By Kenn Gold

USA Premieres: Friday, July 18, 2008 on USA

Psych follows Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) through their crime solving antics.  Shawn’s father, Lassiter (Corbin Bernsen) was a police detective who instilled a keen sense of observation in his son, as he was growing up. Shawn’s observation skills are so good that he is able to successfully fool people into believing that he has psychic powers. (He had to do that to convince the police he wasn’t committing the crimes himself.) Gus and Shawn have been friends since childhood, and the one of the show’s trademarks is the flashbacks that show the two in their youth.

The season premiere opens with a great flashback sequence, showing Shawn’s teenage defiance years.  The bigger plot line though involves Gus, whose boss has found out about his side job with Psych.  He reminds Gus that he has signed an exclusivity agreement with his company, and that he is violating that by working with Shawn.  Though before he quits, it turns out that the owner of the company needs the boy’s help.

It seems that his house may be haunted, and he hires the two to try to figure out what is really going on.  Gus, meanwhile, tries to figure out how to play this to keep both his job and his side job.

In a more serious sequence, Shawn’s long missing mother, Madeline (Cybill Shepherd) returns, and takes a job as the in-house psychologist.  Shawn explores some of the pent up emotions that he has about the end of his parent’s relationship, years ago.  It should be interesting to see how the dynamic with the new character of Madeline affects Shawn’s relationship with his father throughout the season.

 Monk returns this season, and for this one episode at least touches on some of the darker roots that the show has had in the past.  Monk’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is played to great comic effect (including 3 Emmy Best-Actor wins for Tony Shalhoub) has somewhat lost it’s dark beginning.  The disorder was brought on by the unsolved murder of Monk’s wife. 

The show’s 7^th season confronts head on, the real life death of Stanley Kamal, who played Monk’s therapist, Dr. Kroger.  Monk is haunted by memories of Kroger’s piano playing, so much so that he can not stand his neighbors practicing.  Therefore, Monk takes an interest in an now empty house, in which he is investigating the death of an elderly gentleman who fell down the stairs.

Monk takes the house on a whim, and moves in.  It isn’t long before he is first befriended, then later hoodwinked by his handyman, played by Brad Garrett.  The opener also introduces us to Monk’s new therapist played by Hector Elizondo.

The return of both shows to USA’s original line up should make for an entertaining rest of the summer, and early fall.