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Psych: No Trout About It

"You told me it was cake mix!"

Honestly, the end of season 7 of Psych -- give or take this random musical episode I keep hearing about -- reminds me of two things. The first is that Psych is a summer show and should be on in the summer and I am disturbed that it has ceased to be such. The second is, I really do not dig one single USANetwork "action drama" series and that's a shame... for USANetwork. A reviewing we will go (finally...)

SO, as finales go, not bad. The mystery was less grim than how the season started. I am not a huge fan of the 80s-movie-stars-from-movies-I-should-have-but-never-did-see drop ins. I think by now the entire cast of The Breakfast Club and/or Pretty In Pink and/or Sixteen Candles have guested on the show. Tonight it was Anthony Michael Hall. (The Dead Zone) ... However, Hall's character -- Trout -- some kind of weird efficiency expert -- was a nice little rabidly-by-the-book-yet-psycho-in-his-own-way antagonist who ended up cleaning house. McNabb got booted for his stripping sideline gig. Vick is gone for six months, suspended because she couldn't rein in the detectives. Shawn and Gus are banned from serving as consultants.

The episode was apparently a takeoff of the movie D.O.A., or any of the movies and TV shows that have taken off that show before Psych. A guy tries to find his own poisoner. Except in this case, he wants Shawn and Gus to help him. Ultimately, the double cross at the end wasn't that surprising, but as plots go, I've seen worse.

I did like how they handled the flashbacks, including Lassiter's Horatio Cain bit and the roadrace interrupted by the car chase... which ended in Jules and Lassie being covered in ashes... which Shawn told them was cake mix. Joey Slotnick is a natural at that kind of beatdown, nerdy, annoying guy. I wasn't a big fan of Trout's idiosyncrasies as humor goes -- didn't like donuts, germophobe, tough guy talk, powerbars. He could have been funnier if they want to make him a recurring pain. Sometimes throwing a bunch of weirdness at a character isn't a way to make him funnier. It's just weird. Like the guy with the scratch and sniff stickers from "Office Space".

Next season, we'll have to see what we get. Will Trout be around for more episodes than a "end this storyline" season premiere? Will McNabb go into stripping full time, maybe with Woody? Will Shawn and Gus be relegated to fake-psychically finding missing cats? I don't know, but it'll be fun to find out...

2 comments:

  1. Although it wasn't the best of the season finales, I liked this one. I thought Trout was a hoot and I do hope they keep him around for a few episodes next year. It could be fun to watch our Fab Four deal with a boss who does not always turn a blind eye.

    Henry was certainly shoehorned into this one -- a shame; I like Henry.

    Great season of reviews, Beth. Thanks for taking on this show.

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  2. My favorite part, hands down, was Lassie's telling the story like it was CSI: Miami. I wish they had done the whole episode like that, with each character taking a different part of the story and each represented a dramatically different way. It would've been so much fun!

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