TV Revivals: Why we need a ‘Psych’ season 9 more than ever

If you’ve been a longtime CarterMatt reader, you are likely familiar at this point with the amount of love that we’ve got for “Psych” as a series. It’s one of those shows that just makes you feel good and brightens you up on a bad day. It’s silly, innovative, thought-provoking at times, and even emotional and poignant when it needs to be. It was a part of a golden age of USA programming that we still consider one of our favorite eras for any cable network out there.

This article could just be all about some of our favorite episodes — though we did recently do a separate article on that back in July when we celebrated the show’s ten-year anniversary. This is more about looking to the future of “Psych,” provided that it has one, and figuring out a way for USA to bring it back. This is something that was also discussed the last time we did our TV Revivals feature in 2016, but things change on an annual basis. Also, we feel like the need for more of the show is far more significant than it was back in 2016.

“Psych” is not a political show; it’s a mystery, a comedy, and a character study rolled all into one. (At one point, it was also a musical.) What’s important about it is that it’s TV escapism in its finest form. It’s a chance to dive into a lighthearted mystery for an hour, listen to Shawn Spencer give Gus some ridiculous nicknames, and see how much Lassiter can be annoyed by some of the various shenanigans taking place around him. Entertainment is often undervalued when it comes to its role in bringing people together — this show does that, and hopefully allows people to smile a little bit more. As of February 2017, we certainly need that opportunity to smile.

How to bring it back – Given the schedules of everyone involved, it’s hard to imagine it returning with a 16-episode season. The more likely scenario is that maybe you do something like 6-8 episodes, and then air them over the course of the summer, similar to what “Royal Pains” did for its final season. (If it would only work as a TV movie, then we’re fine with that as well.)

With that said, it’s essential that you get the full cast together to do it, coupled with creator Steve Franks — otherwise, it just wouldn’t be the same. Maybe the episodes are a one-off, or maybe this is something that you could do every few years to get the gang back together again.

Now, one of the larger questions story-wise is how to make this work given Juliet and Vick moving north to San Francisco. Maybe Santa Barbara finds itself incredibly short-staffed, and everyone decides to come back and assist for a little while? We know that the show wasn’t actually filmed there, but Santa Barbara became such a big part of the show’s identity. It’s hard to imagine it straying too far from that. In the end, though, we don’t think anyone would spend too much time questioning the logic of anything; they’d just be happy to have “Psych” back.

Could it actually happen? – We do think that the demand is there among the Psych-Os online, and if you look at the ratings, the 0.6 in the 18-49 demographic that it had in its final season is better than the majority of cable stuff that is out there now. Bringing the show back especially now could reinvigorate the base and we could easily imagine some better ratings coming as a result of it.

We certainly think that a revival is possible, given that it’s something that we’ve heard the cast talk about here and there over the years. This all just comes to the network’s interest, the cast’s availability, and the right story surfacing to get everyone back together. Keep your fingers crossed for the future!

Do you want to see a “Psych” revival? Share some of your thoughts in the poll / the comments below! Meanwhile, be sure to head over here to check out some other entries in our TV Revivals series, which will be published for the remainder of the month. (Photo: USA.)