Home • Weblog Activity • Club Message Boards • Contact • Help • RSS

whadu · Level 49: GameShark **Posts:** 37005 **Timestamp:** Fri Jul 18, 08 10:53 PM

EW: If you rolled your eyes yesterday at Tony Shalhoub's sixth consecutive Emmy nomination for best actor in a comedy series, I'm thinking that maybe you just haven't seen Monk. It returns tonight (USA, 9 p.m. ET) for a seventh season. Check out an old clip after the jump, featuring the late Stanley Kamel. (Monk's new shrink will be played by Hector Elizondo.) If you still don't get it, I give you permission to sound off in the comments section.

Psych, perhaps TV's most underappreciated detective show (see: the 'Psycho' headline I found this morning), also returns tonight with new episodes (USA, 10 p.m. ET). If our classic PopWatch Duel between stars James Roday and Dulé Hill didn't make you want to give it a shot, the clip after the jump might finally do the trick. (Or, this parody of American Idol? The show is riddled with pop culture references.)

Source: Ew.com

---

Psych: Season 3 Debuts Tonight

Buddy TV: USA Network has announced that their comedy-drama series Psych will be returning for a triumphant third season. No one had to be psychic to predict that. The antics of instinctive Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and his reluctant partner in crime (crime-fighting, that is) Gus (Dulé Hill) will be back tonight at 10pm. The show, a proven cable hit, will be comprised of 16 episodes, beginning with one entitled “Ghosts.”

The third season of Psych begins with Gus' boss demanding that he quit working simultaneously at the Psych agency. When Shawn finds out, he tries to look for a way to keep his partner. Shawn becomes busy with another haunting case, while he becomes a mediator to Henry and his recently returned mother. There might be a different feel to the new season, as the series will be examining the characters even more.

Long-time watchers of the show will be glad to know that we will be seeing more of Shawn's mother, Madeline, played by Cybill Shepherd. Like her son, she has some tricks up her sleeve. Madeline has tonal memory, the ability to remember everything that a person says. Now we know where the Shawn's sharp skills of observation might have come from. Since the episode centers on their relationship, viewers should expect a more dramatic season of Psych. This won't change the overall quality of the show, and might even improve it.

Psych will be shown on the USA Network every Friday at 10pm, with guest stars like Rachel Leigh Cook, Jeff Fahey, Tedd Lange and Gary Cole throughout the season.

Psych first aired on July 7, 2006 on the USA Network. It followed the adventures of the crime consultant Shawn Spencer, whose keen detective skills allow him to convince people of his psychic abilities. Upon its premiere in 2006, it became the highest-rating scripted series on basic cable. It received critical acclaim, even winning the Independent Investigations Group Annual Award for Excellence in Entertainment that year.

Source: Buddytv.com

---

'Psych' returns with some Shawn mama drama

Chicago Tribune: “Psych” (which returns 9 p.m. July 18, USA) is the most amiable and goofy of detective shows, thankfully. At the height of summer, who wants to clog up the brain with weighty whodunnits? Complicated murder mysteries may make great beach reading, but all things considered, breezy is best for summer procedural viewing.

When we last left Shawn Spencer (James Roday), the fake psychic had a shocked look on his face, thanks to one development he definitely didn’t anticipate. His long-absent mother had turned up on the doorstep of Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen), Shawn’s dad. Henry had been trying to tell Shawn about her arrival, but Shawn’s not what you’d call a good listener. Hence the open door and the dropped jaw.

Mom, or Madeline, is played by Cybill Shepherd, who seems a little out of place in the irreverent “Psych” milieu, but she acquits herself with stiff competence. Madeline is a psychologist who occasionally works as a consultant for the Santa Barbara police department, and she’ll stick around for at least one more episode of the show.

That’s a good thing, because the ending of the episode left me a little befuddled regarding Shawn and Madeline’s relationship and how and why it deteriorated. Without going into detail, certain aspects of the season premiere’s final scene didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Overall, as is the case with some other returning summer series, I detect a bit of post-strike slapdashness at work regarding various aspects of the show. But I do respect “Psych’s” mild attempt to add a little depth to Henry and Shawn, via Madeline’s return.

In any case, there’s some fun to be had with two other guest stars on the season premiere. Todd Stashwick (“The Riches”) plays the tough new boss of Burton “Gus” Guster (Dule Hill). Stashwick’s character takes a very dim view of Gus’ outside activities with Shawn’s “psychic” detective agency, which makes Gus nervous (and a nervous Gus is an entertaing Gus). Christopher McDonald plays another executive at the firm that Gus works for, one who starts having ghost problems around the time that Gus is banned from pursing all things paranormal.

McDonald’s dryly comic turn and Madeline’s scenes with detective Carlton Lasseter (Timothy Omundson), who is required by his boss to undergo a psychological evaluation, are pretty enjoyable “Psych” moments in an otherwise somewhat flat episode. Maybe the show will demonstrate a little more energetic silliness on July 25, when it airs an episode titled “Murder? … Anyone? … Anyone? … Bueller?”

Yes, Shawn and Gus are heading to their high school reunion.

Speaking of blasts from the past, Friday’s “Monk” season premiere (8 p.m. Friday, USA) is, in large part, a tribute to Stanley Kamel, who played Adrian Monk’s therapist. Kamel died earlier this year and the show goes out of its way to pay tribute to the actor. The rest of the episode, which features Hector Elizondo in a couple of good scenes as Monk’s new therapist, is reasonably watchable, as far as that goes. I’ve felt for some time that this long-running series has been showing its age, but at least this mild show is dependably decent.

Source: Chicagotribune.com

Monk,

Psych,

TV-Shows,

Entertainment

___