Cheese on a Stick. Review: Psych - “Someone’s Got a Woody”

Season 8, Episode 4

Air Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2014, 9/8c on USA.

Rating: ★★★★★

“I can’t die. I have 43 Twitter followers who depend on me. Oh, and I have a daughter.” – Woody

Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) are going stir crazy as they try to find a client since interim police chief Trout (Anthony Michael Hall) still refuses to hire them.

Meanwhile, Cyrus Polk (Peter Stomare) is shocked to find a body in his living room. One thing leads to another and the body ends up at the coroner’s office. Fearing there is evidence that will incriminate him, Cyrus tries to retrieve the body. But, when Cyrus is confronted, he takes Woody (Kurt Fuller) hostage.

Thankfully, Woody has a plan.

Woody: “I may have a way out of this for you. But, it will involve radical, unconventional, out-of-the-box methods. Are you willing to go off the grid?”

Enter Shawn and Gus.

The theme for “Someone’s Got a Woody” —someone claiming to be set up takes hostages until their name can be cleared—is a familiar one. In fact, earlier this week, Castle had a similar episode, “Number One Fan.” You also may have seen it in the 1998 film The Negotiator starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. While comparable, each version brings its own twists that make each enjoyable to watch, and “Someone’s Got a Woody” is no different.

One of the things I enjoyed about the earlier seasons of Psych was Shawn being the one with the crazy ideas and saying the strangest things. What makes his hijinks funny is the way the rest of the cast usually plays it straight. But, with the recent addition of Woody and Trout—each with their own unusual antics—Shawn’s behavior almost becomes normal, and that diminishes him and his quirkiness slightly.

I have a love-hate relationship with Woody, and while he makes me laugh, it’s usually an uncomfortable and uneasy chuckle. When I heard this was going to be a Woody-centric story, I had some concerns about whether his character’s tomfoolery would be tolerable for an entire episode.

Maybe it’s because he has a gun pointed at him throughout most of the episode but in “Someone’s Got a Woody,” we see a very toned down Woody. The writers do an excellent job of maintaining the essence of who Woody is but on a more scaled down level. I found Woody to be much more enjoyable to watch, and his scenes with Cyrus engaging and off the cuff.

Speaking of Cyrus, I have been a big Stomare fan since his portrayal of John Abruzzi on Prison Break. Stomare is great at playing the bad guy and it is fun watching him play the villain who might not be entirely in the wrong, at least this time.

While “Someone’s Got a Woody” is entertaining it is not perfect. Usually, at this point, I would have a spoiler warning but what I am about to say is so apparent a warning isn’t needed. The identity of the real killer was known almost from the first scene; the writers basically hung a bright red neon arrow over Edward Tripp (johnLacy) that was flashing, “He did it!” There was no creativity behind the mystery other than the writers had to introduce someone as the bad guy.

The writers are really shaking things up this season both for the good and bad. The good being Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), who I am enjoying as a regular cop rather than a head detective. The announcement that his wife Marlowe (Kristy Swanson) is pregnant also seems to have changed him. We see this especially with how he treats Shawn with a little more respect now. Lassiter doesn’t even question Shawn or his judgment when Shawn calls and tells him who the real killer is. Maybe Lassiter also saw the neon sign.

The bad is the introduction of Trout as interim police chief while Chief Karen Vick (Kirsten Nelson) is on suspension. Maybe the writers watched too much American Idol with Simon Cowell, but you don’t always have to have a character who is there just to be a jerk. Trout isn’t funny and brings nothing to the show to make it better. So I, for one, am glad to see Trout finally gone; hopefully, Vick will return soon.

I was not a big fan of the dialogue between Shawn and Gus through most of last season, which often felt off and dialed in. This season’s witty banter (just taking a guess here) has been much crisper and I hope the writers continue along this path.

Overall, “Someone’s Got a Woody” isn’t very original but it’s enjoyable enough to watch. It’s also cool that some of the disguises Shawn and Gus used in previous episodes, like Satchel Gizmo and Soupcan Sam, make an appearance.

Despite all the signs saying this is the final season of Psych, no official announcement has been made. With next week’s episode marking the halfway point, I hope USA Network announces something soon.

Tweet me @staffaroadtrip or leave a comment below to let me know what you think about “Someone’s Got a Woody.”

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Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.