The Mentalist: A review by Michael J. Cox

The ups and downs of a fantasy season can be exhausting for anyone, so we’re going to take a break from fantasy analysis this morning to bring you Michael J. Cox’s review of CBS’s The Mentalist, the surprise ratings hit of the fall season. As faithful readers and listeners to the podcast know, we like to give Mr. T a lot of shit for watching this show. Is it really as bad as we think? Read on for the verdict.

Thanks to mobile Gmail's new draft feature, I'm able to treat you all to a real time analysis of The Mentalist as I sit here on a 6-hour JetBlue flight with nothing else to watch.

This show falls somewhere in between Ghost Whisperer and Medium (much closer to Ghost Whisperer, sadly) in terms of watchability for a predictable weekly mystery solving show, which isn't good considering that my girlfriend’s Ghost Whisperer affliction was a primary driver for my recent additional TV purchase.

The main guy – Simon Baker – is your stereotypical nauseatingly good guy who, in this episode, used his memory powers to win money at a casino where he investigated a
crime, and then of course selflessly gave it away in the following manner:

1. $300K to a needy Asian blackjack dealer whose mother needs a liver transplant and
2. $250K to his loser coworkers by buying them ridiculously expensive jewelry just to be nice
3. When his female coworkers decided they couldn't keep the $100K necklaces, he dumped them in a bin on the sidewalk where canned food and shoes were being collected for the homeless

Yeah, you read that right. This is only season one and they're already reduced to that sort of plot line. There are also zero hot chick regulars on the show which probably wouldn't be enough to save it from dogshitville, but at least it would be something.

His two sidekicks, a nerdy Asian guy and a Papelbon lookalike, are terrible. They basically go around the whole show talking up what a bad ass he is for having amazing abilities and buying them cool watches.

Verdict: This show sucks ass, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that my girlfriend doesn't start watching it. I think it might have a knack for avoiding cancellation for a few years and I don't want to have to break up with her.