The Mentalist, series overview.

I have been wanting to write about The Mentalist for a long while but I just didn't know where to start because, The Mentalist is something I hold very close to my heart. Throughout the years I have watched so many crime procedurals but none of them came close to mentalist for me. Unlike other crime procedurals that goes on and on for years with an overarching plot line The Mentalist makes it intention very clear in the first episode itself. The pilot episode of Mentalist introduces us to Patrick Jane who uses his immense mental skills to trick people into believing that he is a psychic and that he can actually speak with the dead. One day Patrick goes on a live talk show where he discusses and mocks a serial killer named Red John. Enraged by Patrick's actions Red John kills Jane's wife and daughter in cold blood. Jane joins the CBI as a consultant in hopes of catching red zone and bring him to justice. Thus begins the cat and mouse chase between Jane and Red John. Will Patrick be able to catch Red John and avenge his family? How will he be able to deal with the consequences, forms the rest of the story line.

The mentalist ran from September 2008 until February 2015 on CBS with seven seasons. On the outside mentalist may seam like your everyday crime drama but once you get the hang of it you will get to understand the true beauty of it. The mentalist and stars the forever charming Simon Baker, The casting of Simon Baker in the role of Patrick Jane is kind of similar to the casting choice of Robert Downey Jr playing Tony stark or Michael J Fox as Marty maxfly, it is just difficult to imagine any other actor doing justice to Jane's character. I think it safe to say there is no exaggeration when i say if this role had gone to anyone else Mentalist wouldn't have been as successful as it is was. There is just something about the way Simon Baker portrays Patrick Jane. He is great at splitting between emotions within milliseconds and he plays both sides of the coin very well, the mysterious charming trickster and the greiving self loathing former charlton.

Jane is a character that is full of contradictions, he is arrogant but self loathing, he works with the CBI but he is constantly breaking laws, he is incredibly intelligent but impulsive, he's a liar but he also has frequent moments of incredible honesty. Patrick Jane is very "boyish" and runs around like a little kid. He is dark and haunted from his past but he demeanor is light and playful, he is deliberately non violent, always letting his team do the chasing and the shooting as he does not like to handle guns. It's quite ironic considering how his whole M.O for the series is to literally murder his enemy, these contradictions give Patric a complexity in character depth. Despite the tragedy in his past Jane is not a brooding and dark character, in fact he's the total opposite, he is playful and he looks for light and fun all the time messing with people around him. 

If it's not obvious the character of Jane is inspired from Sherlock and Red John's character was largely inspired by Moriarty. Bruno Heller, the writer of Mentalist wanted Jane's nemesis to match his intelligence, and be the only person who is capable of outsmarting him. 

The pilot episode proves that Red John is strongly motivated by ego. Just like Patrick, Red John is unique in his own ways, probably the most unique point about him is Red John's signature trademark at all of his crime scenes, a smiley face, universal symbol for happiness painted in his victim's blood.

The episodes focusing on Red John and Jane were the best, the writer did an excellent job by escalating the first few seasons each time trying to out do the one before by getting Jane an inch closer to finding Red John and give the audience something new about him. The Mentalist leans heavily into the identity of Red John but obviously this game can't last forever. The finale of Season 3 has Patrick meeting with "Red John". This moment right here is where The Mentally peaked for me before its fall into the graves. This Red John reveal gave me so much thrill than the actual reveal.

Season 4 picks up right after the season 3 finale, where it is revealed that the man Jane killed isn't Red John and that the real Red John is still alive. The season 3 ending to Red John arc on its own was cinematic and emotional but no they just had to do ruin it so they could keep the audience stringing along. At this point some fans even started to the theorize that the only person who could match Jane's intelligence was Jane himself, that theory went along with Jane having Dissociative identity disorder. I am just glad the writers didn't go that way. So here is the thing it turns out Bruno Heller didn't choose the identity of Red John until pretty late into the series which had a huge impact on the show later on. Despite all this clutter there have been many gems spread throughout like that one episode where we get to see how Jane became a consultant for the CBI in the first thryplace, it was a total fan service and I loved every minute of it.

Let me reiterate The Mentalist is never bad I just love the first three seasons more. Despite all the time they spent dragging out the Red John story line the final reveal felt surprisingly rushed. Can you imagine the disappointment, fans felt when it was finally revealed that Red John is just some random guy Jane met in the first season and 5 seasons of build-up was pretty much useless? I mean no disrespect towards the writer of the show but Red John's true identity is really annoying because they are essentially mocking the same audience they led on for years. There was barely any thought put into it, by writing on his anonymity for so many episodes and seasons without a primitive plan the show backed itself in the corner that it just couldn't escape. 

In conclusion Simon Baker gave a phenomenal performance and I actually like that he was portrayed in such a light tone despite his backstory. The show had an edge and a unique dark plot twist, the same angle that ser the mentalist apart ultimately proved to be its downfall. The Mentalist by an incredible cast brought something new to the detective procedural genre that was refreshing and different nonetheless. I guess that's all for now, do let me know your thoughts in the comments below.