Psych: Talk Derby To Me
By fred | September 7, 2008
(S03E07) Yes, it’s Sunday and I’m just posting about the latest episode of Psych, I know. As things turned out, I got busy and couldn’t get to my little screen sooner. But now that I have, let’s talk derby!
It went by fast enough that you may not have realized this already, but we’re already soon approaching the mid-season mark here, as next week will be the “mid-season finale” before the show takes its usual little break. Before that, this week we had, finally, something I have been waiting for since the beginning of this season pretty much, the longer I had to wait for it the more I wanted it, and finally, this was the day.
So I couldn’t have been happier this time when it became clear, from the very start, that finally and – can you believe it? – for the very first time this season, Gus & Shawn were going to be working on a case, a police case, one that’s actually been worked on by our very own Lassiter and Juliet. Well, mostly Juliet actually, so Lassiter wasn’t much around for this time, but still it was such a great thing ! I still can’t believe it took them so long to get there.
But as this episode went down, and since we’re close to be halfway through the season already, I couldn’t help but think about how the show has “evolved” this season, and I’m not sure it’s all for the better. I feel like the show used to be a comedy first, its first and main intent was to be funny, to make us laugh, and that the case of the week, the mystery of the episode, was more an an excuse, a pretext.
It was what was needed to have all those people getting together and spending time the way they did, but that wasn’t what the show, or the episode, was really about. It was about pop references, nicknames, and jokes, mainly jokes. That’s why last season I had such a great time watching the show : because I knew each time I would spend an hour laughing my ass off watching those two guys solving crimes for the police.
Sure, the mysteries weren’t always the best ones and quite often you could tell who was the evil genius behind it all, but who cared!? No one! I didn’t watch this show to wonder all the way through the episode was was going on, and to be shocked & surprised at the end when the big reveal was made. Hell no, what I cared about and loved was that long squiggly road it took everyone to get there, filled with craziness and jokes all over the place.
And that what I miss here, because as much as I love the show and still enjoy watching it, I have to admit that this season hasn’t been as good as the last one, no I feel that, so far, this season has been far from being as hilarious as last one was. And it seems to because the main focus might have changed a bit, as now the cases tend to have a more prominent place on the show.
Take this week’s : sure, we knew who was behind the robbery, we’ve been told who it was from the start, but the real mystery wasn’t who did it, it was why they did it, and, in fact, what was it they did exactly. And it’s not that I don’t appreciate “better” mysteries, it’s that if I have to choose between them and laughing out loud moments, I’m choosing the later without anything close to an hesitation !
Not to say this episode was good or funny, it was, especially at first I would say. But it wasn’t as funny as the show has been in the past, and compared to last season, I feel a serious lack in laughing out loud moments.
As for the actual episode, some things worked, others bugged me. While I was very much pleased to see the guys on an actual police case, and while I won’t mind seeing less of Lassiter if we get more of Juliet, especially in her roller derby outfit. But I was very disappointed to see that – once again I would even add – Gus didn’t had much to do this week.
Oh he was there, standing around reading his book, but in the end except for a couple of good lines and stealing some mannequin’s clothes or something, he didn’t do much. I remember a time where Gus was an essential part of the duo behind the Psych agency, he, his incredible knowledge of everything and his skills were as needed to solve a case as are Shawn and his “tricks”, and I have to say, I miss it.
I also did not understood that lame excuse they try to gave to bring Henry into the episode/derby this week, it felt incredibly forced to me and, nothing against him, but it might have been better not to see Henry at all than use him like that. Another thing I really hate is when they have the cops act like retards, and Juliet going to see Shawn & Gus while she should be undercover, or getting a call and instantly thinking it must be for a “hit”, and so calling all the cops who all show up with uniforms, lights, sirens, the whole package, was incredibly stupid. The point of going undercover is to be accepted first, to act as one of the group, and then catch the bad guys; if you start bringing the cops the first time you might be invited to be “checked out”, you’re never gonna do nothing.
In the end it was a good episode, but nothing else. Ever since the season started I’ve been looking for the day where, finally, Shawn and Gus would be working on a police case alongside Juliet & Lassiter, and now that it did happen (kinda, Gus wasn’t really there… and neither was Lassiter), I still feel like something is missing, something that was there last season, and isn’t now. I still like the show, of course, but I have to say that I find myself hoping for something more in the next episodes…
PS: On a pineapple note, I have to say I missed it again this week… where was it?
