This week's episode of Psych featured Shawn and Gus tracking down a kidnap victim who had planned on attention the fictional Tri-Con in Santa Barabara where George Takai was a guest. Shawn, a fake psychic, felt out of his element but still managed to blend in well and Gus, resident geek, not only fit in, but knew several of the convention-goers. ("The guy in the codpiece? Yeah, I know him. His name's Dave. And he's a nice guy.")I enjoyed the episode because, while it still played to some stereotypes of geeky comic book fans who can't get dates, it also noted that two of the main characters -- Gus and Juliet -- are comic book fans and still reasonably well adjusted. Not all comic fans are slobbering geeks, not all fans dress up in colorful cosutmes, and not every fan breaks down into tears when his personal Holy Grail is ripped in half.
So, kudos to the writers of the show for that!
Now, what I'm concerned about it is that the show, on the whole, can easily go down the same route as Monk. Great concept, cleverly designed characters, but no consistency. Any single episode of Monk is pretty good in and of itself, but taken as a whole, the character of Adrian Monk is all over the map. He's deathly of afraid of whatever makes things convenient for the writers for that particular episode and that's it. My concern with Pysch is that Gus seems to be the resident geek with an unusual knowledge of "geeky" trivia regardless of what aspect of geekdom is present. He's already shown a high interest/knowledge in locks/security, comic books, and spelling bees. That's not infeasible, but will we see him expert in computers, video games, and ham radio next season? Keep in mind, too, that we're not even talking about his day job as a pharmaceutical salesman!
Anyway, it was an enjoyable way to end the first season. Let's see how well they do come January.
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