I've become hooked on yet another crime show thanks to my penchant for satisfying my curiosity for popular things. After putting in the first disc of the first season of The Mentalist, which airs on CBS, it took no more than 15 minutes for Ashley and I to while away an afternoon absorbed in the show. Psychological manipulation is the bedrock of confidence men, illusionists, and TV mentalists. All three of them are fundamentally the same thing: professional, influential liars. They use the untruth to uncover the truth.
Simon Baker plays Patrick Jane, a mentalist-turned-police-consultant. He uses his powers of persuasion to help solve crimes in the wake of the murder of his wife and daughter by a serial killer named Red John, who haunts Jane throughout various episodes in the first season. Prior to his personal tragedy, Jane had been a TV charlatan like so many we all (hopefully) flip past on late-night TV. He's flanked by California Bureau of Investigation agents played by Robin Tunney, Tim Kang, Owain Yeoman, and Amanda Righetti. Tunney was a hot up-and-comer years back, Kang you've seen in Shell and AT&T U-Verse commercials (and the excellent Rambo 5), Yeoman was in Generation Kill, and Righetti was in the Friday the 13th remake.
Now I get why Aussie-born Baker has become something of a sensation. He plays "American" much better than Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, or Hugh Jackman. I really dug his short bit in Women in Trouble when I saw it at South by Southwest. He's got a sure-footed, lived-in style of acting that's common among all the greats. I'm not saying the man is an instant legend, but he's more than got the chops to get there over a long career. The show is well-scripted and tightly-paced, with the potential to run for a long while.
