TV Review: The Mentalist

When The Mentalist first started, I thought it was great, it was intriguing and it was different.  Every episode saw a different case to be solved by the C.B.I (California Bureau of Investigation) but each case was shadowed by another case – the hunt for Red John.

Here was a mystery – who was Red John? Why was Patrick Jane so involved that he would work for free at the CBI? It was because as we find out in episode one – his wife and child were murdered by Red John.

Jane, as he is usually just called was a conman before the murder of his family and he had upset Red John, the serial killer by using his ‘paranormal’ abilities to profile the serial killer. So Red John sought revenge.

This brought Jane to the CBI as he wanted to help find Red John.  In his quest he worked alongside other agents Theresa Lisbon, Kimball Choi, Wayne Rigsby and Grace Van Pelt. In this job he was ‘using his skills to help solve crimes’.  He often asserted that ‘there’s no such things as physics’ yet he had finely honed skills in cold reading, hypnosis and has a powerful observational skills and a deep insight into the human psyche and behaviour.

The hunt for ‘Red John’ round over 6 seasons.  By season 4 I was getting a little bit tired and just wanted to know who the serial killer was.  After a year’s break and a few other box sets in between I went back to the Mentalist and have now watched seasons 5 and 6 as I still wanted to know who was killing all those people. And when I found out who Red John really was I was actually a wee bit disappointed.  Ah well!

The other storyline that was underlying every episode was the relationship between Jane and Lisbon.  The viewers knew how they both felt but they didn't seem to see it.  None of their fellow team members saw it. 

In Season 6 the CBI was shut down and Lisbon and Jane and Kimball Choi started to work for the FBI.  As soon as Lisbon and Jane arrived at the FBI, their new boss Abbott saw the spark between them, but when talking about it to Choi, it was evident that he still didn't see it and just thought Lisbon and Jane were more like brothers and sisters.

Lisbon meets another FBI agent called Pike and plans to move to Washington DC with him.  It is when faced with the reality that Lisbon is leaving that Jane finally admits to how he feels about her.  He admits that all his game playing and telling of lies was because he was scared to get close to someone else, as those he has loved in the past have been taken away from him.

So Season 6 had a lot going on it and ended on a high. So now I need to watch the seventh and final season to see what happens next and how it all ends up between Lisbon and Jane.