Two of the best shows on television—the USA Network mystery-comedy Psych and espionage-actioner Burn Notice—return this week with the first of a few new episodes.
USA will show three new episodes of Psych on Wednesdays at 10 EST the rest of this month, and there are two episodes of Burn Notice scheduled for Thursdays at 10.
USA will precede the premiere episodes this week with a marathon of all episodes from each show’s season so far, on the day of the premiere—Wednesday for Psych, Thursday for Burn Notice.
Burn Notice has settled into a comfortable but highly entertaining pattern, with continually twisty plots featuring the central characters’ efforts to help others while attempting to extricate protagonist Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) from his government-imposed exile. A master former CIA agent, Westen has been “burned” by the agency and forced to live outside the law without any prospects of a relatively normal life until he can clear his name.
It’s an interesting and highly creative update of the classic 1960s TV series The Fugitive, as that description indicates, but it doesn’t strike the viewer as at all derivative or old-fashioned. On the contrary, creator-producer Matt Nix and his team adeptly incorporate contemporary criminal activities, mores, and concerns into the story lines.
Whereas Burn Notice is essentially a serious show laced with much humor and creativity, Psych has always been basically a comedy with mystery stories as its structural conceit. Sometimes the mysteries have been very sound, and they’re usually at least diverting, though sometimes the story seems rather an afterthought.
This year, however, the show has been at its very best. The mysteries have been strong, the humor is topnotch, the guest stars have been used superbly, and the central characters have been tweaked a bit to ensure the relationships don’t go stale.
As regards the latter, Gus (Dule Hill) has been given more equality with Shawn (James Roday); whereas Shawn used to use Gus as butt of jokes and a mere comedic foil, a sidekick, Gus now responds more forcefully and independently to Shawn’s shenanigans, adding some strength to his character and creating new opportunities for comedy.
As to the comedy, this season has been the funniest ever. While strengthening the mystery elements, the writers have improved both the quality and quantity of the jokes. The show’s best one-liners are funnier than those of any sitcom I’ve seen in quite some time, and the use of physical humor has been far better than one ever sees on sitcoms, harking back to the Hollywood screwball comedies of the 1930s for inspiration.
Finally, the values conveyed by both Psych and Burn Notice are laudable—honor, loyalty, benevolence toward others, cheerfulness in the face of adversity, and the like. Neither show tends to present those values as obvious lessons, moreover, instead simply letting the stories and characters demonstrate them in action—along with their opposites.
They are quite simply, admirable TV series.