Psych – The Complete Fifth Season

After five seasons on the air Psych delivers what is arguably its best season to date. Why own the Complete Fifth Season on DVD? Oh, let me count the reasons!

The season stars with a terrific Kung Fu episode before giving us aliens, a Scooby-Doo mystery, drag racing Fast and Furious-style, the return of master art thief Despereaux (Cary Elwes), a spy (Franka Potente) on the run, an opening composed by Tears for Fears, and a Polar Bear wanted for murder.

We also get an episode that pits Gus (Dulé Hill)& Lasseter (Timothy Omundson) against Juliet (Maggie Lawson) & Shawn (James Roday), Shawn and Gus compete against couple of Henry's old cop buddies (Carl Weathers, William Devane) to solve a case, a Police Academy episode featuring The Karate Kid's Ralph Macchio, a Pych version of It's a Wonderful Life with UPN Sitcom Gus and Bad Santa's Tony Cox, and the return of serial killers Yin (Peter Weller) and Yang (Ally Sheedy).

The Fifth Season also features a loving reunion show for many of the major cast members of Twin Peaks (Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, Robyn Lively, Catherine E. Coulson, Lenny Von Dohlen, Ray Wise), and we finally see Shawn and Juliet admit their feelings for each other and become a couple.

The four-disc set is packed with extras including audio commentary (featuring show creator Steve Franks, writers Saladin Patterson and Andy Berman, producers Chris Henze and Todd Harthan, Roday, Hill, Lawson, and Omundson) and/or video introductions (by the episode's writer) for nearly every episode. There's also a short feautrette on "Dual Spires" (the Twin Peaks episode co-written by Roday), a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the commentary for the season finale, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.

A must-buy for fans of the series, this set has it all with great episodes and huge amount of extras. I'm also going to give USA Network some love for the early release date to help both old and new viewers get caught-up before the show returns this Fall.