Mental (TV series)

Mental
Logo for FOX's Mental
Genre	Medical Drama Mystery
Created by	Dan LeVine
Developed by	Fox Television Studios Fox International Channels
Starring	Chris Vance Jacqueline McKenzie Annabella Sciorra Derek Webster Marisa Ramirez Nicholas Gonzalez Edwin Hodge
Country of origin	Colombia United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Dan LeVine Deborah Joy LeVine
Production locations	Bogotá, Colombia
Running time	approx. 42 min
Original release
Network	Fox
Release	May 26 – August 14, 2009

Mental was a television series produced by Fox's subsidiary Fox Telecolombia, and aired in the summer and fall of 2009 on FOX international channels for Latin America, Europe and Asia, starring Chris Vance and Annabella Sciorra. Mental was executive-produced by Deborah Joy LeVine – creator of the successful drama series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and the Lifetime series The Division, and executive producer of Any Day Now, Dawson's Creek and the CBS series Early Edition – and her brother and writing/producing partner, Dan LeVine. Following its U.S. debut, it aired in 35 additional countries. Fox Latin America aired the first episode as a "Worldwide Premiere" on June 2, 2009. Fox aired the pilot episode on May 26, 2009 for the American market. Fox TV Studios ordered 13 episodes. It began production on June 2, 2008 at the Fox Telecolombia production facilities in Bogotá. Although the series was filmed in Colombia, no Colombian actor was cast as a regular character and very few were cast for occasional roles, because of the strict American nature of the series. According to TVWeek, Jacqueline McKenzie, Derek Webster, Nicholas Gonzalez, and Marisa Ramirez were added to the cast of Mental, "probably as recurrent characters."

A DVD of the first season was announced on September 2, 2009. The DVD is set to release on December 1, 2009. The DVD includes all 13 episodes, plus an unrated alternate pilot.

Synopsis

Further information: List of Mental episodes

Characters

Dr. Jack Gallagher (Chris Vance)

The protagonist of the show. Jack is a British man living in America, for what seems like much of his life as his step-father of many years is American. He uses rather unorthodox methods to get inside the patient's head to help cure them; however, this usually gains him spite from his fellow doctors. He enjoys riding his bike and has a mentally unstable sister whom he is trying to find, and has been for four years. At the end of the episode entitled, Do Over, he finds Becky and she is put into the hospital with schizophrenia. Jack's mother and step-father come and try to convince him to let them take Becky to Florida for treatment. Jack is skeptical, but Becky decides to leave with her parents. In the season finale, Jack is seen talking to an anonymous therapist (who turns out to be himself), and admits that he has an irrational fear of becoming schizophrenic, which is why he is afraid of commitment. It is also revealed that he, most likely, is dealing with clinical depression at this point. In the final scene, he punches Carl, and is subsequently fired. Jack then leaves and the season, as well as the series, ends. The last shot of the series shows us Dr. Gallagher now "vagrant" and without direction, in opposition to his recently vagrant sister, who has chosen to return home with her family. The season ends in direct opposition to the season opening - an extremely ironic ending.

Nora Skoff (Annabella Sciorra)

She is a hospital administrator who shares a romantic past with Dr. Gallagher. Nora has a distinctive and conservative style. She successfully battled cancer and is divorced with two daughters.

Dr. Carl Belle (Derek Webster)

Dr. Belle is a master politician who is dedicated to Jack's downfall, even secretly black-mailing Arturo to spy on Jack.

Dr. Veronica Hayden-Jones (Jacqueline McKenzie)

Dr. Hayden-Jones is a dedicated psychiatrist who is upset that she wasn't given Jack's job. She is married to a musician, but was cheating on him with one of the doctors in the hospital. This doctor has subsequently resigned.

Dr. Chloë Artis (Marisa Ramirez)

Dr. Artis is a gorgeous doctor who is passing the time in a residency she feels is beneath her until Jack opens her mind to the inspirational benefits of psychiatry. She is frequently pursued by Arturo before she reveals to him that she is a lesbian.

Dr. Arturo Suarez (Nicholas Gonzalez)

Dr. Suarez is a first-year resident. He is young and cocky, constantly looking for love (or sex), and won't seem to give up on Chloe, even knowing her sexual orientation. Arturo falsified his transcripts so that he could become a doctor and that information is being held against him by Carl, who is blackmailing Arturo into spying on Jack.

Margo Stroud (Samantha Eggar)

Jack and Becky's mother, whose first husband and the father of her children, died. She is now living in Florida and is married to James.

James Stroud (Madison Mason)

Jack and Becky's step-father and Margo's second husband. James is a retired Navy Vice Admiral - Jack even bitterly states that James raised them as though they were soldiers. Jack holds a grudge on James for sticking Becky in the first institution he could find, twenty years ago, when Becky was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He is American.

Becky Gallagher (Amanda Douge)

Becky is Jack's twin sister, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia twenty years ago. She has been missing for four years, and showed up on Jack's doorstep near the end of the first season. Jack is very protective over her and they both share a strong loving bond. She is frequently haunted by hallucinations of a young man named Gabe.

Reception

The series premiere of Mental on FOX improved on its lead-in and averaged a 3.6/6, to go with just under 5.8 million viewers.

Episodes

Season	Episode Number	Original Air Date	Episode Name	Summary
1	1	26 May 2009	Pilot	Dr. Jack Gallagher spends his first day as Director of Psychiatric Services at Los Angeles' Wharton Memorial Hospital trying to win over his colleagues and his boss Nora Skoff.
1	2	2 June 2009	A Beautiful Delusion	Jack and Veronica are called to treat a woman who believes she is pregnant, but the ultrasound reveals there is no baby. Meanwhile, Jack searches for his mentally ill sister, who he thinks is homeless and may be wandering the streets of Los Angeles.
1	3	9 June 2009	Book Of Judges	Jack attempts to give a highly unorthodox treatment to a famous philosopher who is in a catatonic state due to a lightning strike that crippled him and killed his wife. Meanwhile Jack gets in a complicated situation as he feels attracted to a patients daughter.
1	4	16 June 2009	Manic At The Disco	An 8 year old boy suffering from bipolar disorder is secluded to the hospital after an incident with a knife. Jack finds out the only way to help him is by playing a video game existing only in the boy's head. Meanwhile, Nora is having problems with her daughter and Jack continues looking for his missing mentally ill sister.
1	5	23 June 2009	Rolls Of Engagement	A famous actor is admitted to the hospital after having suffered what looks like a psychotic outbreak during his appearance in a Live Talk Show. He confesses that he has faked it to prepare for a movie role, but Jack suspects that he suffers from a serious personality disorder.
1	6	3 July 2009	Rainy Days	Jack is very busy trying to prevent a gambling addict from committing suicide, and in addition to that he has to testify in a trial for murder, as an expert, to prevent that an innocent and mentally incompetent man gets imprisoned unfairly.
1	7	10 July 2009	Obsessively Yours	A man obsessed with cleanliness, which suffers from an obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette's Syndrome, reaches the hospital to surrender to an operation that has never been tried before with the hope that it cures him. Meanwhile, the hospital personnel discovers that is his wife the one that pressures him to get surgery, in spite of the fact that she also has to fight against a serious disease.
1	8	17 July 2009	House Of Mirrors	A 16 year old girl attempts to commit suicide by lighting herself on fire. Jack and his team discover a big secret about her real identity. Meanwhile, Dr. Zan and Jack keep getting closer.
1	9	24 July 2009	Coda	Jack tries to help an autistic traumatized girl discovering the person who murdered her father, since she is the only witness. Meanwhile, Arturo receives the inconvenient visit of his own father, an actor of a soap opera who interprets a doctor in television and thinks he can help his son solve a medical case.
1	10	31 July 2009	Do Over	Billy a construction worker who suffers the physical and psychological pain of an accident at work, starts showing symptoms of an accident almost identical, but more serious that took place over a hundred years ago. Jack and Carl find it difficult to diagnose and treat him. Meanwhile Veronica and Rylan's relationship is put in jeopardy and Jack continues to search for his missing sister.
1	11	7 August 2009	Lines In The Sand	When Clay, a veteran of the Iraq War, shots himself in the hand in front of his family, Jack treats him by trying to help him remember the assault that traumatized him during the war, this gives surprising results.
1	12	14 August 2009	Life & Limb	Arturo and Chloe ask Jack for help to treat Brian, a patient who "by accident" has cut off two of his fingers and refuses to allow a surgeon to re-implant them.
1	13	14 August 2009	Bad Moon Rising	A man who assures to be a wolf man takes Jack and his personnel as hostages in Jack's apartment, where they had met to try to solve the budgetary crisis of the hospital.

External links

• Avances de la Serie Online
• Mental Official Site at FOX.com
• Mental at IMDb
• Mental Official Italian Site
• Mental Official Latin American Site
• Fox España Página oficial de Mental (en español).