Psych: Season 2

The American TV show Psych has somewhat fallen through the cracks of British programmers, incongruously popping up on BBC Two in the slot most usually associated with Tony Shalhoub's Monk and sharing very similar sensibilities.

Ostensibly a comedy show with slight overtones of drama, with occasional boundary-pushing that just moves it past a family demographic, Psych is a big hit in the States (now entering its fifth season) and the relatively basic premise makes it easy-going fodder for an unchallenging afternoon watch.

Shawn Spencer (James Roday) is a crime consultant who often works with the Santa Barbara Police Department in the capacity of a (fraudulent) psychic detective. Shawn's long suffering best friend and partner Burton "Gus" Guster (The West Wing's Dulé Hill) is a Doctor Watson type character, responsible and straight-forward in counterpoint to Shawn's flights of fancy. Shawn had been groomed by his father (an excellent Corbin Bernsen) from an early age to hone his powers of observation and it is this attention to detail that persuades his superiors that his gifts are supernaturally transcendent.

This second season, whilst relatively brief in American terms (16 episodes), very much hits the ground running with an American Idol lift which has Gina Gershon and Tim Curry (as Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell respectively) judging a television talent show, while Lou Diamond Phillips and Philip Baker Hall also guest through the season.

What's undoubted is the excellent chemistry between Roday and Hill; a partnership which could have been insufferable in less capable hands. What’s barely ever touched upon is why a police department should place such faith in such obvious quackery as mediumship, but with Most Haunted taking to the stage (!) this month in the UK, it seems there is no end to the legitimacy of such a nonsensical profession. Thankfully Psych reveals its hand of trickery early enough in the proceedings to make any such issue moot.



Released on DVD on 7th June 2010 by Universal Pictures UK.

Reviewed by Simon Cole.