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The Mentalist
	; The Mentalist logo (season 1).
Genre	Police procedural; Drama
Created by	Bruno Heller
Directed by	Chris Long; David Nutter
Starring	Simon Baker; Robin Tunney; Tim Kang; Owain Yeoman; Amanda Righetti;
Country of origin	USA
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	33 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bruno Heller; David Nutter
Producer(s)	Charles Goldstein
Location(s)	California, USA
Running time	approx. 43 minutes; (without commercials); 1 hour (with commercials)
Production company(s)	Primrose Hill Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 23, 2008 – present
External links
	Official website

This article is about the television series. For other uses, see Mentalist (disambiguation).

The Mentalist is an American crime procedural television series which debuted on September 23, 2008, on CBS.^[1]

[edit] Premise

The Mentalist follows Simon Baker as Patrick Jane, an independent consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI) based in Sacramento, California. He has a remarkable track record for solving serious crimes by using his amazing skills of observation. Jane also makes frequent use of his mentalist abilities and his semi-celebrity past as a psychic medium using paranormal abilities he now admits he feigned. He abandoned his pretense out of remorse when his attention-seeking behavior attracted the attention of a serial killer who killed his wife and daughter. The CBI's real-life counterpart merged with another agency in 2007 to become the "Bureau of Investigation & Intelligence."

[edit] 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. ^[2] It also introduced some of Jane's backstory, indicating that his wife and daughter had been murdered by a serial killer known as "Red John" five years before the series began.

On October 15, 2008, CBS ordered a full season of The Mentalist.^[3] 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.^[4]

On May 20, 2009, CBS renewed The Mentalist for a second season, which premiered on September 24, 2009, in the US. ^[5] and on September 22 on CTV in Canada^[6], as well as September 28, 2009, in Australia.

In Italy, it has been aired from April 28, 2009, on Mediaset pay-per-view Joi on the Premium Gallery and as of September 2, 2009, on Mediaset Commercial channel Italia 1. No date has been announced for other regions.

The series has moved to Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET, following CSI. ^[7]

On November 6, 2009, TNT announced that it had obtained exclusive syndication rights for The Mentalist and would begin airing old episodes of the series starting in the Fall of 2012. ^[8]

[edit] Awards

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 has been nominated for The International TV Dagger at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards, an awards ceremony presented by the British Crime Writers' Association. ^[9]

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.

[edit] Concept

Due to the main character's ability to notice seemingly insignificant details, to draw conclusions from them and profile people, the show has drawn comparison to other television shows, most notably House, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Life, Monk, Profiler, and Psych.^[10]^[11]^[12] However, it has been noted that all these shows use a concept that was initially used by Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes novels.^[10]^[13] While it has been acknowledged that the concept is not a new one, the show has been praised for its "thoughtful execution". ^[14]

[edit] Characters

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker)

The series protagonist and the Mentalist of the show. He had earned a living as a psychic, but after series antagonist Red John murders his wife and daughter in retaliation for Jane's mocking, Jane admits he was a fraud and now works as a police consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation. Though a bit eccentric, he is very perceptive and much of what he finds helps solve the cases they are investigating. He is brilliant and very in-tune to what is around him, but is often cocky, playful, and annoyingly right, all characteristics that earn him friendship in each of his colleagues. They are, however, often annoyed by him, to the point of taking turns of who go with him on trips. However, he has shown a much more sinister side concerning Red John, a serial killer who murdered his family. When dealing with him, Jane becomes intense, focused, and willing to sacrifice anything, including his life, to catch him.

Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney)

Though Patrick often annoys her with his unusual behavior and going behind her back, she views him as an invaluable member of the team and will back him up on some of his most unusual theories. Her mother was killed in a drunk driving accident, leaving her to take care of her brothers and her alcoholic father. She is also the only member of the team he trusts with details of his past and they work well together, despite his attitude often causing her problems with local law enforcement. Her team was responsible for the Red John case until Agent Sam Bosco became director of the new Serial Crimes Unit, which took over the responsibility for catching Red John. She and agent Bosco – Lisbon's mentor when she was a junior agent – dated a long time ago and they share a dark secret.

Kimball Cho (Tim Kang)

Often portrayed as Jane's "right-hand man," he seems the closest to Jane, often requesting help regarding finding evidence, though he does get annoyed with Jane's habit of not telling him everything he knows concerning a case. Cho has a dry sense of humor and is shown to be friends with Rigsby. Probably the most down-to-earth of the group, he is often the one who sees through Jane's parlor tricks. When Jane tells Van Pelt that he was moving a toothpick across the table with telekinesis, Cho simply says, "He's blowing on it." He was in juvenile hall prior to serving in the military and then joining the CBI. He was secretly called "Ernie" by the Bosco team, who also refer to Rigsby as "Bert". Something he didn't mind because "Ernie was the smart one".

Wayne Rigsby (Owain Yeoman)

Arson specialist, he develops strong feelings for Grace Van Pelt, causing him to be overprotective of her. He didn't initially act on them, as romance between agents is against regulations, but the two gave in to their feelings and have begun seeing each other secretly. He is a good friend to Jane, though, like the others, is often annoyed by his ways. He is shown to have a good friendship with Cho. His father was a biker, which led to his own hatred of bikers.

A running gag in the show is Rigsby's obsession with food. Often, during stakeouts, he is seen either eating or looking for food in the car.

Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti)

The newest member to the CBI. She has a deep belief in religion and psychics and will butt heads with Patrick every time he dismisses it or does something she sees as morally or religiously inappropriate. Van Pelt is secretly involved with Rigsby, after months of reluctance due to the regulations prohibiting romantic relationships between agents. She is very strict, organized, and somewhat high strung, but is overall a very valuable addition to the team.

[edit] Recurring characters

Red John

The unseen antagonist of the series. Jane has stated that "Red John" sees himself as a "showman", as he always makes sure that his trademark, the smiley face drawn with the victim's blood, is the first thing one sees before one sees the body. The trademark face is created by using the index, middle and ring fingers of his right hand together in one motion, Red John wears rubber gloves for this act. After Jane mocked Red John on a talk show, Red John retaliated by killing Jane's wife and daughter. Though only focused on three times during the first season, he is portrayed to be very intelligent. For instance, Red John hacked into the CBI's computer system and has been using the system to monitor them for some time. So far he has been known to have three accomplices, a man that has been mentioned to have died in prison and that man's son, who held Red John in high regard. The third was revealed to be Bosco's assistant in the episode "His Red Right Hand." However, Jane states Red John doesn't have partners but tools. The episodes that Red John is involved in are gradually becoming more and more frequent as is Jane's obsession over "Catching"(finding) him and "taking care of him"(Killing him).

Virgil Minelli (Gregory Itzin)

Minelli was the Special Agent in Charge of the CBI until the second-season episode "His Red Right Hand," wherein he retired from the CBI after the murders of Sam Bosco and his team in the same episode.

Sam Bosco (Terry Kinney)

Bosco was a Senior Special Agent with the CBI. He was Lisbon's mentor when she was a junior agent. He became director of the new Serial Crimes Unit, which took over the responsibility for catching Red John. He had a severe hatred for Jane as he was not a police officer and Bosco believed he corrupted the people around him. He also had secret feelings for Teresa (that everyone besides her seemed to notice) even though he was married. Bosco's team was murdered in the second-season episode "His Red Right Hand," shot by their secretary Rebecca, who was a mole sent by Red John. Rebecca, in turn, was fatally poisoned by a person assumed to be Red John while being transported to prison. After she died, Jane was distraught. He visited Bosco in the hospital, where he was in critical condition following his attempted murder. He asked Jane to kill, not arrest, Red John, to which Jane responded that was always the plan. Bosco then whispered something inaudible to Jane and went into cardiac arrest. Later, the CBI team was seen mourning Bosco back at headquarters after attending his funeral.

[edit] Main crew

Chris Long
David Nutter
Bruno Heller
Ashley Gable
Dick Cheny
Charles Goldstein
Andi Bushell
Eoghan Maheny
Leanne Moore

[edit] Episode list

Main article: List of The Mentalist episodes

[edit] Ratings

Season	Timeslot (EST)	Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season	Ranking	Viewers (in millions)
1	Tuesday 9:00pm/8c	September 23, 2008	May 19, 2009	2008–2009	#6	17.47^[15]
2	Thursday 10:00pm/9c	September 24, 2009	Spring 2010	2009–2010	#4	17.08 (to date)

[edit] US ratings

[edit] Season 1 (2008–09)

#	Episode	Air Date	Timeslot (EST)	Rating	Share	18-49 (Rating/Share)	Viewers (m)	Weekly Rank (#)
1	"Pilot"	September 23, 2008	Tuesday 9:00 P.M.	9.5	15	3.5/9	15.6	#10
2	"Red Hair and Silver Tape"	September 30, 2008		9.7	15	3.6/9	15.5	#6
3	"Red Tide"	October 14, 2008		9.4	14	3.4/8	14.9	#7
4	"Ladies in Red"	October 21, 2008		9.7	15	3.5/9	15.3	#6
5	"Redwood"	October 28, 2008		10.1	16	3.9/9	16.1	#7
6	"Red Handed"	November 11, 2008		10.1	15	4.0/10	16.5	#8
7	"Seeing Red"	November 18, 2008		9.9	15	3.5/8	15.8	#7
8	"The Thin Red Line"	November 25, 2008		9.7	15	3.7/9	15.9	#5
9	"Flame Red"	December 2, 2008		11.7	18	3.8/9	18.8	#1
10	"Red Brick and Ivy"	December 16, 2008		11.6	18	4.2/11	19.3	#2
11	"Red John's Friends"	January 6, 2009		12.2	18	4.0/10	19.5	#4
12	"Red Rum"	January 13, 2009		11.2	16	3.8/9	18.1	#7
13	"Paint It Red"	January 18, 2009	Sunday 10:00 P.M.^{[fn 1]}	10.0	17	4.6/12	16.4	#10
14	"Crimson Casanova"	February 10, 2009	Tuesday 9:00 P.M.	12.0	18	4.2/10	19.7	#3
15	"Scarlett Fever"	February 17, 2009		11.3	17	3.8/9	18.3	#5
16	"Bloodshot"	March 17, 2009		9.8	16	3.2/8	15.5	#6
17	"Carnelian, Inc."	March 24, 2009	Tuesday 10:00 P.M.^{[fn 2]}	11.2	18	3.2/9	17.8	#4
18	"Russet Potatoes"	March 31, 2009	Tuesday 9:00 P.M.	10.5	16	3.8/9	16.9	#6
19	"A Dozen Red Roses"	April 7, 2009		10.3	16	3.6/9	16.8	#6
20	"Red Sauce"	April 28, 2009		10.5	16	3.7/9	16.9	#4
21	"Miss Red"	May 5, 2009		10.4	16	3.6/9	16.7	#5
22	"Blood Brothers"	May 12, 2009		10.2	16	3.3/8	16.2	#5
23	"Red John's Footsteps"	May 19, 2009		10.4	16	3.7/10	17.2	#5

^ January 18's episode followed the AFC Championship Game
- 6:44-10:21pm ET: 40.64 million viewers, 14.7 (18-49 demo rating), household peak: 25.5 rating (10-10:15)
- 10:21-10:34pm: AFC Championship Post Game - 25.44 million viewers, 9.0, household peak: 15.0 rating
- 10:34-11:34pm: The Mentalist 16.39, 4.6, household peak: 10.6 rating
The NFC Championship peaked at 6:00-6:15pm with a 25.4 household rating.
^ March 24's episode was pushed back following a Presidential news conference.

[edit] Season 2 (2009–10)

#	Episode	Air Date	Timeslot (EST)	Rating	Share	18-49 (Rating/Share)	Viewers (m)	Weekly Rank (#)
1	"Redemption"	September 24, 2009	Thursday 10:00 P.M.	9.6	16	3.6/10	15.07^[16]	#11
2	"The Scarlett Letter"	October 1, 2009		10.1	17	3.8/10	15.75	#6
3	"Red Badge"	October 8, 2009		9.4	16	3.3/9	14.70	#6^[17]
4	"Red Menace"	October 15, 2009		9.7	16	3.5/10	15.38 ^[18]	#6
5	"Red Scare"	October 29, 2009					15.53	#8
6	"Black Gold and Red Blood"	November 5, 2009				3.6/10	16.21	#8
7	"Red Bulls"	November 12, 2009		10.1	17		16.17	#9
8	"His Right Red Hand"	November 19, 2009		10.0	17	3.7	15.85	#6
9	"A Price Above Rubies"	December 10, 2009				3.6	16.37
10	"Throwing Fire"	December 17, 2009					15.77	#5

[edit] UK ratings

[edit] Season 1 (2009)

The Mentalist airs on Thursday nights at 9pm on Five. The first season will be released on DVD February 1, 2010 in the UK.

Episode Number	Episode	Air Date	Viewers (million)^[19]	Rank^a
1	Pilot	March 26, 2009	4.21	#1
2	Red Hair and Silver Tape	April 2, 2009	3.80	#1
3	Red Tide	April 9, 2009	3.45	#1
4	Ladies in Red	April 16, 2009	2.91	#2
5	Redwood	April 23, 2009	3.03	#2
6	Red Handed	April 30, 2009	2.87	#2
7	Seeing Red	May 7, 2009	2.57	#5
8	The Thin Red Line	May 14, 2009	3.00	#2
9	Flame Red	May 21, 2009	2.89	#2
10	Red Brick and Ivy	May 28, 2009	2.08	#3
11	Red John's Friends	June 4, 2009	3.03	#1
12	Red Rum	June 11, 2009	3.16	#2
13	Paint it Red	June 18, 2009	3.12	#2
14	Crimson Casanova	June 25, 2009	2.85	#2
15	Scarlett Fever	July 2, 2009	2.90	#2
16	Bloodshot	July 9, 2009	2.52	#2
17	Carnelian, Inc.	July 16, 2009	2.34	#2
18	Russet Potatoes	July 23, 2009	2.19	#2
19	A Dozen Red Roses	July 30, 2009	2.19	#2
20	Red Sauce	August 6, 2009	2.24	#3
21	Miss Red	August 13, 2009	2.19	#3
22	Blood Brothers	August 20, 2009	2.85	#3
23	Red John's Footsteps	August 20, 2009	2.87	#2

^a Ranks are for FIVE weekly, not for overall TV.
^* Overnight ratings. On August 20, 2009, the night of the double-bill season finale, FIVE aired two half-hour specials at 8pm and 8.30pm. The first "The Mentalist: Revealed" was watched by 1.22 million and was the 22nd most watched broadcast on FIVE for the week and the second "Inside The Mentalist" was watched by 1.31 million and was the 17th most watched broadcast on FIVE for the week.

[edit] DVD releases

DVD Name	Region 1 (US and Canada)	Region 2 (UK and Ireland)	Region 2 (Italy)	Region 4 (Australia)	No of discs	No of episodes
The Complete First Season	September 22, 2009	February 1, 2010	February 23, 2010	September 23, 2009	6	23

[edit] International broadcast

Country	Network	Start date
Australia	Nine Network	Season 1: October 5, 2008 Season 2: September 28, 2009
Austria	ORF 1	March 1, 2009
Argentina	Warner Channel	November 6, 2008
Belgium	VT4 (Dutch) BeTV/La Une (French)	February 4, 2009 May 18, 2009/September 2009
Brazil	Warner Channel	November 6, 2008
Bulgaria	PRO.BG	September 22, 2009
Canada	A Channel (English) CTV (English) V (French)	September 23, 2008 January 9, 2009 September 2, 2009
Czech Republic	TV Nova	November 30, 2009
Croatia	RTL Televizija	March 4, 2009
Denmark	TV 3	February 2, 2009
Finland	MTV3	September 3, 2009
France	TPS Star/TF1	April 20, 2009/ January 6, 2010
Germany	Sat.1	March 1, 2009
Greece	Nova Cinema	February 4, 2009
Hong Kong	TVB Pearl	July 15, 2009 ^[20]
Hungary	RTL Klub	February 2, 2009
India	WB	TBC 2010
Ireland	RTÉ One	April 16, 2009
Israel	yes stars Action HD	November 16, 2009
Italy	Joi Italia 1	April 28, 2009 September 2, 2009
Latin America	Warner Channel	November 2008
Malaysia	NTV7	July 11, 2009
Middle east	MBC Action	April 2009
The Netherlands	SBS 6	January 1, 2009
New Zealand	TV2	August 10, 2009
Norway	TV3	January 7, 2009
Philippines	C/S 9	June 15, 2009(?)
Poland	N Canal+ Poland	December 3, 2008 April 16, 2009
Portugal	RTP2 AXN	May 12, 2009 September 19, 2009
Singapore	Channel 5	July 28, 2009
Slovakia	TV Markíza
Spain	La Sexta/TNT	January, 2009
South Africa	M-Net	January 14, 2009
South Korea	tvN	April 6, 2009
Sweden	TV3	February 17, 2009
Switzerland	TSR 1 (French) 3 Plus TV (German) La1 (Italian)	September 2, 2009 March 23, 2009 August 26, 2009
Thailand	True Series	July 9, 2009
Turkey	DiziMax	February, 2009
United Kingdom	Five/Five USA	March 26, 2009