Shawn Spencer is a fictional character and main

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

on the American television comedy-drama ''

Psych ''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened o ...

'' and the sequel film series of the same name played by American actor James Roday Rodriguez. Taking advantage of his eidetic memory and keen observational skills, he poses as a

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

and works as a private detective who often consults with the Santa Barbara

Police Department The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citize ...

. Shawn and his childhood best friend Gus work together at the eponymous agency ''Psych''.

Fictional biography

Shawn Spencer works as a freelance consultant to the Santa Barbara Police Department, along with his business partner and lifelong best friend Burton "Gus" Guster. Like many fictional detectives, he is very observant and skilled in deductive reasoning. However, he pretends that his skills are due to him being a psychic. Shawn comes from a family of

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

s. His father, Henry, is a decorated sergeant who trained Shawn from childhood to be hyper-observant. This is drawn loosely from the childhood of series creator Steve Franks, who was also born into a family of police officers and whose father "was training ranksin his own way to follow his footsteps." Franks' father would ask him how many people were wearing hats in a restaurant, a tactic Henry employs in the series pilot. In the pilot episode, Shawn earned money by using his observational skills to call in tips for the police. However, he started acting as a consultant for the police because they suspected him of being involved in one of the crimes he was reporting a tip for, not believing that he could have known the information from just watching a news broadcast.

Characterization

Shawn has been compared to

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

. Eden Leone considers Shawn to be a "superman detective", in manner of skill. Robert Arp draws similar comparisons, likening him to Holmes in that both have "seemingly supernatural powers of observation". Cynthia Vinney and Karen E. Dill-Shackleford have called Shawn and his partner, Gus, a "Holmes and Watson story".

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Shawn Fictional American detectives Fictional private investigators Fictional characters from Santa Barbara, California Fictional characters with eidetic memory Fictional consultants Psych characters Television characters introduced in 2006