 "Photo: Promotional photo")
"I can't believe this," Shawn said. "You lifted your look right off this mannequin! "
" On the contrary, Shawn. Clearly, someone is stealing my look," Gus said.
"Right... I did see Tommy Hilfiger creeping from bush to bush sketching you."
Slightly harassing and highly entertaining, Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and childhood best friend Burton "Gus" Gustor's (Dulé Hill) playful bromance is the essence of the humor of USA show "Psych."
The show takes place in Santa Barbara, Calif., where Shawn works as a psychic detective for the Santa Barbara Police Department. With Gus as a Robin to his Batman, Shawn solves dozens of seemingly unsolvable crimes by getting "psychic visions" that help lead disgruntled head detective Carlton Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) and the attractive detective Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson) to the perpetrator.
Except that he's not psychic.
The opening of every episode is a flashback to Shawn's childhood when his retired-cop father, Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen), trained him to be hyper-observant. Using his powerful observation skills, Shawn picks out miniscule details at a crime scene or about a person and extrapolates them to a larger meaning, passing these conclusions off as having been struck by sudden psychic knowledge.
No one knows his "gift" is a ruse except for Gus and his father.
Now in its sixth season, "Psych" has returned to USA for another round, promising to outshine the previous season. In the season premiere, Shawn and Gus are hired by an 11-year-old to rescue a "pristine 1978 Darth Vader collector's item with a double telescoping light saber" from an ambassador's son—in eight minutes.
Though the plotlines of the sixth season will be new, the humor and unique detail will remain the same. Be on the lookout for Shawn's jibing and often illogical "Gus, don't be…" a few minutes into each episode. A few notable examples are "Gus, don't be exactly half of an 11-pound black forest ham," and "Gus, don't be an incorrigible Eskimo pie with a caramel ribbon."
Always the butt of the joke, Gus is never introduced by his real name, and his alias (given by Shawn) changes every episode. He has been known as Guy Buttersnaps, Gus "TT" Showbiz (the extra T is for extra talent) and Ovaltine Jenkins.
Also included in every episode is a hidden pineapple. In the pilot, Shawn and Gus have almost cracked a kidnapping, and Shawn tries to convince Gus to come with him on an investigation. As they are leaving, Shawn grabs Gus' keys and finds a pineapple, asking if he should slice it up for the road. The pineapple bit wasn't in the script, but the crew thought it was so funny that it stayed in the final cut and became a "Where's Waldo" of every episode.
The show airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on USA.
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