Psych (2006-2014) is a hilarious show about a guy named Shawn who is hyper-observant and has a perfect memory, yet somehow forgets a lot of things and often lacks common knowledge. He pretends to be a psychic and solves murders with his best friend Gus. There are a lot of eighties references and famous guest stars (many from the eighties). It doesn’t entirely hold up (there’s some scattered instances of homophobia and objectification of women in a few episodes here and there which I thought was old-fashioned even when it originally aired), but overall, it’s still watchable.

A pineapple is hidden in nearly every episode. Sometimes it’s an actual pineapple, sometimes it’s a design on a shirt, or someone might just say the word pineapple. It’s fun to rewatch and try to find the pineapple in every episode. Although, I sometimes have to resist the urge to point and say, “There’s the pineapple!” when I come across them in real life.

Sometimes, the best moments of the show are found in the deleted scenes, so it helps to have Psych on DVD or Blu-ray to not miss these. For example, in “Psy vs. Psy” (S2, E3) there’s a scene at the end where guest star Lou Diamond Phillips walks past Detective Juliet O’Hara with his shirt off, explaining that Detective Lassiter spilled coffee on him and he needed to change. In the deleted scene, Shawn next walks past without his pants complaining about a “coffee massacre” in the next room. Hilarious.

In “Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece” (S1, E3), Lassiter tells Shawn he’ll throw every book he can find at him. Spencer replies, “What if you find the Bible? You gonna throw that, too? Seems a little sacrilegious to me, don’t you think?” I thought this was funny. Much later, in “Ferry Tale” (S5, E7), Shawn has to use the Bible as a weapon is very conflicted about it.

While every episode is fun, the best episode for the first three seasons is “American Duos” (S2, E1), which also happens to be the first episode I watched back when it was originally on the air. Guest star Tim Curry does a great Simon Cowell impression. At the end of the episode, he criticizes the person who tried to kill him for being so bad at it! It was hilarious watching him antagonize Shawn’s dad (played by Corbin Bernsen) by snuggling up in his favorite robe and declaring he feels like a big baby.

One of my favorite lines occurs in “Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead” (S2, E16). After Shawn says, “Come on, dude. I honestly didn’t know he was going to be pulling a corpse from the ground.” Gus replies, “That’s okay, Shawn. I honestly didn’t know I was going to be putting my foot in your ass. Life’s full of surprises.”

Season 4 changes things up a bit. They seem to have higher production values, more location shooting, more big guest stars, and more serious episodes. They change up the usual format of the show in many episodes, trying out new things while also having callbacks to previous episodes which I don’t think they did in the first three seasons. The show feels more sure of itself, rewarding fans with callbacks rather than trying to make each episode stand on its own for the newcomers to the series. The finale to season 3 which introduced the Yin Yang Killer was fairly serious, but the season 4 finale, which also features the Yin Yang Killer, was light on jokes and leaned more into being a series crime drama. I liked all the Hitchcock references in this episode.

Season 4 and later also have extended scenes with music playing. The music they pick sometimes has an of-the-time feel to it rather than a timeless quality. Songs that were popular at the time but which are forgotten today. It makes the episodes feel more dated than they should.

“He Dead” (S4, E2) from 2009 features a teen who never gets off his phone. Smart phones were around at the time, but most people didn’t have them yet. In the episode, it’s presented as being unusual for someone to constantly be on their phone, whereas today, it’s normal. I remember going to a restaurant with some friends around this time period and all of us criticized the one friend who was constantly checking his phone. Now we’re all on our phones all the time. Times have certainly changed.

“High Noon-ish” (S4, E3) may be the funniest episode from season 4. Josh Brolin’s dad James Brolin is the guest star. Detective Lassiter, who usually looks like a fool compared to Shawn, gets to have a rare hero moment in this episode by having an old-fashioned shoot-out with the bad guy. He also has the funny line, “When a man asks you to bite his toe, you bite his toe!” There’s also this funny exchange:

Gus: I’m out of here. I’m calling a cab.
Hank: Those things (phones) don’t work out here. We got no TVs, no radios, no refrigerators.
Gus: Sounds like prison. Except they have those things.

Another stand-out episode this season is “High Top Fade-Out” (S4, E7) which guest stars Jaleel White (best known for playing Urkel in Family Matters), Kenan Thompson (who gets the best lines), and Tony Todd (best known for horror movies such as The Candyman and Final Destination). Also, Boyz II Men do the song for the opening credits. If being packed with guest stars isn’t enough, this is also the first appearance of coroner Woody, played by Kurt Fuller. He’s not particularly funny in this episode, but he becomes one of the funniest characters in future episodes. Dulé Hill (who plays Gus) once picked this as his favorite episode and it’s easy to see why.

Corbin Bernsen’s character, while great, often feels extraneous in many episodes from the first four seasons. He gets inserted in to a lot of episodes that don’t really call for him to make an appearance. In season 5, he’s working for the police department, so it now makes sense for him to appear in every episode rather than having him just randomly show up.

“Feet Don’t Kill Me Now” (S5, E2) mixes things up by having Gus and Lassie partner up instead of the usual Shawn and Gus team. It has some great lines. Lassie tells Gus: “Guster, you’ve got to grow up. People have sex and kill each other. That’s the real world; not some magical feelings place.” Shawn texting every man on Juliet’s phone a picture of her dog with the phrase “This is you” was hilarious. The lab assistant continuing to flirt with Shawn even after he accuses her of murder is great. Lots of laughs in this one.

“Not Even Close… Encounters” (S5, E3) made me realize Psych is sometimes like Scooby-Doo and not just because the guest star this episode is Freddie Prince Jr. who played Fred in a couple Scooby-Doo movies. Shawn makes an explicit Scooby-Doo comparison in “In Plain Fright” (S5, E11) a bit later in this season. There have been episodes over the years involving a ghost, a mummy, a demon possession, and this one with a UFO which initially seems like something otherworldly is going on, but it all turns out to have an naturalistic explanation, much like Scooby-Doo. And of course, Shawn pretends to be a psychic every episode even though he isn’t. Like Scooby-Doo, Psych is a delightfully skeptical show. This is also a particularly funny episode with Gus pointing out that Shawn makes a face when he gets a clue when Shawn thought he was being subtle this whole time.

“Chivalry Is Not Dead… But Someone Is” (S5, E4) was also a funnier-than-average episode. Jean Smart is the guest star, playing a wealthy older woman that young men want to date. One of the suspects is a pick-up artist, although I don’t think that term was used at the time. I was laughing through much of this. It will be hard to pick a best episode for this season.

“Dual Spires” (S5, E12) is Psych‘s homage to Twin Peaks and features several Twin Peaks cast members. Previous to this, Ray Wise (Leland Palmer on Twin Peaks) appeared as Father Wesley in “The Devil’s in the Details… And the Upstairs Bedroom” (S4, E4), Miguel Ferrer (Agent Rosenfield) appeared in “Think Tank” (S4, E14) and Don Davis (Major Briggs) appeared in Psych’s “Pilot” (S1, E1). James Roday Rodriguez (who plays Shawn) once called this his favorite episode and it’s easy to see why.

I feel like it’s harder to guess who done it in season 6 because they include a lot more suspects. Maybe they’ve now got a bigger budget to include more actors than before. Season 6 also seems to include less eighties references and more contemporary references than previous seasons. Maybe they’d used up most of the eighties references they wanted to make. Chief Vick and Officer McNab don’t appear in Psych as much as I remembered. I’d like to see more of them, but I guess the writers didn’t have enough ideas on how to include them.

The characters all start coupling off. Shawn and Juliette had a long standing flirtation and finally get together, and Gus and Lassie also get girlfriends. I like when shows do this. It strains credulity when characters in comedic series remain single season after season after season, which was common in 80s and 90s sitcoms. Not everybody in real life stays single their whole lives.

“Last Night Gus” (S6, E2) is probably the funniest episode of the series. After a party the night before, Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, and Woody wake up with no memory of what happened the night before. As they retrace their steps, they learn about all the crazy things they did last night. There are laughs all throughout this one.

“This Episode Sucks” (S6, E3) is their vampire episode. It features Kristy Swanson (who played Buffy in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie), Corey Feldman (from The Lost Boys), and Tom Lenk (who played Andrew in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series.) Another clever episode with lots of laughs.

As you can guess from the name, “Indiana Shawn and the Temple of the Kinda Crappy, Rusty Old Dagger” (S6, E10), is a parody of Indiana Jones. It’s the third appearance of gentleman thief Despereaux (played by Cary Elwes who’s best known for playing Wesley in The Princess Bride). It’s quite delightful. The slap fight between Shawn and Gus is hilarious and the overall treasure hunt is really fun. Another actor from Twin Peaks, Mädchen Amick, plays the villain for the episode.

“Heeeeere’s Lassie” (S6, E11) is an homage to Steven King’s The Shining, but also contains references to other horror movies throughout. It’s another fun one. “Juliet Takes a Luvvah” (S7, E2) is funnier than average. Shawn moves back in with his parents and acts more like a kid than normal. He also has to pretend to be a couple with Lassie for an undercover operation which is hilarious.

“Lassie Jerky” (S7, E3) is their Blair Witch Project parody, making this another Scooby-Doo-like episode. (The Scooby Doo Project is also a delightful Blair Witch Project parody I’ve only recently become aware of.) The gang searches for Bigfoot in the woods. WWE performer The Big Show is the guest star. It’s quite delightful. It occurs to me that Psych is like Scooby-Doo in other ways. Shawn and Gus are constantly hungry and eat questionable food like Scooby and Shaggy do (Gus eats an uncooked chicken leg meant for bait in this episode). Also, Gus is a coward who runs from the first signs of danger like Shag and Scoob.

“100 Clues” (S7, E5) is their 100th episode. It’s also an homage to the movie Clue, featuring several of the original actors. Another delightful episode. “Deez Nups” (S7, E7) features Lassie’s wedding. It’s a lot of fun and it’s really funny. McNab and Vick, who are usually sidelined, get rare funny moments in this one. And, of course, it just wouldn’t be Lassie’s wedding without a shootout. “Right Turn or Left for Dead” (S7, E8) is their Sliding Doors parody. It’s a more serious episode than we’ve come to expect. We see two different timelines depending on whether Juliet finds out Shawn has been lying to her or not.

When “Office Space” (S7, E11) first aired, I thought it was the funniest episode up to that point. The opening scene in which Gus discovers his boss is dead and accidentally contaminates the crime scene by bumbling around was hilarious, especially when Shawn tries to help clean things up, but instead makes them worse. I don’t think it’s the funniest episode anymore, but it’s up there.

I was disappointed that they introduce yet another character with multiple personality disorder in “Dead Air” (S7, E12). Not only is multiple personality disorder (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder) a controversial diagnosis which may not be a real mental condition in the first place, but even if it is real, it would be incredibly rare. Gus even makes a big deal about how rare it is the first time they encounter it in “Who Ya Gonna Call?” (S1, E7), but then they meet another person with the same condition in “Shawn, Interrupted” (S6, E6) and again in this episode. The multiple personality episodes are often transphobic as well, so they don’t hold up very well.

Shawn often comes up with ridiculous nicknames for Gus when he introduces him to someone for the first time. In “Nip and Suck It” (S7, E13), he calls him “My brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl” in reference to the Newhart Show. Since my name is Darrell, people my parent’s age would often make this joke when they learned my name. Fortunately, people my age and younger aren’t familiar with Newhart, so I haven’t heard the joke in years. I did used to like the joke, though, and one Halloween my brothers and I dressed up like Larry, Darryl, and Darryl. Ah, memories.

“Psych: The Musical” is sometimes called episode 0 of season 7, sometimes it’s episodes 15 and 16 of season 7, and sometimes it exists in its own season as episode 101. I’ve been watching Psych with my family on Amazon Prime. While most of the episodes were included in our Prime membership, Amazon wanted me to pay extra for the musical episode. After clicking around a bit, I discovered you only have to pay extra if you try to watch it as part of season 7, but if you watch it as its own season, it’s included. Weird. Chronologically, it takes place before Lassie’s wedding, but it got aired out of order. It should be watched between episodes 6 and 7 of this season.

I really enjoyed the musical when it first aired, but I wasn’t that into it rewatching all these years later. It was fun to see Yang again and a couple of the musical numbers were fun, but it wasn’t as amazing as I remembered.

Remember Gus’s girlfriend? Well the show doesn’t. In season 8, Gus goes back to being single without any explanation.

“S.E.I.Z.E the Day” (S8, E2) is a good one. Business isn’t doing well, so Shawn decides to become a life coach. Lassie finds out he’s going to become a father, which makes him afraid to risk his life like usual. Someone tries to kill Trout, the new chief, and the prime suspect at one point is his mother! Trout thinks there’s a possibility he’ll go blind, so he wears a blindfold in this episode to practice. When Trout suspends Lassie, who was demoted to traffic cop, he makes him turn in his pen instead of his gun!

“Remake A.K.A. Cloudy… With a Chance of Improvement” (S8, E3) is a remake of “Cloudy… With a Chance of Murder” (S1, E12). Not sure why they remade this episode. At the beginning, Shawn says he hates remakes unless it’s a genuine improvement over the original and the title of the episode indicates this is the purpose, but it’s pretty much the same as the original. They’ve got different actors (at least 13 actors who have appeared in previous episodes of Psych), the plot is a bit different, and Shawn predicts his relationship with Juliet. Looking it up now, they redid the episode because they felt it was the episode with the least funny moments. Fair enough.

I don’t remember seeing “A Nightmare on State Street” (S8, E9) before. Gus has nightmares and sees a dream doctor played by Bruce Campbell. In a nod to the Evil Dead franchise, his character is even named Ash. They’ve have a lot of horror movie tributes throughout the series, but I think this is the scariest episode of Psych overall. There’s some pretty creepy parts. Curt Smith from the band Tears for Fears makes his third Psych appearance, but not his last. He’ll appear again in the third Psych movie. This one is funnier than average. When Shawn gets out of the car to use the bathroom, Gus asks incredulously, “You’re just going to pee outside?” To which Shawn responds, “We’re men, Gus. The world is our toilet.”

There have been three Psych movies so far with three more supposedly in development, although it’s been five years since the last movie was released, so this might be all we get. The movies are all great fun and are packed with celebrity guest stars and returning guest stars from the series. Actor Timothy Omundson had a stroke in real life, so he only appears briefly in the first movie. In the next two movies, Lassie recovering from a stroke is worked into the plot.

I appreciated that the third movie makes a reference to Salt Lake City fry sauce, which I guess is Utah’s greatest contribution to global cuisine. I feel like the movies had more sexual jokes than the series did. Also, all the male characters grow beards, so the movies do feel different than the series. The fact that some of the characters live in San Francisco now while some still live in Santa Barbara makes getting them to team up again a bit awkward, but they pull it off. The movies are all worth watching. If they ever end up doing another movie, Despereaux should be in it.