I haven't had Deep Fannish Thoughts like this in ages.

[luciazephyr]

Initial reactions to the latest Psych episode are very positive, I notice. I have to say, FList, I'm wondering if we were all watching the same show. I'll take this time to emulate miriam_heddy, the woman who made me hate Numb3rs, and tell you what I thought of this episode.

Miriam, if you read this, I am totally kidding. I love your reviews and would still read them if I hadn't totally given up on N3.


The Good
-Opening scene of the episode was very good. Shawn playing rebound for the poor gal, then turning it around for her so she didn't lose her soon-to-be-fiance? Excellently done, and I tend to roll my eyes at Shawn's rapid solutions. This one was sweet and his little self-depreciating, "well, I'm not getting any tonight" smile was... I was impressed for some reason that he let the pretty girl go so easily. He was being a Good Guy, and in this episode? That just doesn't jive with me, but more on that later. I'm trying to go in order here.

-Lassiter. Oh, Lassiter. Someone give TO a prize for, in one short scene, showing so much about his character. Oh, I luff. He's the kind of drunk who can carry on perfect conversation and probably complete a cop's line test until he just has that one too many and he's suddenly very open about his troubles. Oh, I love. Sitting on his own and the bitterness but cold-hearted acceptance in his voice. Lovely. I got the impression that despite being in what should be his prime on the police force, he's just tired. Maybe move back to New York, back new his family, start over, open a bookstore. But the insanely complex backstory I have in my head for Carlton is not the point. Leave that for another time.

-Shawn commenting on Lassiter's eyes. THANK YOU. TO has fucking gorgeous eyes. Love.

-The running gag with stalking was very fun to me. Gus being sneaky is fun and the rapport between Gus and Shawn was in top form. Shawn just loves to drive Gus nuts and Gus is so lassiez faire about it at this point, it kinda rolls off him.

-Janitor Guy was just fantastic. Heh, he's weird so obviously he killed the guy? And he's a kleptomanic! And he's all cute and fits the Socially Awkward Scientist mold more than the actual scientists.

-RICHARD EFFIN' KIND. HAHA. I did not know he'd be in this episode, but was so happy to see him. Yeah, he can be annoying and (especially to SGA fen) creepy as fuck, but I liked him here.

-Final scene between Shawn and Lassiter in the office. I'll contradict myself when I start on about the Bad in this episode, but one thing I did like in this scene was, again, Lassiter. When he hauled Shawn aside, I immediately thought back to my favorite scene in the series thus far in "Woman Seeking...", when Lassiter grabbed Shawn and literally yanked him out of the office. This time, though, shows a great deal of growth for Carlton and a HUGE change in his relationship with Shawn. Sit down, slashers, that's not what I meant. I mean he's not intimidated by Shawn anymore. He doesn't look at Shawn and think "MUST ARREST THIS LITTLE BASTARD, RAWR" anymore, but actually has a calm, collected conversation with Shawn concerning both his wife and how he's warming up to Juliet. If it escaped your attention... *smacks all of you* Lassiter confided in Shawn, ya'll. Ladies and gentlemen, we have Character Development. YAY.

-Gus solved the case. Kinda.

The Bad
-This episode upset me, from it's set-up to it's ending. This entire episode revolved around Shawn's increasingly annoying God Complex. Let's go through what happened, without the show's usual rose-tinted lenses, shall we?

+Shawn finds a discouraged, sloshed Lassiter and does his best to cheer the man up. While that is very sweet, we discover that the case Lassiter considers his latest great success was solved by Shawn. Before they even worked together, Shawn was controlling the cases. After, Shawn reassures him again, but the writers just have to dig that knife deeper by making Lassiter's work seem even more pointless (re: "all those numbers and letters" comment from Shawn).

+Shawn takes it onto himself to solve Lassiter's case, but do it in such a way, Lassiter thinks he solved it. Okay, back the fuck up. One, since when is a veteran police detective that gullible? And two, the big one: Shawn's playing the role of a well-intentioned god. This'll be fun.

+Episode passes with Juliet and Shawn playing Lassiter, someone we are supposed to assume they care about, like a two dollar banjo. All the major breakthroughs are fed to him through the dynamic duo, leaving him with little of his own work. This greatly upset me because, really, the writers need to back the hell up before I smack them the hell up. You do not Do This. Not to Lassiter. It's the equivalent of a vote of no confidence, saying he can't solve anything without Shawn's help.

+Now, after talking to Chris, she pointed out that, hey, Shawn's trying to do something nice. And, yes, the cause he takes up in this episode is great in theory, with the whole working for free, doing it just for Lassiter, and so on. But the road to Hell is paved with frozen door-to-door salesmen^good intentions. He may mean well, but he still completely screwed Lassiter over here by taking his job away from him, as if it were something fragile and Lassiter were a two-year-old. I really don't like that, especially how pleased everyone was with the outcome. Speaking of which...

+Juliet has never impressed me and anyone who reads my fic might know that already, but this was really low for her. Again, she's pandering to Shawn's whims and even lets him off the hook about another unsavory deed. For the love of Christ,, Juliet, you are an officer of the law. ACT LIKE IT.

-Shawn messing up Gus's date. I'd have punched him and I want Gus to, in any upcoming episode, snap and totally pwn Shawn. Please.

Final Thoughts:

I desperately want to think that the TPTB are intending to take Shawn down this path, but I highly doubt it. Chris said that there needs to be an episode around season two in which Shawn's constant manipulation completely and totally backfires. I'm prone to agree because, really, the show needs to stop pimping Shawn out as the panacea to all problems. He's not. I'd appreciate the writers treating me with an ounce of respect.

That said... if next week has an awesome, smart, clever Lassiter who's rebounded from his depression well? I'll forgive this episode. I want my Lassiter to rock the cashbah, plz.


^ = if you get this joke, lemme know. I'll he utterly floored if anyone catches the reference.

*steps off soapbox, has a cup of tea*

-Luce

Comments

Good Omens, right?

[evagalli.livejournal.com]

Um, hi? Random Psych fan, popping into read your review and comment...

I love how this episode highlighted so many relationship changes. Henry is concerned and respectful when it comes to Shawn, Lassiter and Shawn are becoming friends...! It's so cute!

But about Lassiter being stupid--I don't think that's what was happening. I think this episode was about Lassiter needing an intervention: he'd been struggling so long with thinking that he'd failed in his marriage, and he thought he had to be perfect at his job to make up for it. But really he needs to realize that he can't do everything on his own, and if he accepts a bit of help here and there, he can still be amazing--in both professional and personal settings.

Shawn's comment about numbers and letters--I think that was to show that Shawn still felt weird about Lassiter. He always picks on Lassiter, because that's how their relationship started. So he can't change instantly to caring and considerate, partly because Shawn is a smartass, and partly because he's entirely thrown by a drunk, vulnerable Lassiter. So he acts like an ass like he always does.

I don't think the writers were trying to show Shawn as Smartest! and Lassiter as Dumbest!, or that Shawn and Juliet were leading him around by the nose. Shawn and Juliet were helping Lassiter in the only way Lassiter allows himself to be helped--without Lassiter's knowledge. Besides, it's been said above, but while you can feed a detective clues, you can't feed him solutions. So what if someone solved the case before him? That doesn't mean he solved it any less. He had to put the pieces together. That's how it works, anyway: detectives talk to witnesses, to experts who have deciphered the evidence, and to each other. They put it together. The only thing Shawn handed him on a plate was the poison, which Lassiter would have found out anyway, either by further investigation or by interrogation.

But I, too, hope this is the upswing of Lassiter's depression. I think, though, if you look at previous episodes, you'll see that Lassiter was depressed for a long time. At least, that's what I'm seeing. But I think he needed to be upstaged to realize that burying himself in work wasn't solving anything.

Shawn, on the other hand... I think he's already getting his comeuppance, as shown by Henry. He thinks he controls everything, but little things are starting to happen that are making him uncomfortable, and he's going to need to rely on his old friend and his new ones to see him through. I think Shawn's used to running away when things get weird, but now he actually has something to lose by running away.

But after all the setup, the writers can't just chuck Shawn's crazy ability to get out of trouble. That wouldn't be respectful to the watchers.

p.s. what's the problem with Juliet? I think she's cute.
p.p.s. omg, sorry for the essay!

YES! Here, have a prize! *gives*

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's possible for me to disagree more with you. *laughs* *hands you a cookie before she begins*

he'd been struggling so long with thinking that he'd failed in his marriage, and he thought he had to be perfect at his job to make up for it

Not the way the episode screwed it up. If they left it at him being seperated for just about ten months now, then fine, he depressed over his divorce and it's hurting his job performance. But, alas, we find out it's been TWO years instead of one and there is no way in hell he could have been screwing up so long and still kept his position as Head Detective.

I don't think the writers were trying to show Shawn as Smartest! and Lassiter as Dumbest!, or that Shawn and Juliet were leading him around by the nose

Irrelavent. I'm not judging what the writers are trying to do, I'm judging how the situation comes across. And it comes across that in this and in many other episodes, Lassiter is a second-rate cop. If the writers didn't intend that, then that's great, but it doesn't matter. What is this, the tenth episode of Shawn being the wonderboy to end all wonderboys?

If we've never seen Lassiter solve a case on his own without Shawn's help, it's very easy to assume he doesn't, and the TPTB need to change that.

And we totally agree on Henry's role in this episode. Shawn's got himself pinned in this life now and he's losing his grip over everyone he'd like to control because, well, now he has too many people to worry about.

the writers can't just chuck Shawn's crazy ability to get out of trouble

I think it's be respectable if Shawn wasn't always right about everything, personally, and he doesn't screw up enough in my opinion.

P.S. She's completely unprofessional and it bugs me.

P.P.S. Don't worry about it.

Okay, re-reading this, I may have given the impression I hate the show. This can't be more wrong. I loooove Psych to death, think it's wonderful, but for some reason, it makes my mind think meta-y thoughts. Hence my over-complicating the characterizations in all my fics and the above essay.

I'll definitely take that cookie~

[evagalli.livejournal.com]

Hee, well, concerning Juliet, I know way too many cops who are similarly unprofessional, so I guess it never bugged me. I hear too many stories about one department stealing the lone stapler of another department...

About Lassiter, I don't mean he was failing as a cop for 2 years. He was failing at his marriage for 2 years, and he tried to be the perfect cop to make himself feel better about himself. Like, I may suck as a husband, but it's okay, because I am a kick-ass detective. But his self-confidence was shaken enough that it depended entirely on being a kick-ass detective, and every little upset was pushing him further down the slippery slope to thinking he was incompetent at everything. It doesn't require that he mess up everything, just that things start getting messed up (even outside his control) and that he can't deal with it. So it wouldn't matter how long ago the divorce or separation were, or when the problems began; it matters how long the little things took to build up. And being told to sit down and shut up when he knows there's something odd about the man's death is getting closer to the straw that broke the camel's back.

Yeah, Shawn is the wonderboy... but he's supposed to be. If he gets pwned, it's going to require a little setting up, I think. And maybe that's part of the reason we get to see him freaking out over Henry dating again. I think Shawn getting totally pwned and accepting it would be entirely out of character. He'd spin it, because that's what he does. He has screwed up in miniscule ways, and I know they aren't big enough to count, but part of this canon is that Shawn can charm his way out of anything. I think you're going to need fic to have him admit to pwnage for a while longer, at least.

See, there I go again! And meta is part of the fun. We wouldn't spend so much time analyzing characters and scenes if we didn't love the show!