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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