Inside Your Head

Outside of cartoons (and I’m very excited that the fourth series of Venture Bros is out over here now), I've never dug that much American television comedy. Seinfeld left me cold, as does Curb Your Enthusiasm. They may raise the odd smirk, but nothing to explain the plaudits they get from nearly everyone I know. And Friends is just one of those things that will probably cause humanity to be wiped out if we’re put on trial by omnipotent aliens and asked to justify our existence.

Some notable exceptions to this would be Police Squad! and Cheers. A new addition to that list will be Psych – currently into its sixth series over in the States. I've no idea quite how I came to it, random Wikipedia surfing probably, but I’m very glad I did. Having just finished the first series DVD set I picked up for peanuts, I’m very keen to see more.

Outline: as a child, Shawn Spencer was brought up by his cop dad Henry to follow in his footsteps. To wit, pop trained son to hone his skills of observation, memory and lateral thinking. Sadly for Henry, Shawn elects not to join the force and becomes a slacker, drifting across dead-end jobs and earning pocket money by taking rewards for crimes he solves watching TV news reports.

Such skill, however, earns the attention of straight-laced Detective Lassiter, who comes to the conclusion Shawn must actually be behind the crimes and moves to arrest him. To dodge this bullet, Shawn announces he is in fact psychic. Managing to convince the local PD with some quick tricks, he’s taken on board as freelance help, brought in to solve tricky crimes. Aiding him is lifelong best friend Gus, who often despairs at Shawn’s laidback manner. It’s the chemistry between the two actors (James Roday and Dulé Hill) that is a big part of why the show is so ace: Hill is particularly great at portraying the straight man, annoyed by his friend’s tendency to mess around, but also proving more than able to play a big part in solving the cases.

Spencer Senior also appears regularly, despairing of his son’s occupation (hating both private detectives and ‘psychics’) but also trying to encourage his boy and helping out on occasion.

Across the first series, we get to see comic conventions, American Civil War re-enactments and speed dating, all of which see Shawn jump in head first much to the continuing chagrin of Lassiter, who reminds him of what happens when he interferes with a crime investigation, to which the quick (and correct) retort is ‘the crime gets solved?’

Like Cheers, Psych is perhaps helped in worming into my affections by having an insanely catchy theme tune. Performed by the creator of the show’s band, no less – what a talented man! It’s also one of those gigs that you watch and wish you lived in the States, so pretty the town of Santa Barbara, California looks. Then I found out it was actually filmed in British Virginia. So I guess it makes me wish I actually lived on the West Coast of Canada…