Wednesday, August 20, 2008

One 'Psych'-e-Delic Trip

Anyone who has watched a little too much TV Land late at night and/or those ridiculously addictive Charlie's Angels reruns (Jaclyn Smith was sooo the best Angel -- hands down) knows that the 70s TV shows had a certain look. Something that made them unmistakably from the era of disco, cheesy car chases, and colorful nylon suites. And if you've ever found yourself partaking in the viewing of any of these super fly series, then you know that this week's outing of Psych was one badass mamajamma! But it wasn't just the lingo, costumes and uniquely 70s music that had me enjoying this throw-back episode. The hilarious folks behind-the-scenes went out of their way to make this outing look and feel like something straight out of the disco decade. The quick camera angles, the zooms, the car chase through the suburban neighborhood (set to a totally 70s underscore), and of course THAT car all contributed to the brilliance of this week's episode.

While Shawn and Gus and were busy getting the 70s experience (and having a few laughs at its expense), they were supposed to be solving the newly re-opened 30-year old case of a man who may or may not have been planning to blow up the Santa Barbara police department. To make matters worse, the original officer on the case was Henry Spencer. Because of his previous bungling involvement, he was banned from getting involved the second time. Shawn tried, he really did, but Henry being Henry and Shawn and Gus being Shawn and Gus led to a lot of Henry involvement on the DL (hence, those hilarious costumes and that super fly car). One of my favorite moments, however, came at the end when Shawn activated the bomb in order to force the bomb maker to come forward to deactivate it. How funny was Gus when he ran for the hills ala The Wizard of Oz's Cowardly Lion? These two crack me up whether they're digging for dinosaurs or decade tripping back to the 70s.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention the awesomeness that was the creative forces' decision to change up the opening credits with a special extended version of the theme song. Loved it!

Psych airs Friday nights on USA Network. Catch up on this episode and others at hulu.com.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A great episode of a great series.

One funny thing (of many) was Gus's driving. A few weeks ago he used a 22 point turn to turn around the compact car he drives and this week he did a turn in one (near the end for the car chase - not the cool "unintentional" parking manuever earlier).

Also, I downloaded the whole theme song to my computer last season.

TVFan said...

I guess Gus was willing to take a "bigger risk" with this car because it wasn't a "company car." Gus cracks me up!

Anonymous said...

If you had told me at the end of "The West Wing" that Dule' Hill could play the part of Gus, I would have thought you were crazy. But he is great as Gus.

TVFan said...

I completely agree. :-)