Going Mentalist

I finally saw the first season of The Mentalist. Hey, I like it! But that's not too surprising when the main lead is an ex-psychic shyster who's turned to the good side (after a rather shocking experience) and now puts his talents to solving crimes as part of the CBI/CIB (it changes from show to show) the California Bureau of Investigation/Investigation Bureau.

The set-up is a little like Psych in that regard, someone with pretend psychic powers being used to solve crimes, but it is far more serious. It's not full-blown dark, especially with Patrick Jane (the lead) often doing a lot of amuse himself (and us), but comedy is not the first label to apply. In that regard, it reminded me more of Profiler.

This aspect is enhanced by having a reoccuring (as such, he is more mentioned than appears) villain in the form of Red John, a serial killer. In fact, red is a common theme, with all the episode titles having 'Red' in them somewhere, and there being more red-heads in this show than any other I can immediately recall (although selection bias might be in play here). [This is especially amusing as in my Heroic Cthulhu game there is a PC whose character has a distinct red fetish.]

Each episode is fairly 'killer of the week', but the mentalist aspect helps raise it above other shows that are CSI-like (not that I've ever seen any CSI episode). Definitely an enjoyable watch.

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