ION television is a baby network, something like the WB or UPN when they came out. It currently runs a lot of rerun programs, things like Criminal Minds, Flashpoint, and NCIS. Oh, and Psych.
I’m a bit irked at them for their ads about Psych. The show is about a guy who uses his highly trained skills of observation and memory combined with showmanship and clowny gimmicks to pretend that he is a psychic detective. This allows him to solve crimes while not technically being a police officer, and thus bound by their strict rules. He’s a giant goof off.
The commercials use distorted and carefully crafted definitions to make it seem like what Sean does is actually what is meant by being psychic. Worse, they suggest that people who are skeptical of the existence of psychic powers are somehow wrong, and Sean is the proof.
Do they not watch the show? Sean is fully aware that what he does is fake, he stumbled into it when he was arrested knowing too many details about crimes that he gave tips to the police about simply by observing television news and the like. He was having trouble convincing them he was just that smart, so he played on the psychic angle.
But his powers of observation to not extend beyond the regular senses, he in fact just uses his regular senses better than most people. He not only sees, but observes, and remembers what he has observed. He makes good inferences and deductions. He’s a bit like Sherlock Holmes, except a giant clown without any focus.
The ads seem to me to mischaracterize things. Grrr.
I watch Psych all the time and the ads do not suggest he is a real psychic. In fact there is one where they ask “is he for real?” and Shawn tries to say “no” twice before being interrupted by Gus. The scene is taken out of context of course, but I am a militant skeptic of that sort of thing and would have noticed if they were trying to play the “real psychic” card.
I really enjoy the show, especially after he stopped pretending he could contact dead people. If those were the episodes I’d seen first I would probably never have continued watching.
Either the network is rolling in dough or has the worst ad sales department ever, because they seem to devote a rather significant amount of time to running those extended show promos instead of, you know, paid commercials.
How could anyone imagine that the events in a fictional TV show are proof of anything?
There are plenty of shows that, unlike Psych, really do feature characters who are supposed to be psychic. Does anyone (even people who actually believe in psychics) think that such shows prove, or are trying to prove, that psychics are real?
I can’t quote the ad. I tried googling to find it online, but the only ones I found were the ones they ran several months back, which I had no problem with. It is the latest incarnation ads that strike me as different. And yes, the scenes are taken completely out of context. It seems to me, they are used to misrepresent what the show is about.
I do, too, I just don’t like these ads.
The actors aren’t promoting anything. Ion television is running ads for the shows that they air, to self promote in conjuction with promote the show. In the course of the ads, they use clips from the show, taken completely out of context and packed together to show off silly bits or whatever to try to get interest in the show and therefore the network.
Because people are idiots.
Are you talking about Ghost Whisperer and Medium, which are admitted fiction (but Medium is supposedly inspired by a real person), or things like that show on SyFy that is about the Long Island Medium, or whatever, or John Edward’s old show?
And yeah, I do think people watch those shows and take them as real. People are idiots.
