Faux directors’ commentaries. Now faux outtakes?

I’ve already had a brief and slightly pointless gas about the new trend in fake directors’ commentaries. But I was watching Friday’s Psych a couple of days ago and something else struck me.

At the end of every show, they have ‘Psych out’ moments. These are, more often than not, bits where the cast decide to sing a song for no reason, like Musical Youth’s ‘Pass the Dutchie’. They’re never very fun, but bless them, at least they’re trying something new.

This week’s moment consisted of outtakes from the show. Or should that be ‘outtakes’? You see, even after the supposed point of failure, Dulé Hill is still calling James Roday by his character’s name, Shawn. Is he a method actor who likes to stay in character the whole time? Or are these outtakes faked? If they are faked, why? Why would you pretend that the characters in your show are real people, playing themselves? It probably plays into the whole USA Network ‘characters’ thing, but manufacturing supposedly whacky moments? What calculated marketing evil is this?

Very odd. Whatever the reason, I’m predicting a new trend: obviously fake outtakes. You heard it here first guys. Although, obviously Hale and Pace were there first in the 80s.

Author

  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

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