I Know, You Know ... Psych Is Back

One of the best shows left on television was on for six years before I discovered it on Netflix. Psych is a fabulous, funny, crazy, quirky comedy/mystery series shown on USA cable network and set in Santa Barbara CA. (Like so many shows these days, however, it's filmed in Vancouver BC.) 

Before I discovered Psych -- all 6 seasons are on Netflix instant watch -- I hadn't heard of either lead actor, James Roday or Dule Hill, who play best friends since childhood, Shawn and Gus, respectively. There hasn't been a duo that puts forth more energy and just plain good acting in decades. And the scripts, fast-paced and always dealing with unusual mysteries and murders, keep us guessing right to the end. In between the lines, there's a lot of obscurity.

Shawn is a psychic detective (sort of) for the Santa Barbara Police Department, and Gus, a pharmaceuticals salesman, is his partner, and sometimes straight man, in the escapades. They're constantly in trouble with the police department and the bad guys. Always on the lookout for free food, they eat at crime scenes, at the morgue, wherever they can find food, usually in the form of snacks -- Doritos, churros, pizza cheese fries, jerk chicken, chalupas, smoothies. Pineapple in various forms appears in each episode.

Shawn and Gus recite obscure quotes from 80s movies and compare people they meet to 80s actors. A romance develops between Shawn and Juliet, a policewoman on the SB force. The actors Roday and Maggie Lawson, who plays Juliet, are real-life romantic partners, which might add to the authenticity of the various scenes between the two of them although the romance part, thankfully, is kept to a minimum. 

I could write a lot more about this favorite show of mine, but it's one of those things that you have to see for yourself. No one can tell you about all the innuendos, subtle jokes and the obvious ad libs that combine with everything else to make the show such an all-around hit. You know that's right.

Season 7 starts on USA cable this Wednesday night, Feb. 27, but you've got to watch all 6 seasons on Netflix first. I don't know if this season will be as good as the rest, however, so far, season 6 is the best. Seeing how those guys operate, and the rest of the crew too, I have no doubt I'll play season 7 over and over on my DVR. Supposedly, they'll make a season 8 and that probably will be it because there's just so long two 30-something guys can act so childish and hilarious and not be resigned to maturity. 

I'm so happy I found Psych because the selection out there, on TV or Netflix, is pretty dismal. It will be a long time before another series comes along that entertains me as much as this one. By the way, my favorite episode is Last Night Gus, #2 of season 6, and the whackiest scene with Shawn and Gus is in episode #9 of season 1. It'll psych you out in the end.

Our Favorite British TV Dramas

Call them dramas, these 10 series of love, intrigue, tragedy, and comedy. But at least a few of them are also a mix of travelogue, historical fiction and family dynamics.

Again, the list is alphabetical, not in order of my preference. If it were the latter, my favorite movie of all time, which falls into this category, would be at the top and not in eighth place. Yes, it's a TV series, the 1995 version of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, pictured. To my way of thinking, this presentation is the best pairing of two actors -- ever.

While P&P is part of my list of 10, it deserves special recognition for its elegance, beauty, acting, and overall great entertainment. Some of the same attributes can be found in the other shows, as well. Check Netflix for descriptions of each.

• Ballykissangel
• Doc Martin
• Duchess of Duke Street
• Hamish Macbeth
• Jeeves & Wooster
• Mapp and Lucia
• Monarch of the Glen
• Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth version)
• Rosemary & Thyme
• Upstairs, Downstairs

Our Favorite British TV Comedies

Campy and crazy in the Dame Edna way or irreverent and sacrilegious like Father Ted, the funny shows from Britain beat out their American counterparts, at least for me, Cassandra.

I could describe each show in detail, however you can click on Netflix.com or phill.co.uk for brief overviews. Reasons for choosing my 10 favorites include what I think is superb acting, interesting story lines, beautiful locales (for some), and, yes, silliness. The characters must be ones I look forward to seeing week after week. And perhaps most of all, I must want to see the shows over and over. All too often I enjoy a comedy series when I first see it, but I never have a desire to see it again. For example, I thoroughly enjoyed The IT Crowd and its loony, over-the-top comedy, however once is enough.

Here is my list of those shows that satisfy my qualifiers, in alphabetical order, not by preference. Unfortunately, Sorry! is not available through Netflix at this time.

• Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (photo above)
• Fawlty Towers
• Keeping Up Appearances
• Last of the Summer Wine
• Lovejoy
• One Foot in the Grave
• Sorry!
• To The Manor Born
• Vicar of Dibley
• Waiting for God

TV: Does It Influence Our Behavior?

Two general views:

1) TV, especially TV violence, desensitizes human beings, especially children, to real violence and real suffering.

2) Parental influence plays a greater role in molding our behavior than TV plays (even in households in which parents have abdicated their authority by letting their kids watch too many hours of TV).

In my own case, I think I was influenced by good behavior on TV but not influenced by bad behavior. I didn't take violence on TV -- whether it was cartoon violence or live-action violence -- seriously (i.e., as anything more than something mildly entertaining), but I seemed, perhaps instinctively, to respond very seriously to shows like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, where I knew even at the age of 4 or 5 that people were behaving themselves and being kind and mannerly, and that this behavior was necessary in a civilized world.

What about books? Is reading dying, or being slowly replaced by TV and movies and video games?

Book reading may be making somewhat of a comeback in today's elementary schools. Resort hotels at Disney and elsewhere say kids often have books with them at the pool, inside the restaurants and on the trams to the park; and in school districts around here, kids are voluntarily reading books at night before bed more and more.

Of course, you still can't have a decent conversation with the little shits.