Private eyes Gus Guster and Shawn Spencer own psych Psychic Detective Agency.Psych, one of my personal favorite television shows, is premiering its one hour mid-season-6-opener tonight, Wednesday, February 29, 2012 (Leap Day) on the USA network at 10 PM EST, after a break over the winter holidays.
In tonight’s episode, “Indiana Shawn and the Temple of the Kinda Crappy, Rusty Old Dagger,” Shawn and Gus go on a hunt for a mysterious treasure – their only clue, an ancient dagger. It’s a bit of a fast paced, quick action episode, filled with drama and mayhem, funerals and art museums, old villains such as Despereaux (played by Cary Elwes), and a vapid new villainess portrayed by Madchen Amick, all set against an over-the-top Indiana Jones-esque sound track in a beautiful lush estate.
If you’ve never seen the show, be prepared to laugh. It’s a bit of a hoot.
Former childhood best friends, private eyes Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and Burton ‘Gus’ Guster (Dule Hill) own their own ‘psych’ psychic detective agency solving difficult crimes and mysteries in the Santa Barbara, CA area.
Though Shawn pretends to be psychic, he isn’t really.
There’s nothing “magical” about how they work – it’s all based on science. Shawn, the son of retired police officer, now consultant, Henry Spencer (played by Corbin Bernsen) has inherited the unique and special gift of an eidetic memory, otherwise known as a photographic memory. Think of it as being able to play the tape of your life through your head, remembering fine specific details – smells, movements, tastes, and touches – some details you perhaps missed the first time through. By doing so, many of life’s greatest mysteries can therefore be solved. It’s a rare gift, but does exist in the real world to varying degrees.
Officer Henry Spencer, recognizing this trait early on in his son Shawn, drilled him incessantly as a child, teaching him to learn to pay attention and pick up details most of us would overlook, thereby improving his natural ability of excellent memory recall.
Add partner Gus Guster and his own peculiar traits and habits, combined with his endless knowledge of seemingly useless pharmacology chemistry and game trivia, and you have a recipe for a realistically quirky comedy.
Shawn and Gus are a riot. They are nerdy, good-looking intellectuals who play off each other, make stupid immature jokes, and argue back and forth over the most inane details.
It’s so insanely ridiculous, it’s funny.
Be sure to watch some of the previous episodes airing each Wednesday morning on USA.
“In for a Penny,” Season 6, Episode 7 introduces William Shatner as police detective Juliet O’Hara’s (Maggie Lawson) long estranged criminal mastermind father. He is so believable in this role, you will forget all of the other characters he’s ever played. Season 6 will bring him back again in new episodes, but I sincerely hope that Season 7 will add him in as a regularly appearing character. This role fits him like a glove.
