The Father Son Relationship in Psych TV Show

The father son dynamic is very central to the Psych TV show. Henry Spencer and Shawn Spencer carry the dramatic weight of this whole show. This is the cleaver function of the flashbacks of Shawn’s childhood at the beginning of most episodes.

The show is about these two friends, Gus and Shawn. Well, the show is actually mostly about Shawn. Shawn since childhood has had incredible mental abilities to analyze details in order to solve problems.  Since he was a child, his father has already been training his mental observation skills thinking that the boy will also grow up to be a great officer of the law just like his old man. Fast forward to the present, Shawn is watching news coverage of a crime. He notices details, puts two and two together like the genius that he is and solves the crime. He calls the police to tip them; the police follow the tip, but then think that Shawn must be in on the crime because they figure that only an insider would have access to such knowledge. As they were about the arrest Shawn, Shawn pretends to be a psychic fooling the police and the crowd present by displaying his mental powers and guessing correctly about personal information just by observing details from those present.  Ever since then, he’s been forced to ride along the ruse in order to avoid suspicion. He has become a consultant to the Santa Barbara Police Department because of his “talent.”

Now, the father son archetypical relationship that is milked by the Psych TV series really yields a lot of juice. Henry Spencer had such high hopes for his son. But Shawn is just a wacky free spirited kind of dude. Which is not really so bad, in fact, his shenanigans are what gives the show such life. It’s mostly a fun con romp and silliness.

There is this one episode though, when Shawn, after a long series of convoluted cons was running down the football field in full football gear, with the song We Are the Champions by Queen, blaring in full cheesiness. Then, there is a reaction shot of Henry Spencer and he is doing something very unlike him. He was smiling. He was smiling as his sun was basking in cheesy glory.

That scene was really something else. It was not because of the funny situation or the Queen song. It was the smile on Henry Spencer’s face. He was proud of his son. I wish there were a lot more moments like this in Psych TV show episodes. Despite all of Henry’s disapproval of Shawn’s wild and unorthodox (to say the least) methods and career, he was still happy of the great work his son is doing with his life.