Tonight on USA, PSYCH returns for the 8th (and against my hopes and dreams, likely final) season premiere!  Fresh off a season that found Shawn’s secret getting out (to Juliet, no less!) and the Chief on “hiatus” thanks to the awful, awful, awful Anthony Michael Hall, or rather, his character, Harris Trout.  Worst of all, PSYCH is no longer “needed” by the SBPD!

Tonight’s premiere finds Shawn and Gus meeting up with an old friend under strange circumstances, across the pond.  That’s right, Gus’ love of all things HARRY POTTER has taken the duo to jolly England for Potter-Con, and the search for a Rupert Grint!  What follows is an amazingly crafted send up of Potter combined with LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS that is a TON of fun (Shawn doing new things like being the wheel-man for a criminal crew, is always a delight), and featured some of my favorite actors – Vinnie Jones playing the best kind of criminal mastermind; Olivia D’Abo playing the hard to pronounce Deirdre; and, surprise, surprise, the return of genius art thief turned MI6 (what?) agent Pierre Despereaux (Cary Elwes).  It’s hilarious, and as I mentioned in a tweet about the subject a few weeks ago, I’m so in love with this episode.

Episode 2 takes us right back to SPBD, where things are pretty much the same old, same old, only we’re introduced to Harris’ mom, and Lassie, now back in uniform, goes a little (more) insane.  The boys don’t take “no” for an answer and before long, they’re helping Juliet and Lassie against everyone’s wishes.

Season 8 continues to offer up some of the funniest one liners and smartest episodes of TV that I’ve seen (Gus and Shawn in a courtroom takes us back to 2006, with visits from Lindsay Sloane and Michael Weston (the actor….not the Burned agent)). I’ll be sad when PSYCH goes, but in the meantime, let’s just agree to enjoy it like there’s no end in sight!!