6.4 The Amazing Psych-Man & Tap Man, Issue #2 The result is yet another strong episode (the third in a row, after the middling season opener), which shows that the cast and regular writer Saladin K Patterson – most recently seen penning last year’s Christmas special, The Bipolar Express, with James Roday – have lost none of their edge. It’s the stupidest, simplest jokes that get the biggest laughs: the spinning iPad-newspaper pastiche, the live-action onomatopoeia of the climactic fight scene, the “I know you know I’m not telling the truth… I know… you know…” shout out to the show’s theme song. For more obsessive fans, there’s even a callback to Ed Lover’s appearance two weeks ago (the “Come on, son!” back-and-forth between Shawn and Gus), as well as a rare Double Pineapple: on the comic book logo during the (exceptionally well-done) rewritten theme song, and as a condiment bottle during Shawn and Juliet’s date. The mystery itself is unusually involving too, (mostly) setting aside murder for vigilantism with a neat little twist to help get around the fact that Santa Barbara couldn’t possibly have a masked guardian running around saving the city on a weekly basis without making the SBPD pretty much redundant. The identity of the ‘villain’ – scare-quotes entirely justified – isn’t the trickiest guess in the world, but there are a couple of nifty sidesteps along the way that make it very easy to stay entertained. All in all, it’s a well-balanced episode, and with the exception of much in the way of the Shawn/Juliet subplot, it manages to tick all the right boxes for longtime fans. Unfortunately, Gisondo doesn’t seem to have quite the cheeky enthusiasm of his predecessor, so – at least until he grows into the role – it seems that Psych’s historical trips to the 80s and 90s are going to feel a little flat. Next week, we’ve got another chance to go over old ground – a phrase I mean in no derogatory sense – as Shawn, Gus and Danny Glover give us another sports-based episode. Historically, the sports episodes have been kind of a mixed bag (Talk Derby To Me, And Down The Stretch Comes Murder and Any Given Friday Night At 10pm, 9pm Central, to name but a few), but with the past two episodes being as stellar as they have been, it’s perhaps not too much to hope for that this one – if you’ll pardon the expression – manages to knock it out of the park. You can read our review of season six episode three here.
