The Mentalist: The Complete First Season (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)This TV show, in its first season, is, like "Life," a police procedural with lots of flavor--in this case, a former phony psychic who, years ago, talking insultingly about a serial killer on his psychic TV show.
The killer was watching the show, apparently, took offense, and proceeded to murder the guy's entire family.
After much soul searching, our hero quit his pseudoprofession and now works with a police agency doing for crimes what Gregory House does for his hospital--solving the cases no one else can solve. He uses his ability to read people and situations that stood him in good stead during his stint as a phony psychic.
Of course, like the cop in "Life" his merry, mischievous exterior conceals an iron core of permanent, near-psychotic rage. The Mentalist works with the police agency he works for in order to find the serial killer to killed his family, and he has told his boss there, in merry seriousness, that if/when he finds the guy, he will take him apart in a way Dexter (as in the HBO series) would admire.
All this is backstory. No spoilers, as I promised. There's considerable interaction with his boss, her boss, and the three person team that also works with the boss, and they're all competently played, seemingly pretty much credible as detectives.
So both this and "Life" have:
1. fine actor in the lead role--with "The Mentalist," Aussie heartthrob Simon Baker, who every woman appears to find irresistable (according to my wife).
2. multilayered plot, with an ongoing story arc on top of the case du jour, and evolving relationships among the team members.
3. light and shadow--lots of comic moments alongside very dark stuff indeed. In painting this would be called chiaroscuro (think Rembrandt paintings of interiors illuminated by candles).
If you like "Life" I'm certain you'll like "The Mentalist" even if the more run of the mill procedurals (all the CSIs for example) don't appeal to you. I'd also put "Bones" in this category FWIW.
And this is about as good as we can expect until Joss Whedon's next show shows up (presumably "Dollhouse" with Eliza Dushku, herself a master of chiaroscuro).


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"A mentalist is a master manipulator of thought and behavior." The mentalist is Patrick Jane (Simon Baker in an acclaimed performance), a celebrity psychic whose wife and child are viciously murdered by an elusive serial killer called Red John. Devastated, Patrick admits his paranormal act is fake, renounces his earlier life and uses his astonishing skills of observation and analysis – talents that made him appear psychically gifted – to bring killers to justice. At crime scenes across California, Patrick now helps an elite team of detectives break their toughest cases. But no matter how many criminals he catches, Patrick never forgets his central goal: Find Red John. And bring him down.

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