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We all know that Sherlock Holmes was pretty mental.
After all he seemed to have something akin to OCD at times
and let’s not even discuss his addiction to morphine. “The
Mentalist” is like having a somewhat politically correct
version of Sherlock Holmes. “The Mentalist” has become a
huge hit for CBS giving us a new variation on the police
procedural drama that has taken the airwaves by storm over
the last decade. Created by Bruno Heller “The Mentalist”
stars Simon Baker (“L.A. Confidential”) as an illusionists/showman
who uses his powers of deduction to help the police solve
difficult cases. Much like “Psych” Patrick Jane (Baker)
sees clues that the ordinary person might miss trying to
help the police catch the latest serial killer (there seems
to be a whole bunch of them cropping up) called Red John.
When not solving cases he spends his time annoying or charming
his boss (Robin Tunney of “Prison Break”). ***
The premise seems solid enough but it’s the execution
that’s lacking here. The main problem with the series is
that because of the premise it crosses the border into predictable
territory. The writing fails to develop the characters or
situations to any great degree making us not really care
about the outcome. While often clever the show develops
that cleverness at the expense of credible storytelling
and characters. That’s too bad because the show has a lot
of potential and has strong performances from the main actors.
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Image & Sound:
“The Mentalist” arrives with its original anamorphic
widescreen format intact. The handheld cameras and use of
digital video undermines the show to a certain extent; the
format is designed to make the show “feel” real but just
makes it look sloppy and there’s no real reason for the
show to adopt this format (unlike, say, “Battlestar Galatica”
or “24”). There are a considerable amount of digital artifacts
throughout and while foreground objects including close
ups are often sharp looking the backgrounds are often soft
and blurry. ***
The audio sounds quite good with a nice use of the surround
format to add to the ambience of the show. Dialogue is crystal
clear throughout the presentation. ---
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