# I vow to never watch an episode of a crime show when there is psychics involved. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381 "2010-09-28T19:16:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/21 "2010-09-29T13:35:32Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > > > Didn’t Peter Boyle win an Emmy for playing a psychic in an episode of XFiles? > > Yeah, [Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Bruckman%27s_Final_Repose) > > Good episode, too. Clyde: “There are worse ways to go, but I can’t think of any more undignified than autoerotic asphyxiation.” Mulder: “Why are you telling me this?” Clyde: “Forget I mentioned it. It’s none of my business.” ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/22 "2010-09-29T13:39:26Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > > [@Snooooopy](#): > > > > 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. > > 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. Actually, the idea that it was written after the victim’s death was the “plausible explanation.” The note was mailed to the precinct, but there’s no pinpointing the time it was written. So they have two options: Either the psychic did correctly predict the circumstances surrounding her death before the events of the day occurred, or the killer wrote the note after murdering the victim. To say it was written after the victim was dead invites the possibility of a ghost or spirit, and the victim was a psychic, not a medium (which they took pains to differentiate early on). ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/23 "2010-09-29T13:39:49Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > > [@Anaamika](#): > > > > 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. > > Is that a woosh? Were you also upset about the aliens in the first movie and the supernatural things in every other episode? No. I loved the X-Files. But if you’re saying that movie had anything of the same feel as the show, then I would have to highly disagree. That movie had the whole supernatural element seriously toned down for gross out factor, which I can accept. What I cannot accept is a pedophile priest that has raped 70 children (I think that was the number) in any kind of position where he is the “good” one, not even subjectively or in one’s head. Seriously - I was looking for aliens and really cool shit. 2012 is coming! Where is the movie about how the show ended? Instead we got an extra long monster of the week that wasn’t even good. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/24 "2010-09-29T15:16:58Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > 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]. I’ve been catching up on old episodes of _Criminal Minds_, and the most recent epidode I saw (toward the end of S4) had exactly that; a psychic who can sense a missing person’s energy through touching an object of theirs. And one of the team thinks he’s a fraud, but oh ho! at the end, although not literally correct about where the kidnapped girl would be found, (‘a rocky shore’) he was sort of right (‘coastline cafe’ or something similar). Very droll CM, I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/25 "2010-09-29T16:45:43Z")
The Mentalist last season had a psychic on. Even though the main character didn’t believe her at all, completely mocked her at every turn (except for the part where he used her act to out the murderer), and generally came up with plausible explanations for the things she knew. Then at the end of the episode, they had her give him some personal comment as if from his dead wife. It wasn’t clear if they were trying to imply she really had a message or was just a good reader of his character. He certainly didn’t believe her and got really upset, but the _show_ was certainly conveying the attitude that just maybe she is real. She later turned up for several episodes at the end of the season, still being “psychic”, still having the Mentalist mock her and all, except he also apparently liked her and they started dating. And then **BIG SPOILER** it was revealed that she was Red John, his nemesis, the serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter. So was she psychic, or a really good fake like he said? I’m leaning toward really good fake. Psych has so far avoided saying or indicating that psychics are real. They make fun of it with the antics every week, including having had (1) an alternate psychic, shown to be a fake, and (2) a “criminal profiler” (“That sounds like a fake job description on some cheesy TV show”) who was faking it. Thanks for the heads up about Castle. Now I know I’ll have to hold my nose at the end. The mainstream entertainment industry has determined that psychics are good business, so even when they make fun of them, they have to hint that maybe there are real psychics. Psych is the only show/movie I recall that hasn’t done that. Scooby Doo used to be that way, but was revamped in the '90s and now there is typically some real paranormal thing embedded in the “guy in a rubber mask” plot. Saw one that was a trip to Loch Ness, where someone was pretending to be Nessie terrorizing the town, and in the end they caught the bad guys with a fake monster and all, but then there was the one photo that someone caught underwater that couldn’t be explained… Or the movie where they get involved with a computer program and get sucked into the game based upon their exploits, playing themselves, while chasing an electronic villain. Yes, they are physically sucked into the computer game. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/26 "2010-09-29T18:14:46Z")
Is that spoiler correct? That’s not the way I remember the finale last year (and I haven’t watch the start of this season yet). ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/27 "2010-09-29T18:19:44Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > The mainstream entertainment industry has determined that psychics are good business, so even when they make fun of them, they have to hint that maybe there are real psychics. Even my hyper-rational friend defended the trope of dropping the hint at the end, citing the reason Richard Castle gives. Something like, “You won’t find magic if you don’t look for it.” Which I kind of think is BS, but eh. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/28 "2010-09-29T18:31:02Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] Even my hyper-rational friend defended the trope of dropping the hint at the end, citing the reason Richard Castle gives. Something like, “You won’t find magic if you don’t look for it.” Which I kind of think is BS, but eh. [/QUOTE] The closing quote of the Criminal Minds episode was the Stuart Chase line: ‘For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.’ Which I guess is fine, but I would have prefered a flat out ‘this is BS, yo’ approach. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/29 "2010-09-29T18:42:39Z")
> [@manx](#): > > The closing quote of the Criminal Minds episode was the Stuart Chase line: ‘For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.’ Which I guess is fine, but I would have prefered a flat out ‘this is BS, yo’ approach. I really hate quotes/ideas like that. Really, no proof is possible? So if someone claims to be a mind reader, and I tell them to tell me whatever number I’m thinking of from 1 to 1000, and they do it correctly 50 times in a row, I’m not going to believe them because “no proof is possible”? If someone tells me they have the power of telekinesis, and they lift up a baseball with their mind and smack me in the head with it over and over, I’m just going to pretend like it’s not happening? This is just a copout that the credulous woos like to use - “oh, [whatever I believe in is real], but since you’ve chosen not to believe, there’s no way to convince you, so I win” basically. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/30 "2010-09-29T18:50:50Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > I don’t think it was the Alexander stuff that was psychic. The daughter could easily have found that out without psychic powers. Well, sure, she could have found it out through regular channels. But it was presented to us as a psychic dream. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/31 "2010-09-29T18:58:27Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Is that spoiler correct? That’s not the way I remember the finale last year (and I haven’t watch the start of this season yet). I would like corroboration too please, because that’s not what I remember or I may have missed something quite significant. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/32 "2010-09-29T19:00:18Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > 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. There’s an episode of _The Rockford Files_[sup]\*[/sup] that’s similar. A psychic fingers Jim and follows him to report his discoveries as psychic revelations. It’s clear that the guy is a phony, and why he gets away with it. It ends with the same sort of “I’d have thought you’d have seen this coming” sort of line. \*_The Oracle Wore a Cashmere Suit_ (season 3, episode 2) viewable on IMDb. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/33 "2010-09-29T19:11:38Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > > > Didn’t Peter Boyle win an Emmy for playing a psychic in an episode of XFiles? > > Yeah, [Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Bruckman%27s_Final_Repose) > > Good episode, too. That episode also won the Best Writing in a Dramatic Series Emmy that year. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/34 "2010-09-29T19:41:42Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > > [@manx](#): > > > > The closing quote of the Criminal Minds episode was the Stuart Chase line: ‘For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.’ Which I guess is fine, but I would have prefered a flat out ‘this is BS, yo’ approach. > > I really hate quotes/ideas like that. Really, no proof is possible? > > So if someone claims to be a mind reader, and I tell them to tell me whatever number I’m thinking of from 1 to 1000, and they do it correctly 50 times in a row, I’m not going to believe them because “no proof is possible”? If someone tells me they have the power of telekinesis, and they lift up a baseball with their mind and smack me in the head with it over and over, I’m just going to pretend like it’s not happening? This is just a copout that the credulous woos like to use - “oh, [whatever I believe in is real], but since you’ve chosen not to believe, there’s no way to convince you, so I win” basically. Agreed, and that’s why I was annoyed with it. It seemed like such a soft ending for, okay, not the cleverest show in the world, but not a normally solid weekly procedural. I don’t know, I guess because I find the question of whether psychics are real to be a cut-and-dried no, I have no patience when a show tries to play both sides of the field, especially in a show that in theory adheres to reality. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/35 "2010-09-29T20:22:41Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Actually, the idea that it was written after the victim’s death was the “plausible explanation.” The note was mailed to the precinct, but there’s no pinpointing the time it was written. So they have two options: Either the psychic did correctly predict the circumstances surrounding her death before the events of the day occurred, or the killer wrote the note after murdering the victim. Not pinpointed, no, but the time line can be used to rule anyone else out. The killer couldn’t have written the note, because she was at the restaurant when Nick knocked on the door, and the knocking was referred to in the note. So that leaves a correct prediction by the psychic. [QUOTE=Snooooopy] Well, sure, she could have found it out through regular channels. But it was presented to us as a psychic dream. [/QUOTE] But not as a psychic dream that was confirmed. The predictive part of the dream was that he was going to save her life. The OP is complaining about revelations that suggest the psychic was genuine. Nothing about having a “psychic dream” suggests this. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/36 "2010-09-29T21:10:16Z")
I agree with the OP. Well, I would watch The Wire 2. But Castle is out. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/37 "2010-09-29T21:21:36Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > > [@manx](#): > > > > The closing quote of the Criminal Minds episode was the Stuart Chase line: ‘For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.’ Which I guess is fine, but I would have prefered a flat out ‘this is BS, yo’ approach. > > I really hate quotes/ideas like that. Really, no proof is possible? > > So if someone claims to be a mind reader, and I tell them to tell me whatever number I’m thinking of from 1 to 1000, and they do it correctly 50 times in a row, I’m not going to believe them because “no proof is possible”? If someone tells me they have the power of telekinesis, and they lift up a baseball with their mind and smack me in the head with it over and over, I’m just going to pretend like it’s not happening? This is just a copout that the credulous woos like to use - “oh, [whatever I believe in is real], but since you’ve chosen not to believe, there’s no way to convince you, so I win” basically. Actually, the quote is correct. The point is not that you would not believe that it is happening, but that you would not believe that it was being done supernaturally. If any of the things you describe happened to you and you are a skeptic, you won’t immeadiatly believe in the stuff you call “woo woo”. You will not accept the supernatural explanation as the real one. You will try to explain how it was a trick or a fraud or an illusion. You would try to find an alternate explaination on how it could be done without some sort of superpower and in the end, if no other explaination works you will defend it as still a trick, but one that you have not found an explaination for yet. But, if you are a believer, you will readily accept that it could happen supernaturally. ETA; That is a generic ‘you’ not meaning to refer to you specifically **SenorBeef**. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/38 "2010-09-29T21:26:53Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > Actually, the quote is correct. The point is not that you would not believe that it is happening, but that you would not believe that it was being done supernaturally. If any of the things you describe happened to you and you are a skeptic, you won’t immeadiatly believe in the stuff you call “woo woo”. You will not accept the supernatural explanation as the real one. You will try to explain how it was a trick or a fraud or an illusion. You would try to find an alternate explaination on how it could be done without some sort of superpower and in the end, if no other explaination works you will defend it as still a trick, but one that you have not found an explaination for yet. > > But, if you are a believer, you will readily accept that it could happen supernaturally. > > ETA; That is a generic ‘you’ not meaning to refer to you specifically **SenorBeef**. Uh huh. Thank you so much for explaining to us non-believers exactly how we would react to such a situation. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/39 "2010-09-29T22:19:38Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Clyde: “There are worse ways to go, but I can’t think of any more undignified than autoerotic asphyxiation.” > > Mulder: “Why are you telling me this?” > > Clyde: “Forget I mentioned it. It’s none of my business.” The thing is, as great as that exchange is, it’s not even the best exchange in the episode: Better: Mulder [referring to a letter Clyde has received]: Who’s it from? Clyde [holding the letter to his head a la “Carnac the Magnificent”]: _The Killer!_ Best: Scully [finally giving in to curiosity]: How do I die? Clyde: You don’t. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/40 "2010-09-29T22:27:56Z")
Monk had an episode with a psychic who was revealed to be a fraud. In fact, it turns out that she’s just a pawn in somebody else’s scheme. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381.md?page=3)