Thursday Morning Psych - Pilot
With the 20th anniversary of the show this week and with every episode currently available on both Amazon Prime and Peacock, Psych - a show I loved and watched when it originally aired - has become the perfect comfort watch despite featuring at least one death an episode. I will scroll the various streaming services I have to find something new to watch but will often just fire up a random episode of Psych and unwind at night that way.
Typically there would be no rhyme or reason why I picked a specific episode; whatever the episode's theme was (or what I remembered it to be) that piqued my interest that night would be the option. I thought about actually starting at the beginning and going in order to remember how the show started and evolved over its eight seasons and three movies.
Most shows take a while to get their legs under them (Parks and Recreation being the most obvious example), but I was surprised how much of what Psych ultimately became was there from the jump. I would estimate 90% of the show's ultimate DNA is evident in the first episode.
The opening flashback to Shawn as a kid having lunch at a diner with this father does a masterful job of setting up not only the premise of the show but the father-son relationship that is integral to the show and Shawn's arrested development in less than five minutes.
The Carlton Lassiter / Shawn Spencer tension is there from the start as well; it obviously thaws out as the show goes on but the antagonism is there from the jump. Chief Vick's skepticism balanced with her desire for results plays out consistently from the pilot throughout the show's season.
The most jarring part of the episode is no Juliet, as Anne Dudek plays Lassiter's partner and love interest. Anne Dudek is perfectly fine in her role, but Maggie Lawson joining in the second episode changes the show's trajectory in a way that probably cannot occur with the Lucinda Barry character as Lassiter's partner.
Another interest point in the pilot is that Shawn is established early on as a womanizer. Present day starts with a hook up and he ends up involved romantically in a suspect down the road; this obviously changes slowly as his crush on Juliet develops but I had forgot this was a character trait at the onset.
Main cast MVP: Shawn Spencer, with honorable mention to Gus. The dynamic of the two is set up nicely in the pilot including Gus' often minimized contributions to solving the case of the week.
Minor character MVP: Patricia Idlette as Desk Sergeant Martha Allen. A little disappointed to realize she is only in one other episode given her chemistry with Shawn and that she is a lynchpin to physic ruse.
Introduction Of: As the pilot, it obviously introduces everything in the show. For this episode, I will go with Buzz McNab played by Sage Brocklebank (amazing name). McNab ends up being one of the glue supporting characters throughout the run of the show.
Dated artifacts: The episode gets decent mileage out of cheap Sports Illustrated binoculars that used to be a giveaway when you subscribe to the print magazine as well as the CD binder that Shawn swipes from the garbage.
Gus Nickname: N/A; one of the missing elements of the show from the pilot episode.
Music: Howard Jones' Things Can Only Get Better in the opening diner scene. This song foreshadows the 1980's nostalgia that permeates a lot of the show's DNA.
Also, the show does not have the theme song credits in the beginning of the episode. I Know You Know by creator Steve Frank's band Friendly Indians always fell in the don't skip the credits bucket when watching the show; for the pilot it just plays over the end credits. In the pre-streaming days, shows would sometimes extend or shorten the theme song and opening credits based on how long the episode ran. I have come to suspect Amazon Prime just plays the shorter version each time since run time is not a streaming concern.
Guest star all-star: Modern day 'that guy' Mark Acheson playing a suspect in the police station. Most known as the mail room guy drinking with Will Ferrell in Elf.
Honorable mention to Don S. Davis playing Camden McCallum. I recognized him from Twin Peaks as Major Briggs. Given the inspiration that Twin Peaks had over Psych, it was nice to see it evident from the first episode.
Miscellaneous: The visions and antics of Shawn's physic vibrations are present from the jump, appreciated that they set up how Shawn (and Gus) plan to reveal as a psychic vision what their actual detective work found. Finally, a little jarring to see that the police station and Psych office are noticeably different from what they settle into being.
What did I miss?
