Review:Cryptozoic Psych Seasons 5-8

EVERYBODY...SING!
In between the lines there's a lot of obscurity.
I'm not inclined to resign to maturity.
If it's all right, then you're all wrong,
But why bounce around to the same down song?
You'd rather run when you can't crawl.

Chorus

I know, you know, that I'm not telling the truth.
I know, you know, they just don't have any proof.
Embrace the deception, learn how to bend,
Your worst inhibitions, tend to psych you out in the end.

I would finish the rest of the theme song, but fear I would be singing it the rest of today.....and I am sure nobody wants to hear me sing.  As it is already, that theme song will forever play in my mind's music track in what was one of USA's best cable TV shows ever. I even put it ahead of my second favorite, Monk. 

Though I was a bit disappointed in the way the final season went, ended in a hurry and in a shortened season, I am hoping writers left the show the way it ended in hopes that another network would snag onto it and bring it back to life. I am still waiting by the way other networks......

If you have no idea about Psych, first, you are missing out. Second, here is a quick rundown on the show. Shawn Spencer (James Roday) who is from a family of cops was always expected to someday to follow suit, especially after his father, Henry (Corbin Bernsen). Henry schooled his son from a very young age in the finer points of detective work. Shawn was a quick learner and gained amazing powers of observation and deduction, which led Shawn and his childhood best friend Gus (Dulé Hill) to open the Psych detective agency. Upon opening the detective agency, they lent their services to the local police department, Santa Barbara, for a small fee.

Shawn and Gus went on many adventures meeting many different characters and solving many cases that the cops couldn't crack. The police department led by Chief Karen Vick, were always high on their "psychic" detectives and hired them whenever possible. They also had their doubter in the department, Carlton Lassiter, who always questioned the duo and their crazy antics to solve the cases. But, in the end, no matter the case and no matter what means it took to solve the case, Shawn used his special skills and always found a way.

The show was a great combination of comedy and drama or what some call a dramedy. And what Cryptozoic did here with the final four seasons product was capture all of those memories and fun moments.

Enough with me rambling on about the show because I can continue, let's get ripping into this box!

Chief Karen Vick

Each box of Psych Seasons 5-8 comes with 24 packs and 5 cards per pack. Boxes run basically around $80 with three ON CARD autographs per box.

The base card set consists of 90 cards and captures, as I stated above, all of the great moments. The front of the base card captions the moment while the back of the card sums up the episode that card moment is taken from along with the episode title. They also make me sad as a reminder the show ending. Guess I will be digging out the DVD series later!

As a Psych-O from Season 1, all of us were rooting on Shawn and Jules and they finally got together after all of the seasons of leading us on. Just check out the front of this base card.

 
Back Of The Base Card

Gus being Gus

Henry spending another quality teaching moment with Shawn

The inserts in Seasons 5-8 were fun. Psych The Musical cards fall 1:24 packs. I questioned the idea of adding a musical episode to the lineup. But, creator Steve Franks knocked it out of the park. It was a great episode and had a twist in it as well.

One of the other fun things about Psych was Shawn and Gus going undercover. Shawn would always have a pun name for Gus and the characters they were play could be quite funny. The Undercover inserts also fall at 1:24 packs.

Up next in the insert lineup is Character Cards. These fall 2:24 packs and are my favorite inserts of the group.

However, what I found odd was a third Character insert that I pulled that was printed on acetate. I have no info on these at this point. However, with the acetate one matching the card one I decided to lay the acetate one over the base one.....

And this happened! Pretty cool! Reminds me of something done in the late 90's. I really like this and these look even better in person.

Now onto the autographs. You get three per box, the first four seasons of Psych came with two hits with only one being an autograph, so Cyrptozoic went all out for these seasons.

I think I hit a home run with my three autographs. Now I didn't get the top characters, but some great guest star autos. This auto checklist is very deep and is loaded with stars and guest stars on the show so odds are you are going to land someone of importance.

The autos in the product as I stated above areALL ON CARD!!!! That means these famous actors actually handled these. Awesome! It's like an extra bonus!

These are just three of the great autos you can find. I am considering getting them all and trying for a set.

And if you are curious on why I am so high on these autographs, check out the rest of this checklist:

Corbin Bernsen as Henry Spencer
Curt Smith as himself
Dana Ashbrook as Robert Barker
Sage Brocklebank as Buzz McNab
Kurt Fuller as Coroner Woody Strode
Lesley Ann Warren as Leslie
Michael Weston as Adam Hornstock
Kirsten Nelson as Chief Karen Vick
Greg Grunberg as Jay Gianukos
Billy Zane as Ian Collins
Jean Smart as Gillian Tucker
Jimmi Simpson as Mary Lightly
Nestor Carbonell as Declan Rand
Ralph Macchio as Nick Conforth and Logan Phelps
Val Kilmer as Detective Dobson
Diedrich Bader as Eli
French Stewart as Whip Chatterly
Jason Priestley as Clive Noble
Anthony Anderson as Thane Woodson
Dulé Hill as Burton "Gus" Guster
Mekhi Phifer as Drake Clemon
Malcolm McDowell as Ambassador Fanshaw
Vanessa Lachey as Gina Walsh
Angus Macfadyen as Logan Paget
James Roday as Shawn Spencer

Overall, this was a fun product to open and something I highly recommend if you are a Psych fan. I believe even non-Psych fans will enjoy opening with this autograph checklist.

Another great job by Cryptozoic on this product and capturing the joy that Psych brought to many fans.