Up@dawn 2.0

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Psychilosophy [posted for John Donovan]


Psychilosophy [posted for John Donovan]
            If you examine anything for a long enough time you are guaranteed to find something philosophical about it, that being said, sometimes the philosophical qualities of some things are a bit more prominent than others. The television show Psych is filled with many philosophical topics, themes, and even quirky one-liners. Although the message that Psych sends sometimes may not be the philosophy that most people agree with, the message is still there. Psych sends many messages, but one of the more obvious ones is the message that if you are good enough at any certain thing, such as observing every little detail, you can float your way through life with not a problem in the world.
            Psych is a television show that first aired in 2006 on USA Network, the main characters of the show are a man named Shawn Spenser who spends most of his time solving murders under the guise of a psychic, when in reality he is just hyper observant due to his father’s constant training when he was a child. Burton Guster, or Gus for short, his black best friend who is a pharmaceutical salesman and partner in solving crimes. Other important characters are Henry Spenser, Shawn’s father, Juliet O’Hara, Shawn’s eventual girlfriend and detective of the Santa Barbara Police Department, and Carlton Lassiter, comically stoic head detective of the police department. Although the members of the police department are initially suspicious of the authenticity of Shawn’s claim of psychic ability, he consistently proves himself to them, so they consistently believe in him and his ability to solve cases.
            As far as philosophical occurrences in the television show, the most obvious philosopher in the show is Henry Spenser, Shawn’s father is always chiming in with little quips and quotes that sometimes do not penetrate Shawn’s thick skull, however they usually do have good meaning being as that Henry has Shawn’s best interests in mind, no matter how ridiculous of things he says to his son sometimes. Henry does not necessarily just spit out easily interpreted bits of information that every viewer will understand, he usually just gives Shawn a good bit of relatively normal advice that a father would give to a son, and due to this a majority of the advice that Henry gives Shawn is somewhat situational and not applicable to every person. That is what makes the show so constantly amusing though.
            Throughout the show, Henry Spenser is somewhat of an all-good type of character. He worked as a police officer for a long time when Shawn was a child, and he was an always honest, good hearted police officer, even when his partners did the exact opposite. For example, in the last episode of the sixth season, Henry and Shawn find out that there was a case that every one of his partners had done their part in covering up. Henry of course is devastated because the police force was all he knew, and he found out that everything it stood for was wrong. Henry’s constant goodness actually causes a good deal of trouble for him in the end. At the end of the episode, Henry goes to visit his fourth partner who he believes did not help cover up the case that his other two partners had helped conceal, but once he gets there and begins talking to him, he realizes that he was wrong, and that the last remaining partner that could have been good was also paid off by the bad guys. His partner then in a fit of depressed rage shoots Henry in the chest, leaving the audience to wonder if Henry is dead or alive until the next season begins in February. Unsurprisingly, many people are very excited for the season premiere.
            One of the more depressing philosophers in the series is the head detective of the Santa Barbara Police Department, stone cold hearted and comedically stoic, Carlton Lassiter. Lassiter throughout the show showcases his absolute lack of feelings towards any other human beings than himself. In a way he is a classic narcissist, but it also sometimes appears as if he does not care about any others, but he also does not necessarily care too much about himself either. Lassiter is one of the more confusing characters in the show due to his constant indifference and insensitivity towards those around him. For example, in the second episode of the first season, the police are at a spelling bee investigating the mild poisoning of a young boy’s inhaler in order to get him out of the contest, when the older spell master in charge of the contest suddenly gets dizzy and falls out of his perch in the box of the theatre. Most normal people in a situation such as this would apologize to the audience in the auditorium and let the family of the man that fell know that their prayers are with them, but Carlton Lassiter simply lets the audience know that the building is completely safe and that the fall to death the old man had was completely coincidentally. Maybe Lassiter is not purposely insensitive, rather he is almost unacceptably practical. This practicality is something that many sometimes mistake for maliciousness, when in reality a person just does not know any other way to approach a situation than head on in the most seemingly reasonable fashion possible.
            Throughout the span of the show, Shawn Spenser and Juliet O’Hara eventually become lovers, and their relationship itself has some philosophical qualities. Shawn had his eye on Detective O’Hara almost from the start of her initiation onto the detective agency, despite the fact that the two of them saw different people for the first couple of seasons, as time progressed the two of them began to date and eventually become a rather serious couple. The slow and patient nature of their relationship shows the audience that sometimes the tortoise really does beat the hare. This is important for many young people to know, because with technology getting quicker and quicker and convenience becoming the American dream, people are just getting progressively more and more impatient. If people took as much time living as they do trying to live more conveniently then people would probably be happier and relationships would probably last longer then they do now.
            One of the more humorous philosophical attitudes that a character has is the attitude of the always classic, Burton Guster. Gus’s attitude throughout the show is one of either annoyance at Shawn’s ridiculously childish antics, or infatuation with a certain hobby or woman. Gus shows the audience a person who wants to act as mature as possible, but still gets distracted by everything that anyone throws at him. In many ways it is funny, but in other ways it is a constant reminder that you are not really allowed to act any way that you want to once you get older. It is not that easy to keep acting like a child the older you get. And for many this is a rather depressing fact, immaturity may be a bad vice, but it is definitely soothing to the soul. One example of Gus’s constant distractions are in the third episode of the sixth season. Shawn decides to go undercover at an insane asylum, and Gus goes undercover to join him inside the asylum as a cleanup boy. Once Gus gets inside he meets a very attractive patient and is immediately worthless for the rest of the episode because he is always trying to talk to the girl. Fortunately the girl is not actually as crazy as most of the other patients; however, she does sometimes think that she is a middle aged plumber named Frank, so there is that that Gus is forced to deal with.
            Throughout the entire show each of the characters progressively grows into their respective rolls within the show. As the characters do this progressing they also develop their own personal philosophies that become more and more prominent as time goes on. For example: Henry Spenser being the classic good human character that many philosophers would reference from time to time and never wanting to believe that anyone he worked with could be payed off or turned into a “bad cop”, to always giving his son any fatherly advice that he could because even though Shawn does not always treat his father with the respect he deserves, Henry always loved him and had his best interests in mind. Carlton Lassiter, the classic narcissist who has no one in particular’s best interests in mind, and always approaches every situation as unbiased as the next. Unless of course a situation includes someone who does not like America or believes that Ronald Reagan did not have a successful presidency. Or the relationship that Shawn Spenser and Juliet O’Hara share, the patient but always progressing relationship that many young people should probably be doing their best to model, due to the ridiculous amount of people obsessed with convenience and accessibility and the opposite of patience.  Or Burton Guster’s constant distractions from police cases and even his job as a pharmaceutical salesman, Gus’s personal philosophy being that ‘if it catches your eye, go for it’, a philosophy that many people tend to avoid as they get older so that they may not appear as immature as they used to be.
            As a whole, there are a number of unique and personalized philosophies that each character believes in and continues to grow into as the series progresses. Each one of the characters on the show has a different set of ideals that can apply to different situations in the real world with real people. Psych’s constant puns and clever one liners are often times just corny jokes that one could probably go without hearing, but every so often the one liners will carry a mountain of philosophical advice that if taken the right way could be beneficial to anyone and everyone. As for the puns, they usually are not very philosophical, but they are pretty funny and definitely not to be ignored, solely because they are humorous. Overall, just like anything else, the television series Psych does not have a substantial amount of obvious philosophies just floating around openly in each episode; however, once examined, a person can see that the philosophies are endless, you just have to look closely enough.

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