The MentalistFive
Thursday, 9pm
At last, Alan Partridge's biggest fan gets his own series... What? It's a US crime drama about a former TV psychic who helps out detectives in California? Oh. So I guess the new hit American show They're Sex Swappers, Lynn is about undercover transgender Feds, is it?
The Mentalist is a massive hit in the US. Not in a Dexter way, not in an HBO critical acclaim way. This is a hit in the same way the crass CSI: Miami trounces the original, whimsical and occasionally dark CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. People have posted videos of star Simon Baker with soft focus heart surrounds on YouTube. The mentalist himself, Patrick Jane, was a Derek Accorah-style psychic charlatan until a terrible tragedy befell him (the mystery of what that was is spunked by ad break two), then switches to Derren Brown mode and exposes his own secrets – neuro-linguistic programming, auto-suggestion, body language reading etc – and uses them to help catch baddies.
Great premise, awful execution. The whole point of procedural crime drama is that you reveal the clever deductive process, whether it's CSIs following the evidence or a Behavioural Analysis Unit (as in Criminal Minds) teasing out the psychological profile of the "unsub". Jane is essentially an updated Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot – he sees stuff that we didn't spot. But the writers don't get round to the best bit: having all that stuff explained. You don't need to gather everyone in the drawing room, but at least reveal the detail that made you realise who the killer was.
Oh, and if you want to keep the audience guessing whodunnit, don't cast Zeljko Ivanek (see below).
No comments:
Post a Comment