They always have to have it both ways. There’s a general feel of scepticism throughout the episode, but they still have to jam in a revelation in the end that implies the psychic might have been genuine. The latest episode of Castle (9.27.10) is a good example of this trope and what compelled me to write this post.
So I vow from this day forward to never watch an episode of a cop show where they include a psychic[sup]*[/sup]. Not even if that show would otherwise be the best show on TV[sup]**[/sup].
[sup]*[/sup]I would like to clarify this vow only applies to crime and legal shows. Shows that generally have a supernatural bent are exempt.
[sup]**[/sup]Not even for The Wire 2: The Streets of New York.
NCIS, which as everyone knows is the best of the pseudo-forensic procedurals, had a “psychic” once. Gibbs relentlessly mocked her and there was no hint at the end that she was anything but full of crap. Gibbs saves her from an assassin’s bullet, in fact, and points out that she didn’t know the hit was coming.
That said, I’m with Abby in thinking that Gibbs’ intuition is best described as magic.
And he’s actually psychic? That would come under the supernatural exemption and thus allowed. What annoys me are shows that supposedly are set in the real world imply that psychics are real, like Castle.
Never seen that show. Have they had an episode that suggests psychics might be real?
Well, truth be told, psychics ARE real.
That is, there are people who call themselves ‘psychic’.
Whether they actually have some ‘power’ is unknown (and doubtful IMHO), but they do exist.
That drove me crazy about the other X-Files movie. A goddamned (and I mean that literally) pedophile priest who was a psychic, and who was right. Let me tell you, it irritated the piss out of me.
Yeah. I remember an episode of *Numbers *where John Glover guest starred as a psychic, and being that the show is based around math and scientific thinking, it was all set up for him to be revealed as a fraud until it turns out that he was right? And actually could predict where people & bodies were. It was bizarre. Terrible episode of what was usually a (probably far-fetched) but plausible show.
And that would have been a fascinating episode to show, by the numbers, how even stopped clocks are right twice a day, and how psychics can be right sometimes…by accident, or clever tricks. But NOOOOOO.
The whole premise is that it’s about a relatively observant guy who pretends to be psychic and works for the local cops as a consultant. It’s a comedy, so it’s not exactly taking the idea seriously.
Most episodes don’t imply that anyone has “real” psychic powers. I can’t rule it out completely, though, because I haven’t seen every episode.
Do you also object to that episode of X-files where it seemed as if a robbery was committed by supernatural means, but it turned out that it was all just a conjuring trick?
What if it’s a show about a psychic and there’s an episode where the psychic teams up with a cop who solves the crime by deductive reasoning and following the trail of clues?
They did this recently on The Glades, too. But there, the show made a point of seemingly establishing that the protagonist and his intended were NOT going to end up together before pulling the old switcheroo at the end. Castle kind of left it vague as to who Alexander was supposed to be before the revelation. I wonder if the show is going to throw in more people named Alexander to muddy the waters, or if the whole thing will be forgotten.
In general, TV producers cater to woo and give it too much respect. Which I guess is just typical of how most people think. But yes, I do find it annoying how almost every time that even a TV show doesn’t show a psychic as being conclusively real (like showing us their correct visions or something) they always have to hint that the psychic was right at the end.
I actually had hopes that The Mentalist was going to not only break this trend but openly mock the idea by revealing their secrets, and a few early episodes pushed that angle, but I guess it offended the core audience or something because there’s almost no overt skepticism in the show anymore. Which is too bad, because the show is close to being like “Banachek, crimefighter” or something.
I think I messed up with my indefinite articles in the OP. What I meant was that I resolve to skip episodes where there are psychics. I’m still going to keep watching Castle because I like the show. Sorry about the misunderstanding. Me English not good.
I don’t think it was the Alexander stuff that was psychic. The daughter could easily have found that out without psychic powers. It was the fact that the note was written while the victim was dead, but he murderer was in the restaurant. They couldn’t make the time line work in such a way that anyone alive was in the room when it was written.
