Psych

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Fandom
Name: Psych
Abbreviation(s):
Creator: Steve Franks
Date(s): 2006-2014
Medium: Television
Country of Origin: United States
External Links: Official USA Site
IMDB
Shawn and Gus
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Psych is a Sherlock Holmes parody mystery television series with a reasonably sized fandom.

Canon Overview

Shawn Spencer is a hyper-observant (albeit, childish and immature) amateur sleuth, who puts his skills to work consulting for the Santa Barbara Police Department. He and his childhood best friend Burton "Gus" Guster run a psychic detective agency named Psych. The catch is that Shawn isn't actually psychic, but his ex-cop father, Henry, trained him to observe and remember far more than the average person, and with his flamboyant showmanship and Gus's support, he pulls off the ruse successfully (most of the time). Police detectives Carlton Lassiter and Juliet O'Hara, along with Police Chief Karen Vick and coroner Woody Strode, go along with the game, mostly because Shawn's too useful to ignore.

While Psych is an hour-long show, not a sitcom, and has occasional dramatic moments, the series is primarily a comedy, with a large focus on references to 1980's pop culture. Many episodes play as parodies of procedural dramas; many episodes also act as homages to famous films and television, such as Dual Spires (Twin Peaks). Airing on the USA cable network, it is not quite as well-known as main network shows, but has a respectable audience, and has eight seasons as of 2014.

A television comedy film, Psych: The Movie, based on the show was released in 2017. Two more movies were released through Peacock, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home (2019) and Psych 3: This Is Gus (2021). As of 2024, creator Steve Franks announced that a 4th movie script is completed, though has not yet been picked up for production[citation needed].

In addition to eight seasons and three (and counting) movies, the Psych franchise also boasts five novels written by William Rabkin[1] and the Psych's Guide to Crime Fighting for the Totally Unqualified (2013) by Chad Gervich.

In June 2024, Creation Entertainment hosted "Reuniting the Cast of Psych: A Fan Experience" in Schaumburg, Illinois. The event brought together the seven main cast members, along with creator Steve Franks, writer Andy Berman, and producer Chris Henzie for a two day convention.

Fans of the show refer to themselves as Psych-Os (or PsychOs).

Fandom Overview

While the Psych TV show is often only one or two steps from outright parody, the fandom tends to take the characters and relationships a little more seriously. While a fair amount of the fanfiction is comedy in the spirit of the show, much of it is dramatic. There is something of a divide between slash and gen/het in the fandom, with the two groups maintaining separate fic archives, though the main LiveJournal community has fans of all types. The premise of the 2008 CBS show The Mentalist has strong parallels to Psych that have been noticed by, well, pretty much everyone,[2] though The Mentalist takes itself more seriously.

The USA Network & Fans

The USA Network once appeared to actively court fans and fandom. The official Psych site used to include many amazing fan features. In addition to having interviews, outtakes, producer blogs, and complete episodes, it also included a "mash-up" feature, where fans could edit clips of episodes together (akin to music vidding), a fairly active message board, fan art, and links to fan sites, including a link to the main gen/het fanfic archive.[3] The website has fallen in more recent years, and now only includes two faulty broken links to the Watch and About section.[4]

The Psychologists Are In Podcast

In 2021, cast members Maggie Lawson (Juliet O'Hara) and Timothy Omundson (Carlton Lassiter) created their very own rewatch podcast called The Psychologists Are In. The co-stars cover each episode of Psych and often host guest stars from the cast and crew. They discuss how a cable network show is made, behind the scenes facts, and answer fan questions. In 2024, they started a convention tour where they film live episodes and meet with fans.

Fanfiction Trends

The most popular slash pairing is Shawn/Lassiter (sometimes called Shassie), which plays as a very mild sort of enemyslash; followed by Shawn/Gus, which is more a classic buddy dynamic - they've been BFFs since they were five. Both of these pairings are joked about in canon on occasion, sometimes pretty overtly. Burton 'Gus' Guster - Essay, Links and Recs, Archived version is an LJ post which also includes many shippy moments between Shawn and Gus.

There are two main het pairings. The first is Shawn/Juliet (Shules), which the canon toyed with for several seasons, to the delight of some fans and the despair of others. Shawn and Juliet finally got together in season 5. The second is Lassiter/Juliet, which was popular during the show's Second Season, waned in Season Three, and re-emerged after the Season Four finale. Gus/Juliet is sometimes found in the fandom as well, though less in the canon.

In addition to ship-fic, the fanfic includes a fair bit of gen, usually case-fics (many of which are more dramatic than the show ever gets) and/or hurt/comfort. Shawn is the most commonly targeted for the "hurt", and some fans will identify themselves as Shawn-whumpers.[5] While some of the h/c does focus on the Shawn-Gus, Shawn-Lassiter, or Shawn-Juliet relationships, a lot of the gen fic particularly emphasizes the Henry-Shawn father-son dynamic[6].

Pastfics, especially concerning Shawn's childhood, are often explored in fics (as well as in flashbacks in the show itself), and before Shawn's mother appeared in the show in third season, several fics portrayed her as either emotionally or physically abusive to Shawn.[7]

A common trope in both slash and gen is for Shawn or other characters to gain real psychic powers.[8]

Crossover works are not uncommon, largely including (but not limited to) other procedural shows.

Controversy

People wondering why Shawn/Gus aren't a more popular pairing in the fandom, citing maybe it is due to racism.

One fan commented in 2010: "S/L is one of those pairings that make it clear that the prevalence of white boy slash in fandom is not just a matter of the very white material that genre TV provides. G/S are more physically attractive, personality attractive, are the leads, and provide far more canon material, yet are a minor pairing. It's not just the TV producers that are racist, sadly." [9]

Further reading:

Analysis

Fanworks

Fanfiction

Challenges

Psych Big Bang

Fanzines

Resources

It's a small fandom, but a modern LJ-centric one with good infrastructure.

Livejournal comms

For a more complete list of communities, see the Psych Newbieguide

Pairing comms

Fanfiction

References

  1. ^ Penguin Random House. Psych novel series website (accessed 6/27/2024)
  2. ^ "From the moment this show was announced back during the upfront presentations in May, there have been snarky questions speculating that CBS has somehow bought into a Psych rip-off." --Matt Roush on tvguide.com, Oct 13, 2008 (accessed 1/29/2009)
  3. ^ Official site links page (accessed 1/29/2009)
  4. ^ Official USA Network Psych page (accessed 6/27/2024)
  5. ^ "We all love a good whump. But let's try and think of a new way to torture our favorite psychic." Jenn1984 on the Vary the Violence challenge (accessed 1/29/2009)
  6. ^ Four Floors Down, Use the Stairs in Case of Emergency by centipede, the highest-rated fic on Psychfic (accessed 1/29/2009), features all relationships, but especially Shawn-Henry.
  7. ^ Fractures by VampKira may be the most extreme example of this trope. (accessed 1/29/2009)
  8. ^ Saguna-brahman by shotaphile is a slashy example; the A Different Character challenge is for other characters to get the gift. (accessed 1/29/2009)
  9. ^ Anonymous commenter on a thread at Fail-Fandomanon 10 July 2010 (accessed 10 February 2012).
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