handful_ofdust

See, there's something about The Mentalist that I really love, but I think it's just Simon Baker in the role. He IS terribly annoying, but it's like the rest of the show just disappears around him. Which, actually, isn't good. The ensemble cast needs to step it up. I know Baker's the focus, but still. I just love the premise so much--maybe it's because I would LOVE to be able to read people so easily. Maybe that's why it enthralls me. And yeah, I'm totally the one who gets annoyed with all that "ooh something funny's gonna happen" bullshit music, and stupid behaviour from characters that would get them slapped in real life. And I want Robin whatshernose (the lieutenant or whatever rank she is) to stop just being a fawning wide-eyed sycophant at the feet of Patrick Jane and actually BE A FUCKING COP. Argh. And some of the plots are asinine--I want there to be mysteries that are difficult to solve. And for them to deal with the moral implications of Jane's constant manipulations of people. And unfortunately, to me the most interesting thing is of course Jane's wackadoo connection/ relationship with Red John the serial killer. Now THAT'S the interesting part of the show. And it's unfortunate how little they deal with it, making almost every episode self-contained, when it would be much more interesting to have it crop up in every episode, if only in small ways. Has the success of almost every single fucking HBO serialized show not taught network TV anything? Christ on a cracker! But I'm still (shamefully) mesmerized for some reason...maybe the mentalist is hypnotizing me? Really looking forward to Tim Roth in Lie to Me, which has almost exactly the same premise, and has its season premiere tonight.