Amanda Righetti-related stories
Posted Oct 30th 2009 12:57PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Mentalist
(S02E05) "Spooky!" - Patrick Jane
As soon as the introduction sequence played out, I was excited at the thought of seeing how Patrick Jane and more down-to-earth Lisbon would deal with a spooky case.
I knew Lisbon would not believe in ghosts but what about Jane? Would he believe in them for real or would he fake believing in them for the case or would he not believe in them at all?
This spooky episode, perfect for Halloween time, also finally (!) gave us some relationship advancement between Rigsby and Van Pelt.
Continue reading Review: The Mentalist - Red Scare
Posted Oct 16th 2009 11:43AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Mentalist
(S02E04) "Everybody is. I am." - Jane, on people who are geeks
Is Patrick Jane really, really brave or just clueless?
I've been wondering that the entire series. He's not a fighter. He's not even one of these "strong, silent" types who acts wimpy but is secretly a karate master or former Navy Seal or whatever. He honestly doesn't have any physical skills but he insists on interrogating people who could turn his bones into mulch. Like tonight's confrontation with bikers in a dive bar. Or maybe he was comfortable because Lisbon was there with a badge and a gun. I think he's done it in the past with no backup though, so I'm not sure if he's brave or just oblivious or doesn't care.
Continue reading The Mentalist: Red Menace
Posted Apr 1st 2009 12:38AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Mentalist

(S01E18) This was a fun episode of
The Mentalist, reminiscent of parts of the psychic episode, "
Seeing Red," in that we got to see Jane in a comfort zone of his, something that he knows well. The difference is that Jane believes in hypnosis.
And we got to see Jane do his thing tonight ... his hypnosis thing anyway. He was clever enough to put the tracer in Rigsby's pocket, but my favorite episodes of
The Mentalist are when Jane knows whodunnit ahead of time and sets them up. When Jane is a step -- or two -- ahead of everyone else, he shines.
Continue reading The Mentalist: Russet Potatoes
Posted Mar 26th 2009 12:42AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Mentalist
(S01E17) "This is a goat turd about six months old." -- Cho, about Jane's "fossilized worm" Ah, a few things I love about
The Mentalist showed up in tonight's episode: a quote from Cho, a setup from Jane, and Lisbon and Jane banter. Top that off with a couple of my favorite guest stars and you've got yourself a fun episode of
The Mentalist.
Oh, and we can't forget Jane doing his Jane things: trying to get Rigsby and Van Pelt together in a car for three hours, monologuing about the beauty of the desert, teasing Lisbon and Faulk (the "Boom!" line) and smiling throughout everything.
Continue reading The Mentalist: Carnelian Inc.
Posted Mar 18th 2009 2:09AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Mentalist

(S01E16) "My other senses are heightened. They're super-heightened. I'm like Daredevil." -- Jane on his blindnessNow, this was an interesting episode of
The Mentalist. We veered from the formula a bit, and I liked it. We got to find out a lot more about Jane's past, albeit Red John-free. Sadly, this episode was fairly Cho-free, as well, but we did get a lot of Rigsby / Van Pelt payoff.
Mostly what this episode was about, though, was Jane's questionable past: the lies he told to people, the money he unabashedly took, and the lives he ruined with his greed and his false representation of his psychic abilities. Jane is clearly carrying around a lot more guilt than just his family being killed, although that was obviously the defining moment for Jane.
Continue reading The Mentalist: Bloodshot
Posted Feb 18th 2009 1:50AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Mentalist

(S01E15) The Mentalist never fails to entertain, even when the case is obvious. There was something about the writing or directing of this show early in the season; I could peg every killer nearly the moment he or she was onscreen, because of the weird shifty thing they did.
Well, that didn't happen in this episode; instead, they dropped the biggest, most obvious clue in the history of procedurals. I kept hoping that it was a red herring, but no. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy this episode; I loved the twists and turns the case took, but I hated knowing, absolutely knowing, who the killer was, in that different way than just the shifty stuff.
Continue reading The Mentalist: Scarlett Fever
Posted Mar 29th 2008 11:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Casting

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.
Continue reading Simon Baker returns to CBS & Wheeler gets a greenlight