‘Psych’ season 7, episode 4 review: A visit from the in-laws

Are you digging “Psych’s” new season so far? It’s certainly a little bit different than every other collection of episodes that the show has brought out thus far, primarily when it comes to the fact that really, half of the episodes have not really involved a traditional murder case at all. Last week was more a tale of survival with a surprise appearance from the mob, whereas this week, we had a very obvious homage to classic buddy movies, with “The In-Laws” serving as the most obvious influence.

The real star of the show this week was Jeffrey Tambor, who gave one heck of a performance as Juliet’s new stepfather Lloyd, a man who claimed to be a boring accountant on the surface, when in reality he was a free-wheeling guy with a history of gambling that was only marginally different than Julie’s real dad Frank (William Shatner). Most of the main story did not really involve Shawn at all until the midway point, as we saw Lloyd more or less force Henry into going on a massive adventure to Mexico instead of what was originally supposed to be lunch.

Through it all, most of the exploits were pretty funny. We met the Mexican version of Lannister, learned that Henry loves to do the Cabbage Patch, and also saw a realization from Gus that suddenly having a family after being single for so long was hardly what it was cracked up to be at first.

After personally feeling like last week’s handheld-camera episode was one of “Psych’s” weaker moments in years, this did mark a pretty significant recovery. It was not necessarily a favorite (as we do prefer our new episodes to contain more Shawn and Gus doing what they do best), but it at least told a fun romp that allowed Henry to have a little bit of fun for a change.

What did you think about this episode? If you want to see more from this episode, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: USA