TVSquad

(S02E02) Tonight's episode of The Mentalist was an incisive look at how the ... HEY THAT WAS STARSKY!

Yes, Paul Michael Glaser made an appearance in this episode, and it's good to see him in something else besides those fix-your-credit commercials.

This season seems to be about the personal lives of Jane and Lisbon a lot more than the first season was, how the search for Red John is affecting both of them (Jane is on the outside of the investigation; Jane is seeing a psychiatrist because of what happened in the season finale). Last season I didn't want every other episode to be about Red John, and I still don't, but I'm more intrigued by the Red John investigation than the murder-of-the-week. Where last season the tension in the CBI regarding cases and who was in charge was scattered here and there; that tension seems to be a theme this second season.

(S01E14) "There's no business like Cho business." -- Patrick Jane

I'm not quite sure how The Mentalist does it. At the beginning of every episode, I want to think that it's just a typical procedural and that nothing really sets it apart. Usually, it is Simon Baker who wins me over and makes me think differently. However, tonight it was all Cho.

We started off with Cho questioning Walcott about his wife Claire's murder. When the weasel threatens Cho's job if he doesn't give the name of Claire's lover, saying that he can have Cho's job with one phone call, Cho deadpans, "That's impressive. The best I can get with one phone call is a pizza."

(S01E06) The title of this episode is hilarious. We've got the "red" that has been in every episode title of The Mentalist so far, but the "red-handed" refers to the murderer stealing from the casino. Add in the layer that the show opens with the victim's dismembered hand in the middle of the road in Vegas, and tongue-in-cheek doesn't quite do it justice. Very clever, writer guys.

But again, not so clever with concealing the guilty party from the viewers. Um, so why wouldn't we suspect the (really, like I'd spoil this tid-bit before the jump?) ...

On the same day he shot 32 people to death on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Cho Seung-Hui sent a package to NBC News.

According to MSNBC, the package contained video, a photograph and a written communication. At one point in the video, Seung-Hui said, in reference to the massacre, "This didn't have to happen." The package was sent between the time he shot two people to death in a dormitory and before he killed thirty more in another building.

NBC News turned the contents over to the FBI, and in a blog post today anchor Brian Williams said that some of the contents of the package would be discussed on tonight's broadcast.