The Mentalist-Best & Most Underrated of the Police Procedurals

[Knight Templar]

Actually I think they can milk the Red John thing a while longer.

Besides, even after Jane murders Red John there will still be Red John followers and copycats to spend time mopping up.

I'm also curious about the Grace Van Pelt character. There have been disturbing inferences that she is in some way gullible or vulnerable to mysterious, strong willed leaders like when she kissed the creepy cult leader (Malcolm MacDowell).

 

[stj]

*snip*
The show often suffers from the mentalist using the power of script, but all character-based shows have this tendency.

No, just the badly-written ones.

Beg to disagree. I was fan enough of Wire in the Blood to Netflix all the episodes (so far as I know) and watch them all, even the Texas one (.) But even Tony Hill used the power of script. It is part of the nature of the beast. Character-driven shows depend on the viewer investing in the specialness of one or more characters. It is intrinsically hard to write a series of scripts in which this specialness is manifest, episode after episode, in a genuinely organic and plausible way. One of the most consistent was the Sherlock Holmes stories and there were plenty of those in which the "deductions" were not plausible.

Malcolm McDowell's cult leader did not need to be written into the moronic Red John storyline. The completely unreformed nature of the character would have been a severe challenge to Jane, who was once the same kind, and still isn't as different as he might like to flatter himself.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Didn't you see the amnesia episode, where the gang met Jane's personality before he hooked up with his wife and squeezed out that kid?

 

[Agent Richard07]

I like Patrick Jane a great deal, but the police procedural nature of the show didn't hold my interest, so I dropped it after two seasons. I've tuned in for season finales and premieres though, and I wouldn't mind revisiting a few other episodes I've missed.

I'm watching regularly again after having caught up with seasons 3 and 4. I especially liked the most recent episode, "Red Dawn". It was nice seeing an origin piece that took us back to when Patrick Jane joined the CBI. It also served as a bit of backtracking to set up an arc.

 

[stj]

^^I believe we've been teased with our first glimpse of Red John. Apparently Polly Walker is supposed to be his latest pawn. Or are we supposed to care whether she's an accomplice?

 

[Enterprise is Great]

For the most part I thought that last season was craptacular but t his season has been really good. I'm not sure what changed...some new writers?

 

[Agent Richard07]

The Nov. 4th episode, "Cherry Picked", was a shocker. We got to see an expression on Cho's face.

It was also nice to see Brooke Langton again. It felt like a bottle episode, but the case was a pretty good one and Jane was in top form.

 

[Saxman1]

We are still working through the last season on DVD, loving it as much as ever. You never know who is going to be in league with Red John, which keeps the tension pretty high.

They've been very clever about keeping the show off On Demand and other places so if you fall behind, you pretty much have to get the season sets.

 

[Australis]

I'm doing a marathon catchup, into s4 now. Red John is an interesting character, int hat Jane is very smart, and Red John is just that little bit smarter. Some of the stories are clichéd and tired but the good ones are good.

Van Pelt is an interesting character, the rage simmering underneath after what she did at the end of s3 breaking out at odd moments. Cho's pretty cool too, has some great one liners. Rigsby's not bad, but he's a little bland. Lisbon is a good foil for Jane, Robin Tunney is underrated in that role.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I like Lorelai. It's fun seeing Emmanuelle Chriqui play someone cold and psychotic.

 

[stj]

Am I alone in thinking "Bob Kirkland" is probably Red John?

 

[ThunderAeroI]

I'm thinking Red John really is Patrick, one episode of Season 3 withstanding.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Am I alone in thinking "Bob Kirkland" is probably Red John?

Nope...i was thinking that just last night. He's either Red john or he's on of his main hencmen.

I'm thinking Red John really is Patrick, one episode of Season 3 withstanding.

I doubt that CBS would even let them go there. CBS plays it too safe for that.

 

[Venardhi]

They don't have to reveal it until the finale. Especially if they make it a dissociative identity, they can still maintain the Jane we know and love as a good guy (who would probably have to sacrifice himself to kill 'Red John' and go out a hero).

I'm about a season behind at this point, so I could be way off, but that theory was nagging at me since the beginning. It also makes the most dramatic sense since they seem intent on not giving Red John a physical presence in the show.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

Well RJ could be Desmond from Lost too, who knows. If you go to the who is Ron John website, most theories are that Patrick really is Red John. Although I buy Malcom McDowell as Red John too.

 

[Felidae]

I dislike Jane, not at first but the last season or so.. and Lisbon I've always disliked. So while mom watched this series, I usually go ahead and pick up my e-reader cause I'm bored. Not always, sometimes an episode is ok.

 

[Aragorn]

If Red John is truly a lot like Jane, the first two suspects that come to mind are the eccentric billionaire played by Currie Graham or Malcolm McDowell's character.

 

[stj]

TV/Movie psychiatry could have severely mentally ill people not just coping but triumphing over the rest of humanity. So Jane's skills by that wretched standard could fit with dissociative identity disorder/multiple personality. But nothing could explain how his henchmen know when to play along. Patrick Jane is not Red John, sorry.

Red John's little blind girl friend seemed like a diversion from a long commute by a guy bored with his job. Hence, not a billionaire. Also, to recruit from both criminals and law enforcement screams law enforcement to me. The connection with Stiles is clear enough: Red John got his first training in cult manipulation in Visualize.

Kirkland showing up in person when Lorelei is on the loose is too suggestive for me.

 

[Venardhi]

TV/Movie psychiatry could have severely mentally ill people not just coping but triumphing over the rest of humanity. So Jane's skills by that wretched standard could fit with dissociative identity disorder/multiple personality. But nothing could explain how his henchmen know when to play along.

Bad writing can explain anything it needs to. That is what pushed me away from the show being must-watch and into "if I catch it" territory.

 

[stj]

Yes, writers who can deliver correct solutions as consistently as Ellery Queen or Agatha Christie are rare indeed. Hollywood has more or less solved that problem by decreeing that since the world doesn't make sense, movies and television don't have to either. Jane's feats are about as well rationalized as Sherlock Holmes' I think. Most of the time pretty well, particularly as the writers do know that most people remember only the successes, but with the occasional glaring lapse.

For my part, the key to Jane's appeal is that his mean streak is aimed largely at worthy targets, and otherwise more or less under control. I could believe the medical examiner turning to him, for instance.