Monk

USA Network rolled out a double-shot of season premieres Friday night – Monk returned for its sixth season, while Psych was on tap for its sophomore season. Even though both shows are dramedy detective shows, they each have their own distinctive quirks that set them apart.

Monk, the more senior show, kicked off its new season by bringing back one of their strongest guest stars – Sarah Silverman as the Monk-obsessed fan Marcy Maven. Marcy needs Monk's help when her dog Otto is accused of killing her neighbor's wife by mauling her to death. The tricky part is that her dog died three days before the lady died. Even trickier, Monk doesn't want her anywhere near him.

Marcy finds her way around his reluctance when she outbids Monk's assistant Natalie (Traylor Howard) at a Bachelor's Auction, which forces Monk to give her six hours of his time. During that time, Marcy shows him enough evidence that Monk can't resist the intrigue of answering all of the questions this case brings up. In the end, Monk's own obsession with perfection helps him to once again discover the flaws and figure out what really happened. The husband had made a mold of Otto's teeth a couple of weeks before and fashioned a device with the copy of the teeth that he then used on his wife. Marcy decides to find a new obsession after her experience being held at gunpoint by the bad guy, but I'm hopeful we'll see her again.

Psych had its own list of prominent guest stars in its season two opener, with Tim Curry and Gina Gershon taking on carbon copy personas of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul, respectively, times ten. Nigel St. Nigel (Curry) is the abusive haughty judge of American Duos and someone keeps trying to kill him. Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) go undercover as contestants on the show to try and discover who is making the attempts on Nigel's life.

Curry and Gershon are PRICELESS as the judges. We also get to see Shawn (as Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears) and Gus (as Michael Jackson in his Thriller stage) hilariously perform the Tears for Fears song "Shout" – with choreography provided surprisingly by Juliet. One of the best scenes has to be when Nigel needs a safe place to stay and Shawn takes him to his dad's (Corbin Bernsen) house. Bernsen and Curry chew up the scenery and it is absolutely delightful to watch.

Eventually, Shawn uses his fake psychic abilities to determine that a contestant who keeps changing his name and appearance to tryout at every city is making the attempts on Nigel's life. This contestant is the biggest fan of Zapato, a former winner of American Duos who has been helping to judge and is abused constantly by Nigel. Zapato is in on the assassination attempts, and the Psych team brings down both men.

Both Monk and Psych brought their "A" game to open up their seasons. Let's hope this trend continues for the rest of the episodes. Monk and Psych air on Friday nights on USA Network.

-Amy J. Johnston, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Imnage courtesy of USA)