Catching up with "Psych"

Ohmygosh, Shawn and Gus's chubby-nerd schoolboy pal Dennis (introduced in the episode's opening flashback scene) has turned into (gasp) Freddie Prinze Jr., complete with smokin'-babe wife.

"I can't do it! Someone has to hold the sanity bag in this partnership, and quite frankly I miss the days when it used to be you."

-- Shawn, to Gus, in this season's UFO episode

("Not Even Close . . . Encounters") of Psych

by Ken

I've just been catching up, via my DVR, with some Psych episodes I hadn't watched yet. These days I find I need to be in the right mood, but when I am, my fondness for the show -- built around the idea that it's easier to persuade people that you're psychic than that you're just incredibly observant and skilled at piecing your observations together -- hasn't diminished.

In particular, I was crazy about the above-referenced episode, in which we're first introduced, in the 20-years-ago opening flashback scene, to an even nerdier schoolboy friend of Shawn's and Gus's, a chubby, bespectacled, asthmatic nerd named Dennis, whom the boys haven't seen since grade school, and who turns out to have evolved into . . . well, Freddie Prinze Jr., a man's-man-type jock with a smokin'-hot-babe wife -- and a ruthlessly hidden inner chubby, bespectacled, asthmatic nerd.

The episode got off to a rip-roaring start in the flashback, which put Shawn's dad back in his old police-lieutenant-with-some-hair days, allowing Corbin Bernsen to reassume some of his old L.A. Law authority. I've written before about my deep admiration for Bernsen's contribution to the show, which established him, now past the flashy days of his blond godliness, as one of my favorite present-day actors. A whole new light was shone on the character when Cybil Shepherd turned up as Henry's ex-wife, Shawn's long-absent mom. This season the producers came up with the clever idea of bringing Henry back to the Santa Barbara police force as a consultant, giving them more obvious ways to integrate him into the plots. It's also fascinating on a human level to see Henry slip back from retired-duffer eccentricity to suit-wearing respectability.

I don't have anything more profound to say. Just that if you haven't watched the show, maybe you ought to take a look.

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