The Dean of Cinema

Written by Dean Zarbaugh II

Psych is like a fresh pineapple on a hot summer day. Cool, sweet, and refreshing. (I’m sure Shawn would say that a pineapple a day keeps the doctor away.) The show centers around Shawn Spencer (James Roday Rodriguez), a “psychic” consultant with the Santa Barbara Police Department and his best friend and reluctant partner Burton ‘Gus’ Guster (Dulé Hill) or “Jazz Hands”, “Squirts Macintosh”, “Ovaltine Jenkins” or whatever odd/hilarious name Shawn makes up for him. With Shawn’s photographic memory, detective instincts, heightened observational skills, and charming personality, he’s able to convince people that he’s able to solve cases with psychic ability. “Oh, so it’s The Mentalist?” C’mon son! Mentalist came out two years after Psych and Simon Baker wishes he had Shawn’s exquisite mane.

I watched this show religiously from its premiere in 2006 until it went off the air in 2014. I enjoyed Dulé Hill in The West Wing, so when I saw he was going to be in a new show post West Wing, I thought I’d check it out. I was hooked after the first episode. Eight seasons and three movies later, I’ve watched every episode and movie at least twenty times each. The show is smart, funny, and silly, but can tug at the heart strings as well with episodes like The Yang Trilogy, and the shocking season six cliffhanger, Santabarbaratown and season seven’s premiere Santabarbaratown Part 2, and of course the series finale. James Roday and Dulé Hill crush it as Santa Barbara’s Dynamic Duo. It’s clear that everyone gets along when the cameras stopped rolling, which helps make the performances come off as genuine and believable. Rodriguez and Hill seem like they’ve actually been friends for as long as their characters have.

Shawn and Gus work alongside Detective Juliet ‘Jules’ O’Hara (Maggie Lawson, Pleasantville), Shawn’s love interest, and Head Detective Cartlon Lassiter (the awesome Timothy Omundson) aka “Lassie” as Shawn and Gus affectionately call him. At first it can be hard to like Lassie, but he grows on you thanks to the incredible acting of Timothy Omundson (Xena: Warrior Princess.) He brings layers to Lassie that makes him a veritable onion of a character. He sees the world in black and white, and there is no higher authority than God and the law in that order, but he will do whatever it takes to help those he holds dear. On the other hand, while Juliet is just as serious about upholding the law, she has a much sunnier disposition, and tries to see the good in people. Omundson and Lawson work well off each other as partners and have continued their friendship post-Psych with a rewatch podcast called “The Psychologists Are In.” It’s a fun listen and provides a bunch of behind the scenes stories to every episode with guests like James Roday Rodriguez, Dulé Hill and Steve Franks. The chemistry between the Shawn and Jules is off the charts. You want them to end up together. Corbin Bernsen (Major League III: Back to the Minors) plays Shawn’s gruff, but loveable former cop father Henry who taught Shawn everything he knows. I see a lot of my relationship with my own father in the Shawn and Henry dynamic and it helped me work through some of the issues we had seeing eye to eye on things. Fellow West Wing alum Kirsten Nelson plays Karen Vick, the Chief of the Santa Barbara Police Department who reluctantly allows Shawn and Gus’ unorthodox methods due to their pristine track record. There are a lot of episodes that give Chief Vick her dues, but her acting in the Nanny and Bachelorette Party episodes is peak. Kurt Fuller (Ghostbusters II) joined the cast in season four playing Woody, an eccentric coroner with a doughnut-licking obsession. We’ve all been there, Woody. There’s a Doughnut Lickers Anonymous meeting every Sunday in the back of Randy’s doughnuts in Los Angeles if you need it, pal.

Whenever I’m in a bad mood, Shawn, the “thick-tufted boy genius who ice skates through life on polished blades of snarky eloquence” glides in with that witty repartee, obscure references, quotable one-liners and impeccable hair to cheer me up. The show is consistent, and one of the only shows to gain more viewers each year. When the show premiered back in 2006, I was two years into community college in Ohio. The couple friends I had were busy most of the time, so I spent a lot of Friday nights like Macaulay Culkin; home alone. Psych helped take my mind off that fact, if only for an hour. Today, if I have a tough day at work or just want to watch something fun and easy, I pop a season of Psych into the blu-ray player.

The show’s writing is sharp, funny, and has heart and character. You’re easily able to connect with the characters because each of them has a rich backstory, which the actors are able to bring out. The running gags between the characters remind me of the inside jokes between my friends and I. Sometimes episode plots mirror something out of a John Hughes flick or a slasher film. The themed episodes that the show has become known for are some of my favorites. It’s a shame that due to their schedule, we stopped getting Christmas themed episodes. I loved seeing Shawn and Henry compete to see who can guess what the other got them. The show matured along with Shawn over the course of eight seasons, which helps strengthen how great the show is. Not many shows can change gears, and keep the fans happy at the same time. The writer’s room on this show was one of the most consistently solid groups of writers put together, and the actors all did a fantastic job bringing the show to life. Psych was also continually able to get the best guest stars; John Cena (Peacemaker), Robert Patrick (Peacemaker’s dad), Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show), Cary Elwes (Princess Bride), some of the cast of Twin Peaks, Cybill Shepard (as Shawn’s mom), crispy chicken lover Wade Boggs, the never too old Danny Glover, Lost Boy Corey Feldman, William “Rocketman” Shatner, Breakfast Club alumni Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy (as a sublimely neurotic serial killer), Molly Ringwald, and Judd Nelson, plus an appearance by the one and only Ed Lover (c’mon son!) to name a few.

After the show ended its glorious run, fans like myself were clamoring for more Psych. With tough schedules to coordinate to produce more episodes, James Roday Rodriguez got together with series creator Steve Franks to write a movie. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the Psych family when Detective Lassiter’s actor Timothy Omundson suffered a stroke before filming began. Rodriguez and Franks were forced to rewrite the script around this event, but were still able to squeeze in a highly emotional appearance from Omundson on FaceTime. The movie continued the tone of the show while also evolving simultaneously. Juliet is forced to confront some of the boundaries that she pushed in catching a few criminals while trying to catch a killer with a vendetta against the entire Psych team’s past. I feel like this subplot was originally meant for Lassiter, but had to be reworked when Omundson fell ill. Still, it works well and shows Jules struggling to work within a system that tends to handcuff detectives in procedure. Chief Vick’s daughter is kidnapped and it’s up to Shawn, Gus, Jules, Karen, Woody and Henry to get her back. I was happy that the film takes place around the holidays, bringing back the vibe of the Christmas episodes I loved so much. There is also a fantastic fight scene between Woody, Henry and WWE wrestler Charlotte Flair that makes me laugh every time I watch it.

The film proved to be a success and a sequel, titled Lassie Come Home, was greenlit that incorporated Omundson’s real life ordeal into the Lassiter character as he recovers from an attempted murder and suffers a stroke on the operating table. Lassie Come Home focuses on Lassiter confronting his past, recovery from his assassination attempt and subsequent stroke, and how all this affects him as a father and a cop. Having lost his own father at a young age, he’s traumatized that he will do the same to his daughter. The film featured Hill’s former West Wing co-star Richard Schiff, and Scrubs favorite Sarah Chalke, both of whom fit into the Psych universe quite well. Much like Gus, I’m a sympathetic cryer, so I was an absolute mess at the end of the film as Lassie reunites with his family. Damn, Steve Franks and James Roday Rodriguez really know how to make a guy emotional. 🤧

The third film, titled This is Gus, (a clever reference to the show This Is Us, a rival show of A Million Little Things, which starred James Roday Rodriguez post-Psych) brings Shawn and Gus fully into adulthood as Gus and his girlfriend Selene (played by Dule Hill’s real life wife Jazmyn Simon) are expecting a baby and they set out on an adventure to get Gus hitched before the baby arrives. Real talk, This is Gus has the most emotional “c’mon son” in the entire franchise! It deals with a lot of adult themes like Jules and Shawn’s decision not to have kids, and the big transition coming to their lives. Shawn worries about how he will fit into this new family dynamic, Gus is worried about becoming a father and the responsibility that comes with it, and Lassie is forced to deal with his new normal post-stroke. All in all, it’s a wonderful film that makes you laugh and cry.

Some men dream of owning the Batmobile, or James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, but I, not unlike Gus have more practical aspirations. I have a dream of owning my very own Blueberry, a Toyota Echo used in the show. The Batmobile and the Aston Martin guzzle gas like a kid who just had their first sip of a Capri-Sun. I’ve even read Psych expanded universe books. After moving to Los Angeles in 2009, and finding out that Santa Barbara (where the show takes place) was only a little over an hour away, I couldn’t wait to go and instantly fell in love with the city. It’s my happy place, and where I’d hopefully be able to retire to one day. If I ever travel to Comic-Con, I’ll be going in costume as Shawn’s superhero alter ego, The Catch. You know that’s right.

Psych has also been instrumental in helping me build my physical media collection. I’m on a quest to collect every film and television show referenced in the show. I currently have 108 films on blu-ray or 4K ultra HD. It’s helped me add a mix of well-loved classics and films that flew under my radar to my library. It’s a fun “section” to my library.

If you’re a fan of delicious flavor, I highly suggest not being a myopic chihuahua and catch up on Psych on Peacock or do what I did and buy the blu-ray. I guarantee you’ll be hooked. Oh, and if anyone at Peacock happens to read this, please keep Psych movies going as long as everyone wants to be involved with them. If you want a show that can help you escape, Psych is the show you want. “Eight seasons and six movies!”

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