A diverting new detective show from the States (The Mentalist)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	The Mentalist
Date:	19/05/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to engage with, very watchable and undemanding

Disadvantages: Features occasionally preposterous crimes, storylines and even more unlikely deductive techniques

I was pleasantly surprised to see from another reviewer here on dooyoo that 'the Mentalist' is apparently 'taking American TV by storm', because although I like the series a lot I feared that it wasn't getting......gee-whiz- gosh-critically-acclaimed enough to warrant a second series of the show being made, and that would've been a darn shame.

'The Mentalist' is a pleasantly diverting TV crime drama, currently airing on Channel 5 at 9pm on Thursdays, although happily if you forget it's on - and I'm afraid to say this quite often happens with me as Channel 5 is something I usually skip past or forget about because it rarely shows anything I want to see - it is repeated....repeatedly....throughout the week on one of Freeview channels 'Five USA'. People don't bang on and on about this show. For example I don't watch 'CSI' - ever - mainly because is advertised so very heavily and tirelessly on TV - but I feel from the constant adverts that I already know a fair bit about it - e.g. there're lots of different versions of it each set in a different American city - and I know which actors are in it - for example I regularly recognise Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump in the trailers (but still haven't gotten round to tuning in). And when a series becomes ridiculously over critically acclaimed - like 'the Sopranos' - well you begin to feel you should be watching, and that you almost have a duty to watch it because everyone says it is so darn good.

'The Mentalist' is not like that, thank goodness. It seems to have slipped under most TV critics' radars in this country (the one review I did read was not complimentary) so I was surprised to learn it has apparently proved so popular because it is, um, rather at the 'fluffier' end of murder investigation American-type cop shows than anything else in this vein I've seen recently. None of the characters - even the biggest, burliest, most street-cop-like detective in the reguarly-appearing team - are particularly hard-edged or obvoiusly driven; most of the crimes investigated being murders aren't very nice admittedly, but so far - and with one notable exception - they're usually (bearing in mind we're only perhaps 8 episodes into the series' run here, at this point) - you know, 'straightforward' homicides - where someone's bludgeoned someone to death in a rage, or more often, for personal gain or profit - as opposed to the nastier Hannibal-Lecter-type psycho-motivated 'disturbing' crimes perpertrated by serial killers that we see so often these days on detective shows on TV (yes, bloody 'Dexter' on ITV, we're all glaring in your general direction, here).

It is an ensemble show, with a regular team of detectives from the made-up 'California Brureau of Investigation' (CBI - yes, the show is set in California; as I say, given the general content overall the tone is surprisingly light and fluffy) investigating, solving and neatly wrapping up different murders each week. There's a female lead detective, a couple of doughty male associates and one 'rookie' detective, a strapping young woman whose character is called Van Pelt. The CBI are assisted each week by the titular 'Mentalist' - a consultant expert psycological profiler-type named Patrick Jane, played by the handsome and personable actor Simon Baker. (He knows what criminal suspects are thinking just by looking at them - but no, he isn't REALLY psychic!)

This guy, I have to admit in the confidence of an anonymous review, is so very handsome and charming that he's the main reaon I started watching this show to start with. (Well, it was that actor who had a minor role in 'LA Confidential' years ago! - and I was glad to see he'd gotten some acting work following that.) Though of course I'm sure the show has far more to offer than an attractive male lead.

There are for example slight indications of an 'arc' plot running through the series featuring an (oh dear) very nasty serial killer called 'Red John' - this guy murdered the Mentalist's wife and young daughter before he joined the CBI - and so obviously there's a bit of villan / villan's nemesis activity to be addressed at a later point in the shows there. Despite this I still maintain that the tone of the series is overall quite light, as this devestating personal tragedy isn't referenced often at all. This is generally a plus point, as - hearless as it may be to say it - with a different type of heavier-handed approach to this part of the plot, the show could easily have turned out as something much less watchable.

So, in summary, 'the Mentalist' comes across as a fairly lightweight, but enjoyble and very watchable, TV cop drama. It's well written, and everyone involved does a sterling job with the material they're given, making the job of acting look so effortless that in fact it's actually quite easy to under-rate them: for example, the handsome and personable actor playing 'the Mentalist' currently appears on another Channel 5 drama called 'The Guardian' (and no prizes for guessing why I'm avidly watching that), in which he plays a quite different type of character, a corporate lawyer. While watching 'The Guardian,' then, I quite often catch myself wondering why this lawyer fellow doesn't just work out his legal dilemmas using his super-accurate powers of psychological deduction, like Patrick Jane would. 'The Mentalist' may have slightly unfeasible skills in this area, but surprisingly, it would seem that I for one have been quietly and subconciously convinced that they are in some way 'for real'. Must be a sign of good acting, or something.

Summary: Not to be taken too seriously, but generally good entertainment