"Psych" Season 4

For some reason, USA Network decided not to bring "Monk" and "Psych" back until August.

In happier news, James Brolin will be guest starring as Lassiter's mentor. So it's not all bad news.

Try not to cringe much, but I'm totally "psych"ed about it!:)

Is "Psych" normally shot in Vancouver? It seems like it'd be pretty expensive to move the entire production to Canada for an episode, but if they shoot the show there anyway, I guess it'd just be an opportunity to utilize different locations. The Canadian characters didn't do much for me, and Shawn's mega-romantic weekend seemed more than a little contrived. That being said, the banter from Shawn and those around him was as good as ever and the production values have if anything gotten even more polished and sophisticated. Once we're back in Santa Barbara next week (and when I hopefully won't have a pounding headache) I'll get a better feel for the season.

Loved the latest iteration of the credits sequence. The editing does a much better job of hitting the beats provided by the music, and the last shot is even more hilarious than the running through the field shot from last season. I hope they have an extended version for the episodes than run short like they did last year.

Now that we're back to usual territory, you can really tell they've upgraded the visual style for the show, beginning with the slick, quick panning establishing shots from the skies about Santa Barbara. Getting a helicopter view of the police station after years of the same static establishing shot with the sign was a surprise.

Loved this episode. Loved it, loved it, loved it. The slapstick was dead on, the banter was hilarious, and the final beat in his father's den was touching. And Rachel Leigh Cook is the greatest guest star in the history of "Psych" every time she pops up, she brings a different, wonderful energy to the show. She only had three short scenes but her reaction shots made every one memorable. I hope they let the arc really play out before she leaves the show.

Shawn: You wouldn't understand, you've never killed anybody.
Lassiter: Yes I have.

The decision to cast Ray Wise, the devil in "Reaper," as a Catholic exorcism specialist is positively delicious.

Clearly there are some serious horror fans in the writers' room.

There were quite a few laugh-out-loud moments in tonight's episode. I'm not sure which one takes the cake for me: the seemingly unarmed Lassiter shooting the piss out of the cop bar, or Shawn's imagined eliptical bike Speed scenario.

If he was just a redshirt officer, he probably would have been. But McNab is the one uniform officer that the show has taken time to develop, so he's in that sweet spot where he's not important enough for his death to be shocking but too important to kill off without giving a second thought to.

I love the variant theme songs. Can't believe they got Boyz II Men to do that.

This show has a major horror fetish. And was that Larisa Oleynik as the goth sister? If so, this show also has a thing for resurrecting discarded female leads from 90's teen comedies.

Neither is a bad thing, in my book.