Different Than the Others In the Pack
a believer of fate, Entertainment Writer, a storyteller, A Big Giant Sap
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SEP
30
2008
The Mentalist —
The Mentalist is a show that I originally thought from the description, an ex-psychic works as a private investigator helping the police, that we'd seen a million times. I figured it would be just like any other crime drama and like a much less comedic Psych. What I found watching it, though, as that it actually has a really interesting element that separates it from the rest.Simon Baker stars as Patrick Jane, a one-time psychic who now frowns upon his past livelihood. He claims he was a fraud and doesn't believe anyone is really capable of being psychic. Patrick has very good investigative tactics and deductive reasoning and uses that to make it seem as if he knows everything someone is thinking or how a particular event happens.
When a woman and a doctor friend end up murdered in her home, everyone is suggesting perhaps they were secret lovers, but Patrick rebuffs this idea, explaining that the doctor was gay. No one wants to listen, but a few minutes later, he's right. He'll be the first to explain that figuring this and everything else out isn't because he is psychic, yet every time he does that, he does something else again that makes him seem like he is indeed psychic, whether it's being astute enough to be the first to figure out facts of the case, or moving a pencil across the table without touching it.
The lead investigator on the police plays it oh so serious and seems to always be detesting Patrick, but we can tell there's some sexual tension there, as there always seems to be in these police dramas. It'll be interestinging to see if this is a relationship that is always kept at bay, or whether she eventually gives in.
The Mentalist delves occasionally into the back story of Patrick's character, alluding to more going on than we were originally told. In the first episode, a copy cat killer sets a crime, and we find that this is a case that Patrick has yet to crack. It's not the first time he's tried to solve it. He knows the work isn't from the original killer, but it's clear that this is the one case that has stymied him, once again making us qurstion where his talent actually lies.
It's that is he or isn't he angle that makes The Mentalist different than the others in the pack. There's also a very interesting piece here that's hard to figure out that separates it from the rest, but I tend to think it's simply the actor that portrays Patrick, Simon Baker, of The Devil Wears Prada. There's just something very appealing about him that makes it difficult to stop watching. I knew this was "just another crime drama," yet I couldn't stop watching.
The Mentalist is recommended by LauraBelle
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