Monday, October 06, 2008

Psych, again

I've gotten a big kick out of Psych, the USA network comedy about a detective who poses as a psychic, using his observational skills to make folks think he's paranormal...and getting the local police department to pay him to help solve crimes. 

Now there's The Mentalist, a crime drama with a similar premise from the serious side. Here we have a fellow who used to be a TV psychic...who now admits he was a fake, and somehow has moved into a job as a detective. I like the fact that he's not posing as a psychic, and that he's able to talk about psychics being fakes. I like the show Medium, too, but I'm bothered by the fact that it's based on the antics of someone who really believes she is a psychic.

SPOILER FOLLOWS...spoiler only for the first episode of The Mentalist.

The Mentalist has the horrific serial killer stalking the main character thing going on, which I don't like. I mean, it neatly unifies the overall story arc. But it risks becoming an obsessive thing that limits the series. I felt like the Profiler show had a lot of that. 
 

4 comments:

  1. Wow, the psychic consultant series is becoming its own sub genre. I agree, the serial killer stalking the protagonist is kind of worn out. Heck, even the psychological profiling approach is wearing a little thin with me. They're always so confident in pigeonholing the suspects.

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  2. How about the detective/psychic has an obsessive serial killer stalking them who not only won't hurt them, but goes out of his or her way to protect them at times? Because they feel that only the protagonist truly understands/appreciates them.

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  3. Watched this the other night on your recommendation. Pretty good show. Have you ever watched "Life?" The lead characters both have a kind of quirky perspective on the world around them.

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  4. I think the "the detective/psychic has an obsessive serial killer stalking them who not only won't hurt them, but goes out of his or her way to protect them at times?" has been done...but I'm sure it could be freshened up. It would be bound to create lots of conflict for the detective. Hannibal Lector becomes this sort of character eventually. You've got the danger of the killer turning on you. You've got the danger of people thinking you're in cahoots.

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