Daily Archives: August 18, 2008

Television

Psych: Disco Didn’t Die. It Was Murdered!

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Recap/Review Spoilers.

Friday night’s episode of Psych was okay, despite attempts to be Groovy. I watched commentary by the writer of this episode after it aired and saw that this was supposed to be episode #3 of the season. That might explain the cops doing their own thing and Shawn and Gus doing theirs. The episode from the week before was still the best one ever and it brought the cops and Shawn and Gus together. I think that formula works well with Shawn and Lassiter playing off each other.

But for this episode we see Shawn and Gus getting an assignment to investigate a case that was recently overturned. It just so happened to be Henry’s biggest case when he was on the force. Henry was not to be involved in this case in any way. Too, late Henry is at the Psych office and also one step ahead of the guys in the investigation. So they reluctantly let him help. It was fun to watch Shawn be in charge of the investigation and doing his goofy things and having Henry cut him down throughout. But it was also fun watching Shawn get the better once in a while too. I think that through this investigation there was some mutual respect between father and son.

The investigation leads to a Patty Hearst like organization called SAG, Students Against Government. Eugene, the guy who was put away by Henry was a bomb builder for SAG. However, it turns out that he was framed by two other members. The two other members are the perfect yuppie couple and will stop at nothing to keep that way of life. They kill their old professor and try to blow up Eugene. Shawn gambles big and arms the bomb and reveals their deceptive ways forcing the couple to disarm the bomb.

The best parts of the episode were the spoof on the 70’s. Gus and Shawn giggling as Henry said Pookie multiple times. Pookie being played by the guy who played Issac on the Love Boat, too funny. The car, Gus’ half asleep leg and then walk. The jive talk wasn’t that funny but the outfits were.

This wasn’t the best episode of the season but it wasn’t too bad. Even a bad episode of Psych is pretty fun.

Oh and the cops, see they should be together instead of running separate storylines… Lassiter and Juliette trick Buzz into taking a lame case so they can take a case for Diamond smugglers. That backfires as Buzz stumbles into a much bigger case than he had. Lassiter and Juliette take the case back and end up having that backfire as well. They finally come together with Shawn and Gus as they take down the remaining members of SAG. Some funny parts but would have been funnier with Shawn and Gus workign with the cops.

Television

In Plain Sight: A Fine Meth

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If you haven’t watched the episode do so now, their are spoilers below.

Last night In Plain Sight had its 1st season finale. In twelve episodes we met Mary, Marshall, Stan, Jinx, Brandi, Bobby D. and Raphael. We learned about Mary’s life in little snippets. We saw her go from a cold and distant person to opening up more and more as the season progressed. Last night her personal and professional lives came crashing together in a big way.

I haven’t been posting religiously on the episodes of In Plain Sight because I missed a few and had to go back and watch them on Hulu.com. However in the last 4 episodes on the season we see things leading to a resolution of the Brandi/suitcase of drugs problem. We see Chuck contact Brandi to go and sell the drugs. Brandi attempts to do this but has a change of heart when she finds that the people she is going to sell to have a baby that they are keeping in the bathtub of a dingy motel. Brandi goes to the hotel room twice and on the second trip she gives the baby “biscuit bear” a teddy bear that Mary gave t Brandi when Brandi was 4 years old. Then Brandi calls the police on the couple and heads to Raph’s house.

Raph and Brandi became very close this whole season. Mary couldn’t help Raph with his injury after his botched proposal so she pawned him off on Brandi. However Brandi didn’t want to spend time with him but eventually became friends with him and started to fall in love with him. She even went and tossed the drugs in the river. They ended up on the riverbank though so she could go back and get them later. Brandi spending time with Raph made Mary jealous and suspicious and she finds Brandi asleep in Raph’s lap and assumes the worst.

Because Brandi bagged out on the drug deal the potential buyer sought revenge and went to kidnap Chuck and then kidnap Brandi. However they kidnap Mary instead. Spanky kills Chuck in front of Mary. Mary tries to bargain her way out of the situation but a police report reveals that she is a US Marshall, Spanky orders his lackey to kill Mary. But the lackey has other plans before he does that. Mary remains extremely composed and incapacitates the would be rapist then breaks free of her shackles by spinning the eye hook around until she can pull it from the wall. She then kills her attacker.

This is everything that led up to last night’s episode.

Last night we see Mary finally lay into her mother and sister about everything. Mary cannot tell them what she does, she cannot help Brandi in her situation either. If Mary does she will end up out and disgraced. She cannot and will not let that happen.

While Mary is dealing with her family Stan and Marshall are investigating Spanky and trying to find a way to protect Mary. They finally stumble upon the fact that Spanky is the father of the baby boy that Brandi gave Biscuit to in “To Serge With Love”. This gives them a bargaining chip which leads to a confession by Spanky that Brandi was a pawn in the drug buy plan.

Meanwhile Mary confronts her mother and sister and reveals that her father has been writing to her throughout her life. Mary pulls out a box of letters and drops them in front of Jinx and Brandi. This is after Jinx, spiteful and hateful that she is, says to Mary that when she told Mary that she was her father’s favorite that she was just comforting a young girl. One of the best lines of the night was when Mary tells Jinx. “Oh no you don’t get to rewrite history” And then she gets the box of letters. This was probably the best part of the whole episode because it laid everything out on the table, there was great tension and some good acting from the ladies. Brandi even gets angry enough to rip up a letter. And the anguish on Mary’s face was incredible. Brandi Storms out and Jinx asks if she can read through the letters. Mary says yes.

Raph shows up, drunk. He wants to explain what happened with Brandi, Here we learn that Biscuit was Mary’s bear that she gave to Brandi and would take it back after Brandi went to sleep. Raph explained that Brandi gave Biscuit away and was so afraid that it was the one thing that tied them together and now it was gone. Raph’s appearance gives MAry a change of heart.

Later Mary enters Jinx’s room and tells Brandi to tell her everything. Mary is again going to clean up the problems of her family. She takes the bag and heads out to get rid of it. She gets in Jinx’s car and peels out, she gets about 10 feet and the police close in. The FBI agent has a warrant to search the house and any vehicles. They start with the suitcase int he back seat of the car. It ends up being filled with towels. So the FBI and police tear up Mary’s house. When Mary, Brandi and Jinx are let back in the place is in shambles, walls and ceilings are torn up. Things are damaged and Marshall attempts to start cleaning up. Mary says no and lets them leave. Brandi and Jinx confer with each other and wonder how the drugs got switched with the towels. Mary seemed surprised as well. So we are left wondering, what happened to the drugs. We see Raph at batting practice and I know what happened to the drugs. But in case you couldn’t figure it out there was a close look at the chalk line roller.

Of course, what I want to know is, when did this happen? Was it when Brandi went to Raph’s house in “To Serge with Love”? It had to be because that is when Brandi had the drugs on her. Raph isn’t the dummy that we think he is, he’s pretty smart and a good balance for Mary. I hope we see more of him in the next season.

Ack we have to wait until next summer.

I admit the series started slow and I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it at first but it has certainly grown on me, the characters have developed well and the storyline overall was good. I look forward to seeing next season.