TVSquad

(S02E01) "If you sit by the river bank long enough you'll see the bodies of your enemies float by." - Patrick Jane

Where will the second season of The Mentalist go? Will we focus on Red John the whole time or will we get cases of the week until we have a Red John episode? It looks like it's going to be more of the latter (though there's a big plot development concerning the Red John case in this season opener), and that's just fine.

I do wish the cases were more Columbo or Murder, She Wrote-ish, though.

As is often the case, the interplay between Jane and Lisbon and other team members (and the new guy in charge of the Red John case) is more interesting than the actual case that the team is trying to solve. They've got a nice battle starting here between Jane and Bosco, with Bosco calling Jane a "clown" and trying to use certain words and actions to make it seem like he's being helpful and comforting (touching Jane's shoulder, using a soft voice when needed, etc). Though I don't get why Bosco would be so hard on Jane, or why the chief would even allow it.

Can you imagine if Jane existed in real life? He'd be honored every week by the CBI, given plaques and probably allowed to do whatever he wants (if he even stayed with CBI after the movie and book offers came in). It doesn't make sense that he would call Jane a clown. Hasn't he read the file on Jane? He is the reason CBI solves so many cases (regardless of what Lisbon thinks when she leaves Jane and drives off).

But this is a good start to the second season. It's pretty much the same (Jane figuring things out in an odd way, lots of humor, banter between Riggsby and Cho, etc), but they've tweaked the Red John case just enough so it doesn't seem stale. Nice little twist at the end with Jane calling for a new ID card for Bosco. Good thing he's not a real detective.

Quick notes:

- Nice to see Raphael Sbarge as the murdered woman's husband. He costarred with Simon Baker on The Guardian, a show I really liked.

- Maggie was played by Rebecca Staab, one of Jerry's girlfriends on Seinfeld (the episode with the telethon and missing nana) and also played Jesse on Guiding Light in the 80s. This isn't important at all but Guiding Light just ended so I thought I'd mention it.

- I wonder when they'll throw us for a loop and have an episode title without "Red" in it? (Actually, there were some episode titles last year that used variations on red, like "russet" and "bloodshot.")

[Watch clips of The Mentalist at SlashControl.]