If there’s any show that drives me absolutely crazy, Mental is the one. I’ll admit, I’d never seen it before, and I thought the premise might make for some excellent television. The basis is that Dr. Jack Gallagher (played by Prison Break’s Chris Vance) has been appointed as the Director of Mental Health Services at an LA hospital despite having an incredibly unconventional way of dealing with his patients. Unfortunately for him, his boss is also his ex-lover, Nora Skoff (played by Annabella Sciora of Law and Order: Criminal Intent), and is super conventional. Even worse, most of the staff dislikes him from the beginning as Dr. Veronica Hayden-Jones (Jacqueline McKenzie) is bitter he got the job instead of her and they all think he is crazy. Sounds interesting, right?
It should be awesome, but it’s really not. At times I found it unbearable to watch. It is just so freaking unrealistic! Hospitals are busy places, so where on Earth does Dr. Gallagher (or the rest of the staff, for that matter) find the time to go prancing around, hanging out with his patients all day? Also, wouldn’t you think when a psychiatric patient has an episode and trashes a doctor’s office, the patient would be restrained? Apparently not. Likewise, it is clearly only a minor offense to break into a patient’s sister’s house to learn more about her as long as it will help her out in the long run. Yeah, that’s not against the law at all…oh wait, it totally is.
One of the biggest issues I encountered was the characterization. It feels like high school, or like a cartoon about high school students. Everyone fits neatly into a category. We’ve got the cocky new kid, the backstabber, the adulteress, the villain, the divorcee and so on. None of them got me emotionally involved in the story line. As a matter of fact, I can’t choose ONE that I like and there are a bunch of characters. As the season goes along, the only character who really changes is Dr. Gallagher, and even that is too little too late. While you may enjoy learning about his family history via his schizophrenic sister’s sudden reappearance in his life after being missing for four years, it didn’t save the season for me. By that point, there was no hope.
The show is not very original either. A quirky doctor with a haunted past helps a new patient every week. If the story sounds familiar, it’s probably because it’s the same concept as House. And I, for one, would love to see a show about doctors where they aren’t all having affairs with each other. Is that so much to ask? However, I will give the writers credit for fine pacing throughout the season and some witty dialogue in every episode.
Let me leave you with a newly revised tagline for the 4 disc DVD set: “There is no mystery greater than the human mind,” except why anyone would buy Mental: Season 1. That’s 623 minutes of your life you will never get back.
DVD Bonus Features
There is an alternate version of the pilot, which is strikingly similar to the version that aired. Also, the set includes a featurette entitled “Paging Dr. Gallagher,” in which several clips of Jack are meshed together with some brief interview segments of Chris Vance commenting on his character. Neither is worth watching, unless you are an avid fan.
"Mental: The Complete First Season" is on sale December 1, 2009 and is rated NR. Drama. Directed by Guy Ferland, Rod Hardy, David Jackson. Written by Dan Levine, Deborah Joy LeVine. Starring Chris Vance, Jacqueline McKenzie, Marisa Ramirez, Derek Webster, Nicholas Gonzalez, Annabella Sciorra, Edwin Hodge.
