In The Mentalist, Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) is a psychic turned private investigator who uses his unique talents to help the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI) solve cases. It’s kind of like The Closer meets True Blood, at least the telepathic bit. Jane is cocksure, has little regard for police protocol, and loves to keep the police force a tad in the dark before blowing the whole case open. It’s so nice to see Robin Tunney again as Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon, most noted for her role as teen witch Sarah Bailey in 1996’s The Craft. This time around Tunney has no paranormal abilities to speak of, and has a kind of love/hate relationship with Jane. She is annoyed by his antics, but cannot deny his spot-on predictions.
The cases solved in The Mentalist always have a bit of a twist to them, for example, when Lisbon is forced to go to counseling because she has been stressed on the job, the team inadvertently discovers a dead body hidden near a dumpster by the police station. Lisbon oddly cannot recall where she was the night of the murder, and asks Jane to hypnotize her to see if she has disassociated herself from the memory of actually committing this murder. She cannot recall where she was even under deep hypnosis, and is dropped from the case.
That night in her apartment, Lisbon’s therapist finds her in a compromised state, drunk, with a half empty bottle of pills and a gun. She hysterically states that she thinks she killed this man, why else can’t she remember where she was? She looks ready to shoot herself, or both of them. The therapist tries to diffuse the situation by reassuring her that it is okay if she committed this crime. He starts jogging her memory by saying things like: “you can see the dark alley, the garbage, the dumpster, you come up behind the man and shoot him, he falls onto the ground. You see the cross on the wall near where he falls.”
“How did you know about the cross?” Lisbon asks, dropping character. “Only someone who had seen the body and put him in there would know about that cross.”
Suddenly Jane appears, coming downstairs and it’s clear that Lisbon has been acting. He reveals that once he saw that Lisbon couldn’t remember her whereabouts the night of the murder under deep hypnosis, he knew she had been drugged. The therapist killed this man, and had been drugging Lisbon with tea during their sessions that caused memory loss.
Jane came to the police force when his wife and child were murdered by a man named Red John. He is reluctant to address the tragedy, but as the season goes on he becomes more and more willing to reveal what happened to his family. It seems that Lisbon, too has a bit of a shady past, and both of these plot points are slowly explored throughout the second season. There are bits of relationship drama in the series as well, such as between agents Wayne Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti), who are clearly enamored of one another from the start but cannot get up the courage to disclose their feelings.
It is entertaining to be for the most part “in the know” while Jane uses his psychic abilities, and then surprised by the twist endings. Although some of the cases are cracked a bit too easily, it is a show that you can get sucked into, you want to keep watching these episodes.
DVD Bonus Features
Deleted scenes are available on each disc, and a section entitled “Mentalism: A Subliminal Art” is included on the last disc. In this section, real life mentalist Luke Jermay attempts to read the minds of the show’s cast members. There are also a few interactive demonstrations where Jermay asks the viewer at home to participate.
"The Mentalist: The Complete Second Season" is on sale September 21, 2010 and is not rated. Crime. Written and directed by Bruno Heller . Starring Amanda Righetti, Owain Yeoman, Robin Tunney, Simon Baker.
