Monsters of Television

We’ll discuss it later.

It’s been a busy week at Monsters of Television. This whole “summer-is-just-another-season/no-rest-for-the-weary” thing the networks are doing is wearing me out. But we can’t really complain about some of the great television we’re getting. Well, mostly great television. Hopefully Melissa & Joey doesn’t create a great abyss that sucks the life out of everything we hold dear. Forget the atomic collider in Switzerland: that show might obliterate the universe on its own, unraveling the fabric of time and space with ill-timed canned laughter and overacting that would make the cast of SNL blush.

Sorry. I digress.

We have some really great reviews for you to take a look at this week, from Mad Men to True Blood to Sherlock to, gods help us, that aforementioned pit of despair. If you missed any, it’s new to you!

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“That’s exactly what we look like.”

Shawn ages horribly.

I have a feeling the title of this post is going to get me a lot of spam. Maybe I should have titled it “v1agra.”

It appears that Season 5 is going to be the one that the show rife with references to myriad media properties and pop-culture-historical artifacts is going to start toying with its own mythology and reference itself. Ushered in by last season’s finale with one of the few times a legacy viewer has been rewarded (Yang to S3 finale’s Yin), S5 has already had an episode where characters make fun of Shawn’s “I have a clue” face (“Not Even Close … Encounters”), this episode exposing the dynamics of Shawnngus with versions of themselves 30 years aged, and then, coming after the hiatus, It’s a Wonderful Life gets the Psych treatment in December.

What results is this show actually rewarding long-time viewers. Okay, not necessarily long-time viewers but an audience that has seen at least a handful of episodes. While Psych is generally an esoteric show in its extensive knowledge of pop-culture, we’re starting to see some jokes where the punchline is purely for long-time viewers. And they land.

Mark of a good series is able manipulation using its own mythology. Right?

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“Dude, all your permanent teeth are in, okay?  You’re playing for keeps now.”

Smooth criminal detective.

Ah, much better.

Last week’s pooch was rectified by this week’s return to form, or at least the form we recognize. Our characters are back in the slots we recognize (Juliet, of course, is totally over her touch of PTSD) and, even though they switch the dynamics a little in the first half-hour, the comedy and timing seems to be back.

Troubling, however, is Henry’s reduced role to a “nose to the grindstone” boss as opposed to his more involved auxillary role in the Psych agency. My hope was to see him more involved with cases rather than just barking for the detectives and sleuths to get back on track. Instead he’s kind of like Lou Grant but wears a suit better.

But the season is young, yes?

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“I am very offended.”

The little girl in the front might soon regret being a part of this contribution to stereotype and tired chicanery.

When I first watched this episode, I had very little to say about it.  I knew the concept of “rules” and “breaking them” would be the subject of my post but I had very little else to discuss.  And that disturbed me a little.

I love Psych.  If there was any team I would like to support/hang out with/get paid to work with, they would be at the top (maybe tied with Chuck).  So, like many of us, I looked forward to the return of the USA summer season (a subject receiving quite a bit of media and academic buzz recently) and watching Shawn and Gus quickly put to bed the dramatic ending of last season.  And they do.  The effects of the Yin-Yang plotline appear thinly in this episode and are resolved at the end (more or less), predictably in a way that we don’t have to worry about them again until, oh, let’s say the fall hiatus.  Not that that’s necessarily a bad or good thing.  But, if you watch the show, you know that’s just what they do.  Psych is not a soap opera and emotional crises don’t last long.  This is a show that pops in the summer.  Who wants heavy emotional intrigue in June-July-August?  This is beach reading, my friend.

That being said, the show has also matured over the last few years (now being the veteran series in USA’s stable) and has introduced new elements into the dynamic between characters (namely Henry becoming officially responsible for Shawn’s actions rather than working pro bono and making Shawn free to officially woo Julliet).  Although, with so many things trying to happen in the opening episode (sweeping the old under the rug while establishing the new), the season premiere didn’t have the pop that Psych is known for.  Instead, we get thinly-veiled stereotypes (with a dash of minor racism) and a lot of set-up.

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“I think that bailiff from Night Court is spot on.”

Hmm. Something smells of herring.

The one thing I learned from this episode: despite my film degree, I have not seen a whole lot of Hitchcock. You would think after spending four years of taking film classes of every kind that I would be sick of Hitchcock, up to my ears in the bald man. But no. Even today, my familiarity with his oeuvre is limited to Psycho, most of Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest and brief clips I’ve seen in passing. Now, base an episode on the Odessa Steps sequence or mimes playing tennis and I’m a freaking expert. But my education on Hitchcock was somewhat lacking.

Like House, season finales on Psych are usually formula-breaking, stylized events. Season 4’s ending brings back the Yin-Yang Killer from last season’s finale, a psychopath obsessed with Shawn that leaves clues around town for him to pick up on like a game only he can play. But, since Yang (the name by which she goes) is locked up in a high-security mental institution, this new string of murders can’t be her. In a twist that should really be no surprise to anyone familiar with the Yin-Yang symbol, Yang admits to having a partner that’s still at large. He goes by Yin.

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“Do not invite me to shut it.”

Lassie is officially on the train to Crazy Town.

Dear Writer’s Room at The Office: did you see this past week’s episode of Psych? Pretty funny, right? I know. I had a lot of trouble choosing which quote to use as my lede. It was between this (from Juliet), “Dear God, what am I doing? This is half a man” (from the coroner), and “Fishing is one of my top 5 skills, right behind profiling and ski ball” (from Lassiter). Well-crafted dialogue, situations that were germane to the plot, and, in an episode that was pretty much filler (since it didn’t tackle any of the continuing threads like Shawn’s slump or the question of a relationship with Juliet), it didn’t feel like a cop out.

I mean, how cool was it that Lassiter was going to follow in Shawn’s example? An insane Lassie is gut-busting. The fact that Shawn didn’t really even put clues together until the second half of the show as we followed Lassie following his gut was pretty remarkable. Though weren’t you guys a little disappointed that they didn’t go all the way with that? They could’ve let Lassie finish out the case with the Tao of Shawn. But at the same time, that wouldn’t be true to Lassie’s character. So, and I think you’d have to agree, we have to applaud their restraint.

Speaking of which, Office writers, I think we should commend them on their dedication to character. That’s certainly something you can appreciate. Lassiter doing things like pulling his badge and shooting wildly into the water for the sharks to appear (information we gleaned anecdotally from Juliet) is priceless. Shawn wanting to egg Lassie on is also a great use of character since all Shawn’s ever wanted to do is pull the stick out of Lassie’s you know where. You know where, Office guys! Ha ha! Classic.

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“I may not be a planner, or a detail man, or a tax payer. But when push comes to shove I work and I get the job done. Now follow me back in there and let’s blow these guys’ minds. Scanners-style.”

“Check this out. Not only is it juvenile but just a tad creepy. Gum Giraffe! Ha! Like that Fruit Stripes gum. Or was that a zebra? Doesn’t matter. It fulfilled my ’80s Nostalgia Quota for this scene.”

I hate it when Shawn is in a slump.

I mean, it’s great characterization. The writers do a good job of sticking with Shawn’s quirks when he’s not as accurate and James Roday does an amazing job being the most annoying person on the planet. But it’s hard to watch Shawn try so desperately to make up for his lack of sharpness, partly with his half-hearted “visions” but mostly with his inappropriate joke-cracking. There have been several times this season where he has been all over the map (“You Can’t Handle This Episode” and, notably, “Shawn has the Yips”) but never have I wanted to walk out of the room so often out of sheer embarrassment than during this episode.

The most-offending scene is the one with the initial meeting of the think tank minds. This episode has Shawn and Gus taking jobs in private security to help protect a billionaire from suspected assassination, an opportunity Shawn leaps at despite his “powers” being restricted to clues he can pick up on in real-life scenarios. Conjecture in a sterile room puts Shawn at a serious disadvantage. So not only is he suffering from a slump threading through several episodes but he is also completely clueless without a real-life situation to be a part of. So, while the other members of the think tank bandy about ideas of how to better secure the asset, Shawn makes sculptures out of Big League Chew, tries to prove his psychic ability with simple observations about people in the room, and cracks wise to an audience not amused by his antics. When Gus suggests they should go, I yelled at the TV, “Yes. Just get out of there. It’s too painful, Shawn!” Maybe not literally. But in my head for sure. Shawn’s jokes fall way flatter when Juliet is not in the room to silently giggle.

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Shawn: So you like tall men and fat animals.
Juliet: Yes. Yes, I do.

Juliet: in streets, hair down, smile, not standing behind Lassie.

At the end of Season 3, we saw Shawn get together with his high school sweetheart (Abigail: Rachael Leigh Cook) and manage an awkward situation when Juliet finally made a move (Shawn shot her down). Thus began Season 4’s inconsistent love affair with Abigail, where she showed up for a handful of episodes while Shawn mentioned her in absentia (so often in absentia that she sounds made up), as Juliet receded to a more background role with Lassie.

Despite making Abigail sound important in Shawn’s life (giving her a drawer, etc), her absence in the show was noticeable. Her phantasmic presence also prevented one of the quirky and enjoyable minor storylines from developing: the flirty relationship between Juliet and Shawn. While minorly interesting at the end of Season 3, the storyline had become weak, uninteresting, and a drain on the Shawn/Gus interaction since it was often plagued with obligatory mentions in order to maintain audience retention of the story. Something had to give. So they got rid of Abigail by randomly sending her on a trip to Africa for an indeterminate amount of time (0410: “You Can’t Handle This Episode”) and gave Shawn an episode to mourn the relationship (0411: “Thrill Seekers and Hell Raisers”) before giving us a closer look at Juliet. Are we being set up to create some Shawn/Juliet shippers?

I say yes.

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As Nick noted, USA Network is rapidly becoming the spy-procedural channel, much in the way CBS has become the cop-procedural channel. Their recent announcement of Covert Affairs (punny), a show about  CIA newbie Annie Walker (portrayed by Piper Perabo) who for some reason becomes a field operative and is dealing with the break-up with a mysterious boyfriend who happens to be of interest to her boss. (You can read the full rundown from THR here.)

But what’s more is that while CBS has replicated its procedural approach across many of its dramas, USA is hybridizing its shows to create its network identity without getting the ribbing CBS does for its CSI-cloning. Read more »

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