What I’m Watching: Psych

Psych: Season 5, Episode 5 “Shawn and Gus in Drag (Racing)” (B+)

The setup of this episode reminded me of when Tony DiNozzo invoked the example of Harrison Ford and the film version of “Air Force One” while the team was aboard the presidential plane in the pilot of “NCIS.” In that case, the set used for both television episode and film was one and the same, whereas I’d imagine that this episode didn’t require the exact mimicry of the set of “Fast and the Furious.” In any case, it’s still a lot of fun that Shawn and Gus utilize their expert knowledge of the underrated 2001 guilty pleasure to help them infiltrate a deadly street racing crew. Even if the logic of Shawn tricking out his dad’s ancient truck to help give it some extra juice in a race doesn’t add up, it does make for quite a funny scene. I especially loved how this week’s 1990 Little Shawn & Little Gus introduction was so perfectly relevant for the plot of this episode, demonstrating Shawn’s lack of finesse in his car thievery even at a young age. Guest star Adam Rodriguez, formerly seen shadowing David Caruso’s sunglasses on “CSI: Miami,” was far better used in his arc last season on “Ugly Betty” than here, but his presence didn’t detract, and he does make a decently un-emotive gangster car racer. Lassie’s own personal obsession with catching the car thieves added a nice rivalry with Shawn to spice up the hunt, although Lassie and Shawn don’t really need much of a reason to despise each other since that comes naturally to both of them. One of the more memorable aliases Shawn has given Gus: “M-C-Clap-Your-Hands (with a Z).”