The Mentalist - season 1 (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

The new show, The Mentalist, starring Simon Baker, premieres tonight on CBS at 9 p.m. EDT. Mix a super-observant "mentalist" turned cop with a tragic backstory that drives his participation in law enforcement, and you get a somewhat suave take on having a Mr. Smarty-Pants on the police force solving crimes.

 

[Abby_B]

I, for one, will definitely be tuning in tonight!

It looks like a really interesting twist on the classic crime drama-- I love shows that keep me on my toes the whole time, and this sounds like it's going to fit the bill with this whole "super-observancy" twist.

Also, Simon Baker is one of my favorite actors. I think he just oozes charm and charisma, not to mention how incredibly handsome he is. I can't wait to see what he does with this role.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

I'm going to give this a try, but,

The whole idea just looks like a cross between "Monk" and "Psych" to me. I had to roll my eyes when he said in the promos "It's a gift...or is it?"

 

[Hanson]

I'm going to give it a looksee -- I really wanted to like Psych because of the similar premise, but that show tries too hard to be funny and the plots are right out of McMillian and Wife. Hopefully, The Mentalist will be more clever and modern.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Eye candy on the show: Amanda Righetti and Robin Tunney.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

Removed spoiler - just realized it hasn't aired everywhere yet. Will repost tonight.

 

[Joe_H]

I'll be watching this, but I really like Psych so I feel like this might just feel like a cheap ripoff. And yes, I know that Psych is very silly at times, but that's the whole point.

 

[JohnS]

I'll be watching tonight, as I love Psych!

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

And Psych got there first.

I'll check this out but it really comes dangerously close to flat-out and unapologetically aping Psych's idea.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

It was okay, Baker's character came off as somewhat of an arrogant and presumptuous jerk at times but more often than not he was likable enough.

Even though the show is doing something different with the Psych concept it's still too similar for comfort, it's very difficult for me to sit here and not say that the creators just blatantly ripped this concept off from that show, I mean how could they not have?

 

[JohnS]

Well I tried watching this.
I got about twenty mins in, and turned it off.
I was completely bored by it.
I just didn't care about the case or characters.

 

[Joe_H]

I'll probably give it one more shot before deleting it. It was decent but pretty obvious to me at the beginning that the husband had done it... pretty obvious to me the doctor had done it for the main case as well. The only thing that surprised me was that his family was killed. That is, until it showed him walking into his house after the TV interview.

 

[Hanson]

I wonder if the first segment was supposed to be obvious. I mean, they could have used music cues and it still would not have been any more obvious than it was.

One of the pitfalls in casting a semi-famous Emmy award winning actor in what is set up as a peripheral role is that it is blatantly obvious that he's the killer. I remember watching Rush Hour, and the moment Tom Wilkinson showed up, my friend said, "he's the villain". Anytime a semi-famous actor shows up as a non-person of interest, they're the killer/thief/mastermind. The only show that handles this consistently well is CSI -- they will cast two or three semi-famous actors and use a couple of them as red herrings. Most shows don't have this luxury.

That said, I did like the pacing and the back story, and a thumbs up for all of the cast and dialog. Hopefully, Robin Tunney will do more than just sneer in future episodes. Like, for instance, going under cover as a beach volleyball player.

 

[Patrick Sun]

To be fair, when the pilot episode was shot, Zeljko Ivanek wasn't an Emmy winner, or much of a household name or face. But then again, "Monk" has the same problem, it's not really about the "whodunit" but the "howdunit" aspect of the crime.

I really think CBS should have just called this show "Mr. Smarty Pants" or "Smug Bastiche".

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Well, fake psychics got there before Psych or The Mentalist, and the whole point of Baker's character is that he isn't still pretending to be a real psychic. He's trying to redeem himself, while Shawn is just looking for a way to make a living while having fun and messing with people's heads. The whole tone, intent and approach of the two shows is so different that I can't really take the "this is a rip-off of Psych" argument seriously.

If The Mentalist has a forerunner it is Sherlock Holmes. Baker solves cases by close observation reasoning, rather than forensics and shoe leather. Like Holmes he is a "consulting detective", not an official member of the police force, and his conclusions seem to come out of nowhere. The "John Edward" look-at-me-I-talk-to-the-dead bit is just an overlay to give the guy a backstory and - probably - to obscure the fact that this is much more an update of Conan Doyle than anything else.

(Actually the current show The Mentalist most resembles is House, which similarly borrows from the Holmes character.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[Hanson]

It's like Psych meets Spiderman.

 

[frankie108]

Good show. I like Somon Baker's character.

 

[NeilO]

The second episode was a pretty straightforward episode. This time you couldn't guess whodunnit by the casting. At least I didn't recognize any of the guest cast this around.

When they were setting up their trap and we saw the other redhead at the cafe we just knew that the other redhead was going to be next abductee. It was quite tense there when Jane was trying to text that the cook/wife team was there before they caught him.

Regarding the Psych similarities - what annoyed me was the publicity for the show and the reviews I read about it. They seemed to be saying how original the idea was, when we know it isn't.

 

[Joe_H]

Agreed, though I did recognize Xander Berkeley as the sheriff, and at the end when he saw her I thought maybe it was him for a second, though I was pretty sure the whole time that it was the wife. My guess had been it was the wife herself and not the both of them though. The second the van pulled by while the sheriff was talking to the undercover girl cemented that.

Except for the few seconds I was confused by the sheriff, I knew it'd be the other redhead as well.

Its a decent show, so I'll keep it on my series recordings for now, but I'm not entirely convinced yet.

 

[todd s]

Wow..A month and nobody has discussed this show. I am really getting into it. And the cast and writing seem to be gelling well. Tonight's episode about the dead casino boss was very good. Loved the scene where Baker's was at the restaurant with the other 2 actors and they say they are not giving back the watches.