The Mentalist on DVD

The Mentalist is a US detective show featuring Simon Baker as Patrick Jane, a former 'pyschic' who now works as a consultant for the CBI (California Bureau of Investigation). Running for seven seasons, The Mentalist is easily one of my favourite TV shows of recent years, bringing together great story lines, believable characters and a fantastic cast to make unmissable TV.

Photo of The Mentalist, Patrick Jane courtesy of www.Amazon.com

Patrick Jane is a former celebrity psychic, or Mentalist, who used his incredible powers of observation and deduction to 'read' people's minds and 'talk' to their deceased loved ones. This ended when Jane claimed on TV that he had been working with the police to help profile a serial killer known as Red John. In retaliation for comments made by Jane, Red John then murdered Jane's wife and young daughter.

After this, Jane gave up his career as a psychic and started working with the CBI, using his skills to help them solve murders and other crimes. While working these cases, Jane is constantly trying to work out ways to find Red John, so that he can have his revenge.

Photo of Simon Baker courtesy of Andrew Cummings - wikimedia commons

There are many reasons why I enjoy this show so much. The main reason is the characters. Simon Baker is perfect as Jane; he manages to keep Jane likeable and 'good' despite some of the things he gets up to being less than honest, especially in his past as a medium. I love the tricks he uses, putting his skills as a fake medium to use to reveal the guilty party. It's very Sherlock Holmes-esque, the way he notices small things that most other people would miss, such as the way someone reacts to a statement or the kind of perfume a recently deceased victim was wearing.

The support characters are equally brilliant. Robin Tunney stars as Teresa Lisbon, the leader of the Serious Crime Unit at the CBI. The relationship between her and Jane is well played out, with her acknowledging Jane's abilities to close cases, but often annoyed and frustrated with the ploys he uses to do so.

The rest of the team also add to the quality of the show. My personal favourite of the CBI agents is Kimball Cho, played by Tim Kang. He has an extremely dry sense of humour and some of his lines have me in stitches. He rarely shows emotion, which makes it all the more powerful when he does so in later episodes.

Red John is the bad guy overarching the story line of the Mentalist. The murderer of Jane's wife and daughter, he leaves a red painted face on the wall above his victims. Many episodes deal with Jane's obsession with catching, and possibly killing, Red John.

Photo of Red John smiley face courtesy of Jay Baldwin - wikimedia commons