Psych: Ranked! - The Rundown

Before I dive into this first reverse countdown post for USA's Psych, let me give you the lay of the land first about how these reviews will work.  They're going to be constructed very similarly to my MacGyver: Ranked! posts, with a few differences since the shows are pretty much worlds apart from one another other than the occasional murder.

I'll do a quick rundown of the episode first, including the title and placement in the series, where I ranked it, a quick summary, a favorite quote or two, and the best and worst parts.  Then I'll have a short segment called "The Hat Game" - for anyone who doesn't know or remember, one of the key things from Shawn's past in Psych, and one of the reasons he's able to pass himself off as a psychic, is a game that his father made him play all his life, "The Hat Game."  "How many hats are in the room, Shawn?"  Shawn would have to close his eyes and remember exactly how many hats were in the room as well as be able to describe them in detail, all from memory.  This is essentially what I'll be doing in this part: Since it's been at least a year, maybe longer, since I've watched Psych, I'm going to write a preemptive assessment from memory only about why I originally placed the episode where I did in the ranking, and what I recall liking/disliking about it.

Then, as I'm watching the episode, I'm going to jot down different observations, questions, opinions, and nitpicks for a kind of stream of consciousness review of the episode.  At the end, I'll write a paragraph or two summarizing my opinion after having refreshed my memory and re-watched the episode.  If I feel I rated in wrongly after re-watching it, I'll move it up or down the list as needed.  I just think it's fun to compare what I remembered from a year ago to what I think after watching it again.

And finally, at the very end, I'm going to have several "just for fun" tallies.  Psych is one of those shows that has running gags and catchphrases, some of the jokes stretching across the entire eight seasons.  Among these are Shawn and Gus's mantra of "Suck it!"; another inside joke, "C'mon, son!"; Shawn's ridiculous "Don't be" quotes, such as, "Gus, don't be exactly half of an eleven pound black forest ham."; Shawn's silly names for Gus when they meet new people, like "Hollaback Atcha" or "Trapezius Milkington"; and finally, Shawn's penchant for purposefully mispronouncing words or using them in the wrong context, only to be corrected by Gus and then subsequently reply, "I've heard it both ways."  For example, "Gus, don't be Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Marzipan."  "It's Azkaban."  "I've heard it both ways."

I think it will be fun, at the end of all this, to have a comprehensive tally of these iconic moments.  I probably took way to much time over-explaining how this will work, but I don't call myself The Obsessive Compulsive Reviewer because I am impulsive and never plan things out.  Just sticking to my rep here, honestly.