The All-Pilot Project wants to know: Have you ever seen the USA series Psych? It’s about a detective with photographic memory and almost superhuman attention to detail, allowing him to solve crimes in a way that makes him seem psychic. Anyway, CBS very much hopes you haven’t seen it.
The Mentalist
Tuesday 9 PM, CBS
The Premise: It’s about a detective with a photographic memory and almost superhuman attention to detail, allowing him to solve crimes in a way that makes him seem psychic.
The Personnel: Stars Simon Baker of The Guardian and Smith. CBS is convinced he’s a star and will not accept any arguments. Other stars include Prison Break’s Robin Tunney and Amanda Righetti, better known as Seth’s slutty aunt on The O.C.
The series is created by Bruno Heller, who also created HBO’s Rome. And the first episode features a guest appearance by Zelijko Ivanek, a regular on Homicide, OZ, 24, and a one-time guest on Lost. My DVD collection is sort of a shrine to him, I guess.
The Poop: First off, I hate the title. It sounds like the lamest superhero ever. A superhero whose power is paying attention. Also, Baker’s Patrick Jane dresses like Han Solo, which is really jarring once you realize it.
It’s a nice premise for a show, as evidenced by the fact that it’s already the premise for a show. The idea of a guy who can read body language and subtle environmental cues so well that he comes off as a magician is appealing. A character who’s smarter than everybody else in the room is a good focal point for a series – he’s sort of like a friendlier House.
Of course, for the gimmick to work, it helps if we get a little bit of explanation as to what Patrick sees that leads him to his conclusions. But then, since he makes intuitive leaps throughout the episode, it would make for a lot of exposition. It would be a tough balance to maintain, so they don’t even try here. I’m authentically interested how Patrick knew that a woman’s father was a football coach, and I would have accepted any half-assed explanation. Instead, all we get is “It’s in your bearing”. I call shenanigans on that. Give us a little something so that it seems plausible. It seems like the writers fell in love with the gimmick, but didn’t really know how to execute it. They should have watched more Psych! (There, we just get a quick close-up of the clues that Sean spots, and we move on.)
In this particular episode, Patrick uncovers a copycat serial killer. In one of the few times that we get any explanation whatsoever, the triumphant reveal is that even though the copycat claimed never to have heard of “Red John”, he had books on his shelves that mentioned the killer. Oh, well then. You know, the mystery shouldn’t hinge on a piece of information that it’s impossible for the viewing audience to have. “Hey, I wonder if the books barely visible in the background contain information about a fictional serial killer who I’ve just now heard mentioned for the very first time.”
Jane himself is a cipher – at no point do we get any real information about him. His personality in any given scene is a reaction to the people around him. That’s actually sort of interesting, but that should really be what the show is about then. A man with no personality of his own would be a premise for a series, but it seems like The Mentalist is just supposed to be a quirky cop drama, and any interesting character bits are purely coincidental.
I really want to like The Mentalist, but it comes off as Dr. House transplanted into an episode of Psych. More careful writing could turn this into a legitimately interesting series, but the pilot does not give me much hope. If they can’t be bothered, in the episode that introduces The Mentalist, to tell us anything about him or to construct a legitimate mystery, it doesn’t bode well for future episodes. It’s actually a likeable show, but there’s just enough laziness in the execution that I get exasperated.
The Prognosis: I really hope this gets good, but until that happens, the Tuesday schedule is already filled to bursting. Somebody tell me if it gets better, OK?
