What I’m Watching: Psych (Season Premiere)

Psych: Season 5, Episode 1 “Romeo and Juliet and Juliet” (B+)

It’s really so wonderful to have this show back. In the absence of sitcoms like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” I haven’t had a chance to really laugh during an episode yet this episode, let alone several times throughout one episode. The first thing that really got me going was Shawn’s ambiguity about which Triad gang he wanted to meet with when talking to the horribly abused Ken. Gus trying to both legitimize and curb Shawn’s blatantly racist and preposterous assertions about Ken’s past made for a good time as well. While Gus needing to approve all of Shawn’s fake identities for him might seem like a drag, I have faith that they’ll make it work and that Shawn will definitely not adhere so strictly to Gus’ new rule. Having Henry working in the police department as the buffer between Shawn and the Chief should likely create hilarity for a while, though I worry about it going on for too long, unless Henry actively becomes a part of every case since he doesn’t really have that much to do otherwise. Juliet biding her time in returning to work makes sense, and it’s also a lot of fun to see both the Chief and Lassie give her extremely boring busy work to do and refusing to leave her alone. I’m hopeful that the whole gang will soon get back together and work in tandem on all of their cases, since this still fantastic episode hardly featured Lassie at all, despite his humorous quick scenes with both Henry and Juliet. Bonus points for a cool episode title and having part of the opening credits in Chinese (text only) like they've done once or twice before.