# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/41 "2010-09-29T22:33:30Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > 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. That was the last episode of _Numbers_ I ever watched. Admittedly, though, the effectively-psychic math nerds were starting to get on my nerves long before then: “Well, I applied a Neo-Gaussian analysis on the victim’s birth date and you can find your killer at the corner of Main and 14th street.” Also, the relentless “Who, say that in English!” moments followed by painfully condescending analogies: Nerd: On a hyperbolic curve model incorporating a prime regression expressed in Begriffsschrift notation- FBI agent: Whoa, say that in English! Nerd: Okay, imagine you have a ball. You bounce it. The killer is the ball. I hate psychic characters. Prophesies, too. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/42 "2010-09-30T00:41:16Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > > [@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. Killer: Why do I do these things? Clyde; Because you’re a homicidal maniac! Killer: Oh, that would explain it, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/43 "2010-09-30T04:43:41Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > 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. I understand now. You’re right, my remark was not on point as far as the OP goes. I was stating my own related gripe about psychics on television shows – i.e., that they just can’t seem to resist dropping some vague hint indicating that the will-they-or-won’t-they couple is destined to be together. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/44 "2010-09-30T05:39:37Z")
> [@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’ve always considered that an insult to “those who don’t believe”. After all, it clearly implies that they aren’t skeptical due to a lack of evidence, but because they are fanatics; that they will deny clear, confirmed evidence in front of them. That’s just the believers projecting their own flaws onto others. > [@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. Nonsense. Skeptics aren’t unbelievers out of faith, but because the believers have always been proven wrong in the past. As demonstrated by history, where people have come up with weird ideas that were disbelieved by mainstream science, then came up with genuine evidence they were correct, and whose claims were finally accepted. The woo-woo types aren’t taken seriously because they always fail that second step. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/45 "2010-09-30T06:00:24Z")
My problem with shows like Medium is, it’s just like a normal mystery, until the last five minutes when Patricia Arquette goes “Wait a minute, I have these amazing psychic powers! The killer is…” I was a teenager in the 70s and quite a few of my teachers (Art and English, not Science) were under the impression that psychic phenomena were a legitimate field of inquiry thanks to some studies at Duke University. Some embarrassing public episodes in college disabused me of this notion. But this was the environment in which a lot of 70s detective shows were written, including **The Seven-Per-Cent Solution**. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/46 "2010-09-30T06:03:52Z")
Oh, and to get to the actual subject of the thread, I agree with the OP. Shows that show the supernatural; magic, psi, ghosts, whatever; I enjoy them just fine as long as they make it obvious that they are real in-universe. But when they try to play both sides of the street it gets under my skin. Especially since real world psychics and mediums and so forth are frauds, and often exceptionally disgusting ones that prey upon the desperate and bereaved. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/47 "2010-09-30T07:34:04Z")
I remember a few posters here being disgusted at how JAG gave Sarah McKenzie the power of clairvoyance (unpredictable, but when it worked it was almost completely correct). Normally I would’ve been upset as well, but the show’s ham-handed worship of the military had gotten so suffocatingly overbearing at that point that an invasion by Marxist space aliens wouldn’t have surprised me. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/48 "2010-09-30T18:33:04Z")
[quote=“Robot\_Arm, post:32, topic:555381”] > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > 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. That was still frustrating, because the psychic got away with it, but at least they made it clear to the audience that his “prediction” was the result of a call he got from a mole inside the police department. The funny thing about that episode, though, is that they mentioned the psychic going on Johnny Carson. Carson, famously, rejected psychics and helped James Randi expose Uri Gellar. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/49 "2010-09-30T19:52:09Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > My problem with shows like Medium is, it’s just like a normal mystery, until the last five minutes when Patricia Arquette goes “Wait a minute, I have these amazing psychic powers! The killer is…” I liked Medium when it started, but the template they used to stamp out the episodes wore thin on me fast. Arquette has a wierd dream, her husband pooh poohs it, she gets involved with a murder with the DA and the detective, she gives some info, then she has another dream which changes the info, then she has the third or forth dream which clarifies everything. Little things here and there change, like her kids get powers or her husband gets a new job, but it all runs through the same cycle over and voer. How many people are gruesomly murdered in Arizona anyway? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/50 "2010-09-30T23:59:27Z")
One of my favorite shows ever is **Veronica Mars** , a drama with comedic elements about a plucky high-school age girl detective. It’s a very intelligent and sophisticated show and it delves into a lot of things that most shows are afraid to touch, like issues of class. Anyhow, it clearly takes place in a real, science-based universe, except for two times when it’s weirdly hinted at that Veronica’s murdered friend Lily is out there in ghost form looking out for her . It’s not explicit, and it’s only touched on in passing twice in the show’s 3-year run. Weird. I’ve always been curious quite what the writers intended with those scenes. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/51 "2010-10-01T00:24:40Z")
I was annoyed with the “maybe it’s real” ending of Castle, but Lyta was the dead psychic so I forgive them. Just this once. (If only it had been _Byron_ who was dead…) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/52 "2010-10-01T01:07:28Z")
Unfortunately, if I permanently stopped watching shows that did the “the psychic was real!” gag I’d run out of crapola to watch pretty quickly. But it burns me every time, especially since unlike in real life where predictions are vague and contradictions are explained away, the writers make the psychic crap incontrovertible within the context of the audience’s knowledge of the world. And of course, there’s the obligatory masturbatory speech about how there are more things in heaven and earth, blah blah, and zero mention of the many broken-hearted people who are taken advantage of by these charlatans. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/53 "2010-10-12T05:23:27Z")
Okay, I rewatched that episode of The Mentalist, and apparently I misunderstood that scene. So my big spoiler reveal is mistaken. Between Red John’s slight build, light voice, and the way he referred to what Christine would want and then dropped the line about “roll Tide”, perhaps you can see why I was mislead. ---
**Author:** ![Dero\_von\_Hesse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@Dero\_von\_Hesse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dero_von_Hesse)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/54 "2010-10-12T05:41:59Z")
To be completely honest, most of the Science in police Dramas is supernatural. Everything from the Miracles the Word “enhance” performs on grainy Photographs to the Criminal profiling. The hard Truth is that Criminology lacks Entertainment and is rather Time consuming. As a whole, i never take Television seriously. Even the News is a form of scripted Entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Dero\_von\_Hesse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@Dero\_von\_Hesse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dero_von_Hesse)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/55 "2010-10-12T05:46:13Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > The funny thing about that episode, though, is that they mentioned the psychic going on Johnny Carson. Carson, famously, rejected psychics and helped James Randi expose Uri Gellar. James Randi may be one of my favorite People. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/56 "2010-10-13T16:27:54Z")
Finally saw that Castle episode. **Snooooopy** said: > [@](#): > > _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. They could play it either way. They left it just vague enough it _could_ be interpreted as a case of feeding the mark something and letting them project onto it. Now that Beckett knows that Castles middle name is Alexander, she can take anything that happens in the future and project it back onto this “prediction”. I will point out they tied it nicely with Castle’s mother’s last name being Rogers, so it _could_ be one of those things they keep in mind and bring up later. **Bosstone** said: > [@](#): > > 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). They did spell out the differences, but I think the victim claimed to be a psychic medium. Remember, the mother and daughter clients were seeing her to get contact with their deceased husband/father. **manx** said: > [@](#): > > 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. That’s what’s tedious about the whole thing. If the psychic’s vision is so easily distorted/misunderstood, then it is worthless. You don’t know where the girl is until she’s been found, and _then_ the clue makes sense? WORTHLESS! How many rocky shorelines were they scouring while ignoring restaurants? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/57 "2010-10-13T17:39:24Z")
Yeah, the “Alexander” was just a thing the psychic could have researched, as Castle himself alluded to. But I’m a little galled that the evidence in the end that the psychic might have been right was really just calling attention to the kind of plot hole the audience would normally be expected not to think too hard about. So, from now on when something doesn’t quite make sense in the show, should we assume some supernatural agency? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/58 "2010-10-13T17:50:57Z")
I have no patience at all with shows like _Medium_ and _Supernatural_ or really anything that takes the supernatural seriously in the real world. I can accept supernatural themes when they are presented in a comedic or fantasy context (I would say that _True Blood_, for instance, is both comedic and fantastic, so it doesn’t bother me), but I am completely annoyed and put off by television shows or movies which ask the audience to accept the supernatural as areal possibility. I am particularly annoyed when they do it with psychics or mediums because they are giving credibility to real world con-artists. Even worse than these kinds of shows, of course, is the ghostbusting shows. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/59 "2010-10-16T05:48:48Z")
Aha. I see the saving grace of the writers this season, because of the recent episode in which Castle pushes the notion that the murderer is a time traveler. They aren’t hinting that magic is real, they’ve just decided that instead of Castle helping to solve crimes using his perspective as a mystery writer who has done his research, instead he will help solve crimes in spite of being a total fucking retard. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-vow-to-never-watch-an-episode-of-a-crime-show-when-there-is-psychics-involved/555381/60 "2010-10-16T05:50:33Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > Aha. I see the saving grace of the writers this season, because of the recent episode in which Castle pushes the notion that the murderer is a time traveler. They aren’t hinting that magic is real, they’ve just decided that instead of Castle helping to solve crimes using his perspective as a mystery writer who has done his research, instead he will help solve crimes in spite of being a total fucking retard. Oh come on. He’s just a big geek, that’s all. [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=2)