Thoughts on a Season - The Good - Part II - Characters Welcome

If you watch any show on the USA Network you know that Characters Welcome is their slogan. It's their way of saying that what you find here is a little different than what you find elsewhere. For the most part I think it is a slogan that works, certainly when applied to their Friday night detective lineup.

Monk

Monk has recently finished up its fifth season and I think it was the show's best season ever. In the past I could take it or leave it, but the writing was just top-notch this year. In case you've been living in a cave for the past five years, I'll give you the basic lowdown on Monk

Tony Shalhoub stars as Adrian Monk, a brilliant detective who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Monk's psychological problems cost him his job as a San Francisco homicide detective, but he has hope that some day he can return to the force. In the meantime, with the help of personal assistant Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard) Monk works as a private detective, mostly on cases with the SFPD, but now this season also on his own.

On top of his rampant OCD, Monk has developed an abnormal fear of germs, heights, crowds, milk, snakes, heck, you name and Monk is afraid of it. This can be a hindrance to his ability to solve a case or just get through another day.

Over the seasons I've enjoyed the interplay between Monk and Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine who will forever be Buffalo Bill, "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again," to me), his ex-boss on the SFPD, but there is something to be said for the episodes this season where Monk goes it alone, on his own cases for the first time.

The murders this year were cleverer, the characters more wild and Monk more deranged than ever. We had Steven Weber as a radio shock jock who Monk suspected killed his wife even though he was on the air at the time of the murder; the mysterious "Six Way Killer" which pitted Monk's detective skills against the forensic technology of a federal agent; a fun-loving guy named Hal (Andy Richter) who befriended Monk and became the first buddy in his life. We also had Monk going undercover as a butler to the son of Natalie's parents' neighbor (Sean Astin) and loving the role.

In keeping with the USA slogan, they were characters all. I can't wait for season six to begin this summer. Monk is on a roll!

Psych

The second half of the USA Friday night detective block is newcomer, Psych. The show can be uneven, but as the first season progressed, and the characters emerged and grew, the show seemed to come together quite well. Psych stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer who solves crimes with his keen powers of observation, skills honed over the years at the insistence of his ex-policeman father (Corbin Bernsen). The problem is Shawn is so good the precinct detectives think he's a suspect, so he feigns psychic abilities. Shawn has opened a psychic detective agency in Santa Barbara and is regularly hired as a consultant by the police for some of their tougher cases.

Assisting Shawn is his best friend Gus (Dulé Hill) who works as a rep for a pharmaceutical company and is Shawn's reluctant sidekick. Also show also features Timothy Omundson, Maggie Lawson, and Kirsten Nelson.

The best thing about Psych are the complicated relationships between the regulars. Shawn and Gus have been best friends since they were little, with Shawn always getting the best of Gus. Even now as adults, Gus strains to break the long chain of history, to not get talked into things against his better judgement. Shawn had his skills drilled into him by his father who now bristles at the idea that Shawn is "pulling one over" on the police with his fake psychic shtick, but still takes a lot of pride in the amazing abilities of his son.

Sometimes the fake psychic stuff is a little over the top, but the relationships usually bring the show back down to reality. Did I mention that it's also funny? My favorite episode was "Shawn vs The Red Phantom" in which a teenager goes missing, and to Gus' delight, he and Shawn must spend the entire weekend at the boy's last known location -- the Santa Barbara Comic-Con -- investigating his disappearance. The comic book insider stuff was funny and George Takei playing a petulant and prima-donna-ish George Takei was hilarious.

Characters are always welcome and USA is providing us with some of the most original in years.