"A playa... named Gus."I'll get to the review in a second. But first, does anyone else wonder how Jules has such a nice apartment or house or whatever it is? It's pretty snazzy. Nice yard. All right, so, this week, Gus got to come front and center and do a lot of his Gus-ish things while a shock jock we've-never-heard-of-before-but-who-supposedly-was-one-of-Shawn-and-Gus'-favorite on-air personalities was murdered. Don't touch that dial. Instead, let's review.
So, basically, we've got an episode here where Shawn and Gus go undercover at a radio station, a premise which should have been a lot funnier. Which isn't to say there wasn't some fun stuff, I guess. The station owner, played by Garcelle Beauvais -- “in surprisingly effective comic turn” -- is a slightly unbalanced business tycoon who is trying to break herself off a piece of Burton Guster. Gus fends her off while he prepares for the surprise departure of his GF (alleged), Rachel, and comes up with a smooth talking on-air character as he and Shawn try to find the killer. So, he and Shawn figure out the fan club president of this DJ is the killer –- or at least one of her personalities is!... But then we find out, no! The killer is an actual guy and not just a slice of the fan club lady's brain making her think she is a guy. He killed the DJ in a jealous rage, and now he thinks Gus is his rival for wackadoo fan club prez's attentions. Anyhow, it all works out, as it always does, more or less.
I can't say I loved this episode. But it did leave me with this observation: as much as I like to think of Psych as a show of equal partners, because Gus does so much and is so fully drawn, the truth is: Shawn really is the lead. This was apparent this week because Gus was doing what Shawn usually does -- asking the most questions, doing the craziest stuff, having some solo screentime. And it was weird. Shawn and Gus are awesome as a team, but Gus really, for all his antics and screaming and eating, is really the secondary lead. I'm not sure why this is important to note. But it just really seemed pronounced this week. “This is what Psych would be like if the roles were reversed.” It seems strange when Shawn with all his manic energy is in the sidekick role instead of the (wait for it) psychic role. On the other hand, Gus can definitely carry an episode.
Psychlights And Other Psychbits:
- “C'Mon Son” has officially entered the pantheon of classic Psychisms. Stay tuned next week for when it enters the pantheon of Overused Psychisms.
- Garcelle Beauvais was very amusing. I'd only ever seen her before as the straight-laced ADA on NYPD Blue; the crazy booth guy who really hated his boss was also funny.
- Rachel and her kid left for England for six months, under the bizarre excuse that she needed to figure out some immigration paperwork. This relationship has been so, so, so non-existent. Why?
- I'm digging how Psych is giving us flashbacks this year with Shawn, Gus, and some of the others in more recent times. This week's was 2009.
- Speaking of split personalities, how fast does Gus go from “A playa named Gus” to regular Gus, and back? Amusing.
- Awesome twist ending, Psych.
- Shawn was so dejected when the station owner didn't find his sidekick names funny.
- Nice laugh moment when Shawn was convinced, for no reason, that Jules had some kind of brain injury... wow, that's a weird statement...
Only two episodes left, friends, til summer break. It'll be weird with no summer Psych. And I will spare you my thoughts on USA's other offerings...
I enjoyed this one. Gus was hilarious as the DJ and I, too, loved how quickly he would transition from one to the other.
ReplyDeleteQuestion -- what is going on with our favorite couple? Are they together or not? I hope the writers clear this up before the season break.
It's funny you mentioned Juliette's swanky pad. I've been wondering about that for weeks. How much do SBPD detectives make? Maybe it was some sort of inheritance?
ReplyDeleteI reckon Shawn and Jules are still "testing the waters" as it were. But it certainly did seem like they were just pretty much back together.
All I'm sayin' is...Gus has some mighty powerful willpower. Especially for a TV character.
Eh. Not great. Not bad, but not great. The non-addressing of the Shawn/Juliette is really annoying me too. I feel like they got back together in a big emotional reunion but forgot to put that scene in a previous episode or something.
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