TVSquad

As someone who was a regular watcher of The Guardian, it makes me happy to see that the star of that show is coming back to the home screens. Simon Baker will star in the CBS drama The Mentalist. The pilot has been given the go-ahead by the network, which mean Simon could be back on the schedule by next fall (if the show is picked up).

The Mentalist sounds like it should be something like a Kreskin extravaganza, but it's not. Instead it's described as the story of Patrick Jane, a man with heightened skills of observation who uses his talents to solve crimes.

Is it me or doesn't this sound like Monk? And the Jane Seymour TV movie that I blogged about the other day -- Dear Prudence, a Martha Stewart-type who uses her keen sense of observation to assist the police? I guess all of these deductive detective concepts go back to Sherlock Holmes, but what makes them rise -- or fall -- is the execution. That said, here's hoping The Mentalist is more eccentric and interesting than the description.

Also in The Mentalist are Owain Yeoman (Kitchen Confidential) and Amanda Righetti (K-Ville), Shaun Toub (who was in Smith with Baker), and Tim Kang (Third Watch).

Meanwhile, over at ABC, an ambitious pilot called Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas has been greenlit. The network says it's sort of a Harry Potter meets Pan's Labyrinth concoction. If that's the quality that they achieve, I'll sing "Hallelujah!" The plot revolves around a little girl who find a secret world beneath the human world. Tom Wheeler wrote the pilot and will be the executive producer. Wheeler previously tackled The World According to Barnes in 2007.