Monsters of Television

“Do not invite me to shut it.”

Lassie is officially on the train to Crazy Town.

Dear Writer’s Room at The Office: did you see this past week’s episode of Psych? Pretty funny, right? I know. I had a lot of trouble choosing which quote to use as my lede. It was between this (from Juliet), “Dear God, what am I doing? This is half a man” (from the coroner), and “Fishing is one of my top 5 skills, right behind profiling and ski ball” (from Lassiter). Well-crafted dialogue, situations that were germane to the plot, and, in an episode that was pretty much filler (since it didn’t tackle any of the continuing threads like Shawn’s slump or the question of a relationship with Juliet), it didn’t feel like a cop out.

I mean, how cool was it that Lassiter was going to follow in Shawn’s example? An insane Lassie is gut-busting. The fact that Shawn didn’t really even put clues together until the second half of the show as we followed Lassie following his gut was pretty remarkable. Though weren’t you guys a little disappointed that they didn’t go all the way with that? They could’ve let Lassie finish out the case with the Tao of Shawn. But at the same time, that wouldn’t be true to Lassie’s character. So, and I think you’d have to agree, we have to applaud their restraint.

Speaking of which, Office writers, I think we should commend them on their dedication to character. That’s certainly something you can appreciate. Lassiter doing things like pulling his badge and shooting wildly into the water for the sharks to appear (information we gleaned anecdotally from Juliet) is priceless. Shawn wanting to egg Lassie on is also a great use of character since all Shawn’s ever wanted to do is pull the stick out of Lassie’s you know where. You know where, Office guys! Ha ha! Classic.

Oh! Did you guys also catch the that when Lassie’s flashes back to a piece of the puzzle, his look different than when Shawn flashes back? Lassie’s are straight cuts with sharp sounds upon entrance and exit. The vision is clearer than Shawn’s old-timey, scratched-up, dream-filter (sometimes even slant-angled) flashes. That’s just attention to detail and, you have to admit, classy.

I’m really glad you guys watched this episode. I hoped you learned something from it. Because on top of it being a filler episode that entertained and an episode that focused on one of the lesser-focused-on characters, this is also how you do a catch-up episode without phoning in a clip show.

Psych, much like The Office, is not a show that one really needs to keep up with week to week to stay in touch with the story. Generally, everything ties up nice and tight at the end of each hour and, outside of season/hiatus finales/premieres, the basic situation for the characters is the same. But they did a couple of things here to remind the viewers of the show’s history without having to resort to actual clips from past episodes, thereby also allowing commentary on those past events through the lens of the character.

You probably wish you’d thought of that before, don’t you, Office scribes? Let me expound.

You’ll notice throughout the “The Head, the Tail, the Whole Damn Episode” there were several instances of meta play. Gus brought out the pharmaceutical bag for the first time in a long time, to which Shawn commented that it hasn’t been brought out in two years. There were multiple times throughout the first meeting of shark specialist Dr Kim that Gus brings up Shawn combining business with pleasure (something Shawn is frowning upon as he watches his father do the exact same thing). Several elements common to episodes, such as Gus being scared of the things he and Shawn face (think the “Guts” routine) or how crazy Shawn sounds when proclaiming a theory, are commented on but not so overtly that it gets in the way of the narrative. There’s even a section where Shawn, opening with the lines of a speech in Jaws, recounts several recent cases and offers his (and Gus’s) take on them. Just a sentence or two about each one. They didn’t have to show us actual snippets of past episodes to remind us. Loyal viewers will remember; casual viewers will be entertained by the commentary even if they don’t remember the specific cases. It’s about making the old content new again.

Guys, this is a show built on references so you can take it from the pros on how to make sure an audience recalls what it needs to so that a joke or story element can work. Also, let’s face it, their hiatuses are way longer than yours and, yet, they don’t feel the need to do clip shows to remind everyone of where they are. Maybe they think that multiple reshowings of the newest episode during the week will remind people, but, generally, folks only watch the episode once; the reshowings are just additional times in case their DVR sucks like mine and they can only record Ugly Betty and Law & Order: SVU at the same time.

That’s just a hypothetical. I don’t actually watch Ugly Betty. But you get the idea.

Listen, I’ll level with you, I’m probably going to continue watching your show until the end. But, seriously, let’s learn some lessons from shows that are doing it right. I’m not saying you have to be just like them. Let’s just get it together, all right?

Tear it up,

Nick (monster on the left)