{"id":13690,"date":"2008-10-22T13:30:28","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T20:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/10\/22\/tv-review-the-mentalist.html"},"modified":"2008-10-22T13:30:28","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T20:30:28","slug":"tv_review_the_mentalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/22\/tv_review_the_mentalist.html","title":{"rendered":"TV Review: <i>The Mentalist<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"img-shadow-right\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Simon Baker is The Mentalist\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/simon_baker_240x300.jpg\" width=\"240\" \/> <\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m having a lot of fun watching <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbs.com\/primetime\/the_mentalist\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Mentalist<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;<\/em>(<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Mentalist\" target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia<\/a>). It&#8217;s sort of like <em>House <\/em>as a cop show, except that the Incredibly Competent But Annoying Protagonist is noteworthy for being incredibly charismatic, rather than the opposite (though both characters are insufferably narcissistic). Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) is a former TV &#8220;psychic&#8221;\/con man who now works as a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation, using his powers of observation, knowledge of human nature, and suavite to, Holmes-like, catch criminals who aren&#8217;t quite as clever as he is.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not the most profound show in the world &#8212; <em>House<\/em>, by contrast, is much smarter, gripping, and and just plain better. In part that&#8217;s because the other supporting cast &#8212; and, for that matter, the stories themselves &#8212; are terribly pedestrian, even hackneyed. No, this show is a one-trick pony: watching and learning about Patrick Jane, admiring him even as you dislike him even as you feel sorry for him. I don&#8217;t know how long that will be&nbsp;enough &#8212; though, to be fair, <em>Columbo <\/em>(which this resembles perhaps more than it does House) lasted for many years, even with equally trite plots.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line: Good DVR fodder for a casual, enjoyable, unchallenging&nbsp;watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m having a lot of fun watching The Mentalist&nbsp;(Wikipedia). It&#8217;s sort of like House as a cop show, except that the Incredibly Competent But Annoying Protagonist is noteworthy for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21558,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/13\/tv-on-a-business-trip.html","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":0},"title":"TV on a Business Trip","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Jul-11 7:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I ended up watching TV at the hotel, and on the plane. Unfortunately, not much of what I watched was all that ... um ... likely to be watched (by me) again: Falling Skies: It's like War of the Worlds! \u00a0No, it's like the Tripods! \u00a0No, it's like Red Dawn,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TV&quot;","block_context":{"text":"TV","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-tv"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/tv-philco-predicta-234x300.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47196,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/07\/farewell-to-the-mentalist-soon.html","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":1},"title":"Farewell to &quot;The Mentalist&quot; (soon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Nov-14 8:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a show +Margie Kleerup and I have enjoyed all through its run, though this past season was a bit more dodgy (having resolved the series-long metaplot, mostly lost a couple of key cast members, and moving the setting elsewhere). Still an enjoyable show, but it's not surprising they're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40851,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/22\/tv-shows-im-watching-right-now.html","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":2},"title":"TV Shows I&#39;m Watching Right Now","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-Jan-14 9:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We don't watch a lot of TV. No, really. Stop laughing.Actually, we don't watch a lot of new TV. Certainly not a lot of network TV. And absolutely not a lot of live TV.\u00a0Here's what's currently getting picked up as high priority on our DVR:Castle - A comfortable favorite. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2153,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/01\/crossing_over.html","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":3},"title":"Crossing over?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Mar-02 3:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I find James \"The Amazing\" Randi an interesting fellow. A former stage magician and mentalist, he as taken it as his vocation to debunk folks who claim to have psychic...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fourth Estate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33813,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/15\/time-for-the-summer-season-tv-blues.html","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":4},"title":"Time for the Summer Season TV Blues","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-May-13 10:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"We don't watch a lot of network TV, but two standard shows in our viewing repertoire are \"The Mentalist\" and \"Castle\". Both of which are wrapped for the season.Which is okay, since we have plenty of other things to watch on disc, etc. But it's sad not having those easy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21268,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/tweets-from-2011-06-14.html","url_meta":{"origin":13690,"position":5},"title":"Tweets from 2011-06-14","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Jun-11 12:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"1st time in the office in >3 wks. Would be more enthused if cat hadn't started meowing for attention around 2 am. # Hmmmm. Looks like maybe no Blogathon this year. Again. Sad ... Link # Watched #Mentalist mini-marathon, last three eps of the season, ending with a bang! Excellent.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~Tweets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}