this less a review of “psych: the movie” and more a love letter to “psych” as a legacy. one that i truly believe changed my life and the way i would view art and entertainment forever
i watched psych for the first time when i was 10 years old. i remember a friend from youth group mentioned it off-hand one random wednesday. i went home that night, switched on the tv, and watched one episode. that was all it took to get me hooked.
it only took me about a month to get through all 8 seasons. i spent a lot of time alone at this point in my life. my family had just moved across the country from small-town georgia to an even smaller “town” (village) in pennsylvania. between packing up my childhood home in the south and settling into our new place, my family had spent the summer homeless. we hopped in and out of our blue mini-van and slept in the homes of whoever had time or space while my parents tried to figure things out. in the end, we found a new home a week before my first day of middle school.
as i walked towards the entrance that first morning, i remember thinking, “this is it!” my parents had promised me this would be the the last big move, this was a shiny new chance to make the friends i would know and love for a lifetime.
i was, of course, strikingly incorrect. i may have been in a new place with new people but i was still loud-mouthed, and odd, and queer in both meanings of the word. i found my people here and there as time passed but i never was able to shake the feeling of being an outsider— still haven’t, in many ways.
when psych found its way to me, i was introduced to shawn. shawn who embraced all of the things that had held me back. he was loud, wild, and unabashed in the things that made him stand out. he was an outsider and proud of it.
the depth and relatability in every single character in psych made it so so easy to fall in love with the show. the stubborn, goofy, intelligent gus— also never quite fitting in despite his lifetime of best efforts. the resilience, strength, and grace of juliet, the moments of silliness she lets slip through the cracks between her attempts to prove herself. lassiter… oh the conglomeration of things that make his arc so wonderful. henry, his love for shawn, the mistakes he made and works to atone for. buzz. just buzz. i could go on and on.
that is to say, they’re all so real. every one of them is their own sort of odd. psych helped me cope with that twinge of insecure loneliness i felt as i progressed through middle school (the notable worst-time-in-my-life-ever for many a young queer pre-teen) and realized more and more everyday that strangeness is not something that someone overcomes or is cured from. we’re all a little bit strange. we all feel helpless or useless or alone sometimes. it’s what we do with that feeling that matters.
the writers of the show also embodied this… their quirky humor and deep-set passion for their art and film shone through so obviously. each episode was crafted with love and true, genuine care and passion for whatever genre or movie they referenced and parodied. the custom theme songs, the inumerable bits and references to obscure 80s film, musical episodes, changing the direction style accordingly… psych was, and will always be, perfect to me.
in the 11 years since i discovered psych, i’ve probably seen each episode— no exaggeration— 50+ times. when i watch it with new friends in my adulthood, i quote entire scenes. my adoration for it began when i was still young and loud. when i was still close to my parents, under their roof, in their hearts. when we would watch an episode together every friday, just the three of us. before i let the shame beat my loudness out of me. before i was seen as odd for my quietness instead of my exuberance. when the theme song would come on and i would leap from my place on the couch to do an “interpretive dance” for my parents (throw myself all over the floor and scream the lyrics…)
i’ll never be able to rate something psych-related with anything below five starts. this will just have to get a like instead. in all its highs and all its lows, psych means the world to me. thank you again “psych: the movie.” you know i’ll be back soon enough
this less a review of “psych: the movie” and more a love letter to “psych” as a legacy. one that i truly believe changed my life and the way i would view art and entertainment forever
i watched psych for the first time when i was 10 years old. i remember a friend from youth group mentioned it off-hand one random wednesday. i went home that night, switched on the tv, and watched one episode. that was all it took to get me hooked.
it only took me about a month to get through all 8 seasons. i spent a lot of time alone at this point in my life. my family had just moved across the country from small-town georgia to an even smaller “town” (village) in pennsylvania. between packing up my childhood home in the south and settling into our new place, my family had spent the summer homeless. we hopped in and out of our blue mini-van and slept in the homes of whoever had time or space while my parents tried to figure things out. in the end, we found a new home a week before my first day of middle school.
as i walked towards the entrance that first morning, i remember thinking, “this is it!” my parents had promised me this would be the the last big move, this was a shiny new chance to make the friends i would know and love for a lifetime.
i was, of course, strikingly incorrect. i may have been in a new place with new people but i was still loud-mouthed, and odd, and queer in both meanings of the word. i found my people here and there as time passed but i never was able to shake the feeling of being an outsider— still haven’t, in many ways.
when psych found its way to me, i was introduced to shawn. shawn who embraced all of the things that had held me back. he was loud, wild, and unabashed in the things that made him stand out. he was an outsider and proud of it.
the depth and relatability in every single character in psych made it so so easy to fall in love with the show. the stubborn, goofy, intelligent gus— also never quite fitting in despite his lifetime of best efforts. the resilience, strength, and grace of juliet, the moments of silliness she lets slip through the cracks between her attempts to prove herself. lassiter… oh the conglomeration of things that make his arc so wonderful. henry, his love for shawn, the mistakes he made and works to atone for. buzz. just buzz. i could go on and on.
that is to say, they’re all so real. every one of them is their own sort of odd. psych helped me cope with that twinge of insecure loneliness i felt as i progressed through middle school (the notable worst-time-in-my-life-ever for many a young queer pre-teen) and realized more and more everyday that strangeness is not something that someone overcomes or is cured from. we’re all a little bit strange. we all feel helpless or useless or alone sometimes. it’s what we do with that feeling that matters.
the writers of the show also embodied this… their quirky humor and deep-set passion for their art and film shone through so obviously. each episode was crafted with love and true, genuine care and passion for whatever genre or movie they referenced and parodied. the custom theme songs, the inumerable bits and references to obscure 80s film, musical episodes, changing the direction style accordingly… psych was, and will always be, perfect to me.
in the 11 years since i discovered psych, i’ve probably seen each episode— no exaggeration— 50+ times. when i watch it with new friends in my adulthood, i quote entire scenes. my adoration for it began when i was still young and loud. when i was still close to my parents, under their roof, in their hearts. when we would watch an episode together every friday, just the three of us. before i let the shame beat my loudness out of me. before i was seen as odd for my quietness instead of my exuberance. when the theme song would come on and i would leap from my place on the couch to do an “interpretive dance” for my parents (throw myself all over the floor and scream the lyrics…)
i’ll never be able to rate something psych-related with anything below five starts. this will just have to get a like instead. in all its highs and all its lows, psych means the world to me. thank you again “psych: the movie.” you know i’ll be back soon enough
