History YMMV / Psych

* FairForItsDay: The episode "Who You Gonna Call?" is surprisingly progressive for its subject matter, given it aired in 2006. [[spoiler:At the time, trans people, especially trans women, had a tendency to be written as shallow stereotypes or punchlines, and the HollywoodPsych treatment of people with DID was reductive at best. While Gus is shown to be a little uncomfortable with the situation involving Robert and Regina-- which is understandable, given the IncompatibleOrientation between Gus and Regina, and the fact that the latter is showing affection for him-- Shawn refrains from cracking any jokes at the expense of their condition and doesn't misgender Regina when she's in the driver's seat. Both of them are rooting for the system of Robert, Regina and Martin to get treatment for their violent tendencies by the end of the episode.]]

* SeasonalRot: It is generally agreed that Season 8 is the worst season of the series, due to Harris Trout replacing Karen Vick, Karen and Jules being absent for half the season, and the plots themselves not being as compelling or entertaining. ''A Nightmare on State Street'' in particular is often singled out as one of the worst episodes of the show if not the worst for being a confusing MindScrew. It didn't help when USA Network cancelled the show while the season was still airing. Luckily, they stuck the landing with the series finale ''The Break Up'', which is considered one of the best episodes, and the subsequent movies were also well received by fans.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Fans dispute whether Lindsay Leiken from "Psy vs. Psy" is a real psychic or just a hyper-aware profiler like Shawn (minus some of the ethics).

* EnsembleDarkHorse: [[EnsembleDarkHorse Has its own page.]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Mary, the Mr. Yang expert from "A Night with Mr. Yang" and "Mr. Yin Presents." His creepy acting and penchant for saying the most disturbing things made many people wish he would become a regular character. [[KilledOffForReal Unfortunately...]][[spoiler:He did, however, return no less than three times even after his death.]]
** Woody the Coroner, to the point that he was not only listed as a Special Guest Star in later seasons, but also had an entire episode focused on him in the final season and, naturally, returned for all of the movies.
** Mr Yin and Mr Yang themselves also count. See EvilIsCool. Yang even made multiple returns.
** Among the series' one shot characters, Nigel St. Nigel is a fan favorite: partially due to his [[CrossesTheLineTwice hilariously over-the-top assholishness]], but also because he's being played by the ever-hammy, [[ChewingTheScenery scenery-devouring]] Tim Curry to boot.
** Abigail Lytar, Shawn's girlfriend during Season 4, is well liked for her chemistry with Shawn. Some fans were disappointed when she broke up with him (albeit for understandable reasons) in the Season 4 finale.
** Dennis Gogolack from "Not Even Close Encounters" for his manic, nerdy personality and being a close childhood friend of the duo.
** Emily Bloom, the RedHerring from "Black and Tan: A Crime of Fashion", is well liked for her kind and helpful attitude, sympathetic plight at Ciao, and the sweet friendship she develops with an undercover Shawn.
** April from "Six Feet Under The Sea" is a well liked one shot character for being a NiceGirl who helps Shawn and Gus on their case, and caring for Shabby Thesealion.
** Dr. Steven Reidman, the doctor from "Death Is In The Air", who tries to study Shawn's "psychic powers" and tries to perform measurements on Gus' head. It helps that he is played by Judd Nelson, the troublemaker from "The Breakfast Club"
** Whip Chatterly, the bookstore owner and "murder afficionado" from "Autopsy Turvy" is popular for his subtle character and helping Shawn and Gus on the case. Shame that he died in the same episode.
** Captain Connors from "Forget Me Not" is a fan favorite guest star for being an insightful detective despite being a ScatterBrainedSenior whose condition is PlayedForDrama, being played by Creator/KurtwoodSmith, and being nicer to Shawn than Henry is.
** Leslie Valerie Sally, the BunnyEarsLawyer head of security at Gus's office from "Office Space", has a lot of fans due to his hilarious personality, impressive detective skills, and actor (Creator/DavidKoechner),.
** GirlOfTheWeek Emmanuelle from "Cog Blocked" gets a lot of love for being a HandicappedBadass and for seamlessly fitting in with Shawn, Gus, and their detective antics during the brief time they work together. Many fans felt she was being set up as Gus's ultimate true love and were disappointed when she and Gus have an OffscreenBreakup shortly afterward.

** Woody the Coroner.

** According to the reviews, [[MusicalEpisode Psych: The Musical.]]

** There's a lot of overlap between fans of ''Psych'' and fans of ''Series/Monk'', thanks to both shows' comedic nature and quirky, hyper-observant protagonists. It also helps that both shows aired on the same network.

** April from "Six Feet Under The Sea" is a well liked one shot character for being a NiceGirl who helps Shawn and Gus on their case, and caring for Shabby Thesealion

** There's a lot of overlap between fans of ''Psych'' and fans of ''Monk'', thanks to both shows' comedic nature and quirky, hyper-observant protagonists. It also helps that both shows aired on the same network.

** ''[[Recap/PsychTheMovie Psych: The Movie]]'': [[spoiler:[[BigBad Allison Cowley]] is the [[BastardUnderstudy apprentice]] of Mr. Yin. In her first appearance in the season 5 finale, she passed herself off as a helpless victim of Yin to Shawn, only to lure them into one of Yin's traps. Beaten by Juliet, Cowley returns for revenge in the movie, and proves that even without her mentor's influence she can still be just as monstrous. Ordering her men to [[CopKiller gun down Juliet's partner]], upon his survival, Cowley has one of her subordinates murder him in the hospital, killing all employees attending to him in the process. Cowley later kidnaps Chief Vick's teenage daughter to lure the heroes to Alcatraz. When she reveals herself to the Psych crew, she coldly shoots her right-hand man dead, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness due to having no further use for him]]. Telling the gang that she has strapped a bomb to Vick's daughter that will go off in twenty minutes and kill them all unless they find it, Cowley orders her remaining minions to kill the heroes as slowly as possible before finally getting her rematch with Juliet. Unapologetically psychotic and willing to hurt others just to spite her rival, Cowley managed to [[KnightOfCerebus darken the tone]] of the show with each appearance she made.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: A common complain about Abigail is that in spite of her history with Shawn and their RelationshipUpgrade in the season 3 finale, she appears in only four episodes of the next season where she's [[SatelliteLoveInterest little more than a device for relationship drama]] before she gets permanently written out.

** ''[[Recap/PsychTheMovie Psych: The Movie]]'': [[spoiler:[[BigBad Allison Cowley]] is the [[BastardUnderstudy apprentice]] of Mr. Yin. In her first appearance in the season 5 finale, she passed herself off as a helpless victim of Yin to Shawn, only to lure them into one of Yin's traps. Beaten by Juliet, Cowley returns for revenge in the movie, and proves that even without her mentor's influence she can still be just as monstrous. Ordering her men to [[CopKiller gun down Juliet's partner]], Cowley later kidnaps Chief Vick's teenage daughter to lure the heroes to Alcatraz. When she reveals herself to the Psych crew, she coldly shoots her right-hand man dead, claiming that [[DisproportionateRetribution his accent was getting on her nerves]]. Telling the gang that she has strapped a bomb to Vick's daughter that will go off in twenty minutes and kill them all unless they find it, Cowley orders her remaining minions to kill the heroes as slowly as possible before finally getting her rematch with Juliet. Unapologetically psychotic and willing to hurt others just to spite her rival, Cowley managed to [[KnightOfCerebus darken the tone]] of the show with each appearance she made.]]

** ''[[Recap/PsychTheMovie Psych: The Movie]]'': [[BigBad Allison Cowley]] is the [[BastardUnderstudy apprentice]] of Mr. Yin. In her first appearance in the season 5 finale, she passed herself off as a helpless victim of Yin to Shawn, only to lure them into one of Yin's traps. Beaten by Juliet, Cowley returns for revenge in the movie, and proves that even without her mentor's influence she can still be just as monstrous. Ordering her men to [[CopKiller gun down Juliet's partner]], Cowley later kidnaps Chief Vick's teenage daughter to lure the heroes to Alcatraz. When she reveals herself to the Psych crew, she coldly shoots her right-hand man dead, claiming that [[DisproportionateRetribution his accent was getting on her nerves]]. Telling the gang that she has strapped a bomb to Vick's daughter that will go off in twenty minutes and kill them all unless they find it, Cowley orders her remaining minions to kill the heroes as slowly as possible before finally getting her rematch with Juliet. Unapologetically psychotic and willing to hurt others just to spite her rival, Cowley managed to [[KnightOfCerebus darken the tone]] of the show with each appearance she made.
** In "Let's Get Hairy", [[spoiler: the killer turns out to be PsychoPsychologist Dr. Ken Tucker. He had an affair with one of his patients, and when she threatened to tell his wife about it, he plotted to kill her and frame one of his other patients for it, while tampering with the second patient's medication so he would believe that he had caused her death. He also killed two hunters that he chanced across simply to make the second patient seem more dangerous.]]

* In "Let's Get Hairy", [[spoiler: the killer turns out to be PsychoPsychologist Dr. Ken Tucker. He had an affair with one of his patients, and when she threatened to tell his wife about it, he plotted to kill her and frame one of his other patients for it, while tampering with the second patient's medication so he would believe that he had caused her death. He also killed two hunters that he chanced across simply to make the second patient seem more dangerous.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: One criticism of the first season was Shawn was forcing Gus to participate in his investigations and being terrible friend. Later seasons rectified this in many ways -
** They made Gus more proactive in solving cases (sometimes even taking initiative).
** Gave moments that showed Shawn being concerned for his well-being.
** They made it clear that Gus isn't as bothered by Shawn's shenanigans as he makes it out to be (even participating at points).

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

* HarsherInHindsight: There was an episode arc where Shawn and Juliet broke up. Their actors Creator/JamesRodayRodriguez and Creator/MaggieLawson broke up after dating during the show's run.

** Seasons 4 & 5: [[SerialKiller Mr. Yin]], also known as [[ItsAllAboutMe Karl Rotmensen]], is a [[FauxAffablyEvil suave]], depraved sociopath and one of Shawn Spencer's most personal enemies. After grooming his partner [[spoiler:and daughter]] Yang into becoming a killer like him, the pair would force the police to play twisted games with an innocent person's life on the line. When Yin first appears, he makes his presence known by murdering a waitress and posing her corpse like a yin-yang symbol. He then goes on to stab police consultant Mary Lightly to death before kidnapping Shawn's friend Juliet and his girlfriend Abigail, and [[SadisticChoice forcing him to choose]] between preventing the former from falling to her death or saving the latter from drowning. When he reappears, Yin lures Shawn and his best friend Gus to his home, where he forces Shawn to watch as he tries to poison Gus while promising him a "special" death afterwards. A heartless madman who kills for the thrill of it, Yin's appearances [[KnightOfCerebus severely darken the tone]] of what's an otherwise lighthearted buddy comedy show.

** ''[Recap/PsychTheMovie Psych: The Movie]]'': [[BigBad Allison Cowley]] is the [[BastardUnderstudy apprentice]] of Mr. Yin. In her first appearance in the season 5 finale, she passed herself off as a helpless victim of Yin to Shawn, only to lure them into one of Yin's traps. Beaten by Juliet, Cowley returns for revenge in the movie, and proves that even without her mentor's influence she can still be just as monstrous. Ordering her men to [[CopKiller gun down Juliet's partner]], Cowley later kidnaps Chief Vick's teenage daughter to lure the heroes to Alcatraz. When she reveals herself to the Psych crew, she coldly shoots her right-hand man dead, claiming that [[DisproportionateRetribution his accent was getting on her nerves]]. Telling the gang that she has strapped a bomb to Vick's daughter that will go off in twenty minutes and kill them all unless they find it, Cowley orders her remaining minions to kill the heroes as slowly as possible before finally getting her rematch with Juliet. Unapologetically psychotic and willing to hurt others just to spite her rival, Cowley managed to [[KnightOfCerebus darken the tone]] of the show with each appearance she made.