So how did we find out about Psych and start watching it? Well, it's really weird - it's like the app developers at Netflix hooked up with those spooky psychics at what's left of PeoplePC.com and tapped right into our brains. For more than a year, Psych was just sitting there in our recommended queue (btw - does anyone else know why queue is spelled like that?) - staring at us but we refused to watch. It looked weird and not interesting. What we didn't know then was that Psych is the funniest show on television today. Hats off (for those of you who wear hats - although we're probably talking baseball caps here) to show creator Steve Franks for assembling an unbelievable cast and some really great writers and ultimately it is the writing and the jokes that make this show so interesting.
The Mentalist gone Mental?
So why do we like Netflix so much? Here's our really long list of reasons; Psych...
- Has the best popular culture references from the 1980's of any television show or movie ever produced.
- Is filled with more cameos from stars from the 1980's of any show ever produced.
- Has the best chase scenes featuring a Toyota Yaris or Echo (referred to as the Blueberry) ever filmed.
- Is the only show we know that has tackled the Breakfast Club from every possible angle - including use of cameos and even mocking the lead singer of Tears for Fears (during a cameo).
- Includes the best vampire imitations of Lestat and Blackula ever (and no he wasn't Count Chocula).
- Has resurrected the career of Corbin Bersen (80's star from LA Law) and it turns out he's pretty funny.
- Features the best use of establishing shots to make you forget the show is actually being filmed in Vancouver.
- Is the best buddy show ever perhaps - short of Abbott and Costello - except that there's no straight man in Psych (btw that's a comedy term - nothing to do with sex).
- Gave Danny Glover a job even though he looks like he's a 100 now (and William Devane and Action Jackson/Apollo Creed too).
- Built a show around stealing a Stars Wars action figure (of Darth Vader).
- Manages to fit in lot's of offensive humor without seeming offensive.
- Is able to spoof both the classic detective dramas as well as most other genres of TV show.
- Created the best homage to the Bourne Identity ever - well not so much an homage but they did have Matt Damon's girlfriend in the episode.
- Has the best flashbacks to childhood memories and the ability to link those to the current day action.
- Has the best Coroner character in the history of TV (sorry Quincy - rest in peace). And the homage to the Hangover was the Coroner's best episode.
- Invented the largest quantity of goofy sidekick nicknames - ever (see the 2nd clip below).
- Has the best use of the actor who played Batmanuel since he appeared in the Tick (it's a long story we'll tell you about that in another post).
- Filmed the best TJ Hooker parody ever.
- Was able to use William Shatner in an episode and not let the guy make a huge ass out of himself (quite the accomplishment).
- Has the Best show theme written by the same guy who created the show.
- Featured one of the best episode as comic book plots ever - with "Tap Man" and "the Catch."
- Has the best show tag line - "To Predict and Serve."
- Sports the best use of Val Kilmer has gotten really big lately jokes.
- Developed the best multiple Christmas homage / ripoff of It's a Wonderful life, A Christmas Carol and Bad Santa (this includes the best dwarf cameo ever).
- Filmed the best Cuckoo's Nest sort of homage ever...
- Had the best episode title ever "Viagra Falls."
Psych has a thing for Pineapples - we like that too
In short Psych is perhaps the funniest, most creative show we've seen in years and even more remarkably - it has managed not to get cancelled. The premise of the show is that Shawn Spencer having been trained in the ways of police-work as a child by his semi-psychotic detective father and has the ability to solve crimes. However, since he hasn't gone to the Police Academy (although that happens later in an episode with the Karate Kid Ralph Machio) he resorts to pretending he has psychic abilities and then ropes in his best friend Gus to be his partner in a psychic private detective agency called - Psych.
The many identities of Gus (Dule Hill)
Those of you who are fans of Mr. Aaron Sorkin may remember Dule from the West Wing. The two main characters, Dule and James Roday, have an incredible chemistry and the rest of the cast is pretty good too. Here are some of our favorite lines / quotes from Psych:
- Remember, Dad, you treat a woman like a person, then a princess, then a goddess, then a person again. (Shawn)
- I can't spend the night in the museum. I don't have my toothbrush, I don't have my multi-vitamins, and oh yeah, I don't want my soul suffering eternal damnation for disrupting the sleep of an Egyptian canal digger. (Gus)
- My pilot's license? It's out back in the Cessna. Or perhaps you're referring to my license to kill? Revoked. Problems at the Kazakhstan border. I'd give you the details, but then I'd have to kill you... which I can't do because my license to kill has been revoked. (Shawn)
- There are some things about women that only me and NBC anchor Brian Williams know. (Shawn)
- What more do you need? I told you she's blonde, and pale, and beautiful and perfect. So get me a name and get me an address and get me some aspirin! (Carrlton)
- I'd say that's pretty ridiculous. Not as ridiculous as Denise Richards playing a nuclear physicist named Christmas Jones in a Bond movie, but still. (Shawn)
- Great. Now you've gotten me kicked out of a funeral. Just add it to the list. Kicked out of Petsmart, kicked out of Santa's Village, kicked out of the Salvation Army (Gus)
- Please tell me you're not one of those courtroom groupies that bounces from trial to trial…wait a second, was that you at the Michael Jackson hearing with the sequined glove and the shirt that said "Please free the man in the mirror"? (Shawn)
- Gus, don't be a melted chocolate chip cookie. (Shawn)
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| Don't hate us because we're beautiful vampires |
- Gus: Wait a second! This is my Airwolf windbreaker! I've been looking for this for like five years now! Why did you take this? I never even saw you wear it.
- Shawn: Of course I didn't wear it. I took it so you wouldn't. Don't put it on. Gus, nobody had an Airwolf jacket except Jan-Michael Vincent!
- Shawn: I can play six degrees of dinosaur with you right now... You've never been in a movie with Kevin Bacon or a dilophosaurus, have you?
- Gus: How about you play six degrees of kiss my ass?
- Shawn: First of all, that sounds like a totally disturbing game.
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