needs to be solved every week. It’s not even about the resolution of the mystery itself, the who & how things get resolved.
It is not even about the whole psychic thing either, and yes I realize that this show is called Psych, which should mean it plays an important part. And it does, but not so much really. To me it’s all about Shawn and Gus, their friendship, and most of all it’s all about comedy. As far as I’m concerned this is a comedy, and as long as it is funny and it makes me laugh for about an hour, it’s a mission accomplished.
Now I’m not saying that I don’t want a good story, a nice mystery that isn’t stupid, predictable or completely lame. Of course I want everything to be good, but quite frankly I’m not going to care that much about the mystery, as long as it’s good enough, because what matters most to me is not to detective work, or the psychic show, but again it is the comedy.
Which is why I really enjoyed this week’s episode, because it was great, the whole mystery was pretty good and not that obvious, since for most of the time I thought it was indeed the assistant (ever since she and Shawn met at night) who did it. But most importantly, it was really funny, hilarious even at times. It was a really fun hour, and that’s exactly what I wanted from this show.
And I think that the show has evolved with time, and episodes now are quite different than what they were even back when this season started, putting an emphasis on comedy as well, which, to me, is great quite obviously. Not that the mystery and the murder, murders even, were not the center of this episode, of course they were and that’s a great thing, I wouldn’t necessary like it if the show was about something else than the usual mystery to solve. But the psychic aspect has been less and less present than it used to be episodes ago.
I’m the first to welcome this change, because the “noticing moments” or the fact that on many occasions we had to see Shawn resolve the case, and then go through it again as he explained it all (to cops), were of the things I used to complain about. But while I’m really happy to see changes here, to see Shawn not doing as much of an act as he used to, I’m having a little problem with the other half : Gus.
Again I loved this episode, and one thing I really loved about it as well was how, for once, Gus was the star, the center of attention. Shawn loves to have all eyes on him, and usually he will be the one giving silly nicknames to Gus and letting him in the shadow while he becomes the new star of a soap opera. Not this time, this time it was Gus birthday, and so it was a special day and it was all about Gus.
No work, all fun, all day long. Gus was the star, for one night it was all about him. And if it was again Shawn who got to chose the nicknames for both of them, it was all good. And after that, Gus was at his best, everyone thought he was a model, but had their doubts about Shawn, and it was Gus who got to “help” his friend out, stating he was only a foot model.
It was a nice change, and it lasted after his birthday, as Gus would get in a limo with pretty models while Shawn was left alone in the dark street. And maybe this is why Shawn couldn’t let it last, and had to blow it all for Gus, even though he was told to wait. Shawn couldn’t wait anymore, he wanted all eyes on him, he wanted to be the star again, doesn’t matter if it was going to kill all chances for Gus to score. Not Shawn at his best there… especially since he shouldn’t really be jealous, given that he seemed to be interested in the pretty assistant himself.
And as much as I loved Gus having a great time and trying to date the model of his dreams, what bugged me a little was how he did not care about the case. For a few episodes now I feel that Gus hasn’t always been that active on the case, or didn’t care that much. I feel like it has been a while since Gus was really involved in the case and where his knowledge on everything was put to good use and played a big role on the investigation. Yes, last week it was him who opened the vault, but apart from that he was mostly busy on his own. And before that, he was more into the soap itself that the actual crime.
So what I’m saying here is that I hope next week we can have a Gus more involved into the case and whose infinite knowledge will play a part in the resolution. But of course, what matters most to me really is the comedy, and this week was without question a winner, from the very beginning all the way to the end it was great, and there was so many great lines I couldn’t possibly quote them all.
I’ll just do one, from Shawn: “My name is Black, his name is Tan. I can’t believe you just made that assumption. You should be ashamed of yourself and your family.”
Other hilarious things came from Lassiter and O’Hara and their interactions with the world of fashion. I was particularly laughing when they were trying to interrogate dumb models who couldn’t do nothing than comment on his ties. And when the mistress started to comment how he was wearing the same suit, and the same tie, only to have Lassiter to yell at her to “Get out of here!“, I really loved it.
One thing I really didn’t like, at all, was Henry and his blind-date set up by the chief. That whole plot was predictable and quite lame, not to mention completely unfunny. Which is probably why I really didn’t like nothing of it, like that whole split-screen phone call which was more boring that anything else, and I didn’t care that much about Shawn and his father’s little chat by the end of the episode.
Overall another great episode, I can’t wait for the next one, I’m just sorry it will be the season finale.
