The Mentalist

The Mentalist
File:The Mentalist 2008 Intertitle.png
Genre	Police procedural Comedy-drama
Created by	Bruno Heller
Directed by	Chris Long David Nutter
Starring	Simon Baker Robin Tunney Tim Kang Owain Yeoman Amanda Righetti
Opening theme	"Theme from The Mentalist"
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	116 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Bruno Heller David Nutter Simon Baker
Producer	Charles Goldstein
Production location	California
Running time	40–44minutes
Production companies	Primrose Hill Productions Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 23, 2008 (2008-09-23) – present

The Mentalist is an American police procedural television series that debuted on September 23, 2008, on CBS. The show was created by Bruno Heller, who is also its executive producer. The show follows former "psychic" Patrick Jane (Simon Baker), who is a consultant to the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI), using the highly developed observational skills he previously employed to "read" people's minds. The show's fifth season premiered on September 30, 2012. On March 27, 2013, CBS renewed the series for a sixth season.

Synopsis

The Mentalist follows Patrick Jane, an independent consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI) based in Sacramento, California. Although not an officer of the law, he uses skills from his former career as a successful yet admittedly fraudulent psychic medium to help a team of CBI agents solve various crimes. The ultimate goal of Patrick Jane in his cooperation with the CBI is to track down the killer known as "Red John," who was responsible for the brutal murders of his wife and daughter.

Jane formerly had a lucrative career as a con man, successfully posing as a psychic medium and enjoying near-celebrity status. Five years before the events in the show's pilot episode, he appeared on television to claim that his paranormal abilities helped the police profile a serial killer named Red John. Red John, angered by the perceived slight, murdered Jane's wife and young daughter in revenge.

Jane subsequently abandoned his job as a psychic and teamed with the CBI, using his skills to help them solve various crimes. His main focus is on the cases involving Red John or Red John copycats. He admits to faking the supernatural aspects of his skills, often asserting that "there's no such thing as psychics," yet he has finely honed skills in cold reading, hypnosis, and pickpocketing, as well as powerful observational skill and a deep insight into the human psyche and behavior.

Production and distribution

The show often sets episodes in fictional locales with names like Salinger Mill and Rancho Rosa. Like the majority of American television shows, The Mentalist is mostly filmed within the studio zone in Los Angeles County, but occasionally films a few scenes on location in Sacramento. The structure used to represent the CBI headquarters in Sacramento is the back of the Pico House in downtown Los Angeles. On October 15, 2008, CBS ordered the first season of The Mentalist and the show has subsequently been renewed annually since 2010 both in the domestic market and overseas.

TNT began syndicating The Mentalist in the fall of 2011.

Cast and characters

Main article: List of The Mentalist characters

Lead actor Simon Baker in 2013.

• Simon Baker as Patrick Jane — the show's protagonist and the titular mentalist. Jane spent his childhood in traveling carnivals with his mean-spirited con-man father who taught him to see all outsiders as marks. After meeting his wife, Angela Ruskin, who was also a carny, the pair left carnival life. Honing the skills his father taught him, Jane became a successful psychic and medium. After using his 'psychic' skills to demeaningly describe Red John on television, which resulted in the murders of Angela and Charlotte Jane (Patrick's wife and daughter), Patrick now works as a criminal consultant for CBI. He has developed close friendships with his colleagues, especially his boss, Senior Special Agent Teresa Lisbon. He is driven by inconsolable remorse over the deaths of his wife and daughter, and while he usually presents a jocular, teasing face, he shows his darker side when dealing with his nemesis. At those times, Jane becomes intense, focused, and willing to go to great lengths to capture and even kill him. He owns a classic French car, a robin's egg blue Citroën DS, and is an avid tea drinker.
• Robin Tunney as Senior Special Agent Teresa Lisbon — a senior special agent with the CBI and leader of the Serious Crime Unit. Though Jane often annoys her with his unusual behavior, she views him as a valuable member of the team. Likewise, she is the only member of the team Jane trusts with details of his past. Lisbon's mother was killed in a drunk driving accident, leaving her to care for her brothers and her abusive, alcoholic father. Her team is responsible for the Red John case, although the responsibility for catching Red John was taken over briefly by Sam Bosco, her mentor when she was a junior agent, until he and his team were murdered by one of Red John's operatives.
• Tim Kang as Special Agent Kimball Cho — a special agent with the CBI and a member of Lisbon's Serious Crime Unit. Cho has a dry, deadpan sense of humor and is good friends with team member, Special Agent Wayne Rigsby. He is often the one who sees through Patrick's parlor tricks. Although he was secretly called Ernie by the Bosco team (who also refer to Rigsby as Bert), Cho claims not to mind as "Ernie's the clever, handsome one." He was a member of a street gang, the Avon Park Playboys, which garnered him a juvenile, though sealed, record and time in juvenile hall. He enlisted in the Army, serving in Special Forces, before becoming a police officer. Because of his difficult childhood, Cho often tries to befriend young people who have committed crimes but are not yet lost causes.
• Owain Yeoman as Special Agent Wayne Rigsby — a special agent with the CBI and a member of Lisbon's Serious Crime Unit. Rigsby serves as the team's arson specialist, leaning on his two years as a San Diego arson investigator. Rigsby is good friends with Cho and has developed romantic feelings for another team member, Grace Van Pelt. Although against regulations, the two began seeing each other secretly. Although the pair later ended the relationship, after it became public, to protect both of their careers, they remain close friends. Rigsby has had to endure various professional and personal difficulties as a result of the actions of his father, a former career criminal involved in a notorious biker gang.
• Amanda Righetti as Special Agent Grace Van Pelt — a special agent with the CBI and a member of Lisbon's Serious Crime Unit, she is the team's newest member. She has a deep belief in spirituality and mysticism, and will butt heads with Patrick when he dismisses supposedly psychic phenomena or otherwise does or says something offensive or inappropriate. She continues to be close to Rigsby despite their relationship coming to an end. She has a subdued personality and is very organized, which leads Jane to deduce during the first season that this is because she is hiding some deep emotional trauma. She was engaged to FBI Agent Craig O'Laughlin, whom she was forced to kill after he was revealed to be a Red John operative intent on killing Teresa Lisbon and Madeline Hightower.

Episode list

Main article: List of The Mentalist episodes

DVD releases

Warner Home Video has released the first four seasons on DVD in Regions 1, 2, and 4. Season 5 will be released on September 17, 2013.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Dates
		Region 1	Region 2 (UK)	Region 4 (AUS)
The Complete First Season	23	September 22, 2009	March 8, 2010	September 23, 2009
The Complete Second Season	23	September 21, 2010	November 8, 2010	November 10, 2010
The Complete Third Season	24	September 20, 2011	October 10, 2011	October 26, 2011
The Complete Fourth Season	24	September 18, 2012	October 8, 2012	October 31, 2012

Reception

The pilot episode had an audience of 15.6 million viewers in its first airing, and 7.8 million in a re-airing three days later. The December 2, 2008 episode, "Flame Red", was the highest-rated television show of the week, marking the first time a program in its first season had achieved that distinction since Desperate Housewives four years earlier.

Awards and nominations

Director of Center for Inquiry West & IIG West, James Underdown presents Editor Jimm Gadd with award August 21, 2010

• On January 7, 2009, the show won the award for "Favorite New TV Drama" at the 35th People's Choice Awards.
• Simon Baker received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 2009 Emmy Awards.
• The series was nominated for The International TV Dagger at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards, an awards ceremony presented by the British Crime Writers' Association.
• Simon Baker received a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama at the 67th Golden Globe Awards.
• Simon Baker received a nomination for Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
• On August 21, 2010, The Mentalist was honored with an award for its scientific and critical thinking content, from The IIG during its 10th Anniversary Gala. The award was accepted by Editor Jimm Gadd.

U.S. ratings

For the ratings of individual episodes, see List of The Mentalist episodes.

Season	Episodes	Timeslot (EST)	Original Airing			Rank	Viewers (in millions)
			Season premiere	Season finale	TV season
1	23	Tuesday 9:00 pm	September 23, 2008	May 19, 2009	2008–09	6th	17.52
2	23	Thursday 10:00 pm	September 24, 2009	May 20, 2010	2009–10	10th	15.37
3	24		September 23, 2010	May 19, 2011	2010–11	9th	15.24
4	24		September 22, 2011	May 17, 2012	2011–12	12th	14.57
5	22	Sunday 10:00 pm	September 30, 2012	May 5, 2013	2012–13	24th	11.82
6	TBA		September 29, 2013	2014	2013–14	TBA	TBA

External links

• Official website
• The Mentalist at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• The Mentalist Cast Full Listings