I’ll admit, I didn’t start watching this show up until this year when I found out that a fairly recent episode was filmed in my old offices. Now in its fourth season, this show is about Sean Spencer (James Roday), a ‘psychic’ detective that works with the Santa Barbara Police Department and his friend, Burton Guster (Dulè Hill of West Wing fame) going around solving police cases with his ‘psychic’ abilities.
The show opens with Shawn Spencer calling in a tip to the Santa Barbara Police Department and trying to collect his reward. When the police become suspicious of Spencer’s tips always being right, head Detective Carlton Lassiter (played by Timothy Omundson) tries to pin crimes on him. Out of sheer desperation, Spencer convinces the police department that he’s actually a psychic… when all he really has is an extremely keen eye for detail after being instructed by his police officer father, Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen) to note even the most minute details of his surroundings.
This show has everything a police dramedy needs – it has humor, it has hijinks, it has incredible guest stars (Sarah Shahi from The L Word, Michael Hogan from BSG, Jaleel White, better known as Steve Urkel, and Rachel Leigh Cook to name a few), and most importantly… it has the highly recognizable backdrop that is White Rock, British Columbia.
Photo Credit: BuckyHermit on Flickr
In fact, if you’re a Vancouver native, you’ll be able to pick out exactly where they filmed – Gateway Theatre in Richmond is the backdrop of the second episode profiling a murder at a spelling bee. River Rock Casino & Resort sets the stage for a marriage, jewelery heist and a murder. Through the seasons, the pair even find themselves up in Whistler, inadvertently finding themselves trying to catch an international art thief.
With the fourth season wrapped up, it’s a good time to catch up on this great series. If you like The Mentalist, but want something a bit more lighthearted and goofy, this is definitely the show for you.
Psych airs on the USA network.
Filmed in Vancouver is a series of blog posts profiling both television shows and movies that were filmed in Vancouver. All original content posted by Lesley Chang
