Why The Mentalist is over for me

Season 4 of The Mentalist started this week, and I must admit to being keen to see where it went after last season’s finale, when Patrick Jane finally confronted and killed his nemesis Red John – or did he? I posted at the time that I hoped the series would use this watershed as a chance to do a bit of a reboot: the formula has got a little stale, and whereas Patrick used to be a quirky rebel whose maverick ways get results, too often he was starting to come across as an obnoxious prick with no social skills. So did the series take this exciting new opportunity? Of course it bloody didn’t.


Of course it turns out that while the man Jane killed was a Very Bad Man – he and his wife have a girl chained up in their basement to prove it – he wasn’t Red John. He must know Red John – who, for a lone killer, seems to have a network of operatives that would put most people’s Facebook friends list to shame – but he wasn’t the man himself. Because Jane helped rescue aforementioned girl, and made a speech about deserving revenge (which turns out to be a Big Lie, him having realised the lack of Red Johnness in his victim), he somehow manages to get off shooting someone in cold blood, with the big reveal at the end being that His Hunt, like Celine Dion’s heart, Will Go On.

But really, must it? Does this mean we have another series that is more of the same? Having played the ‘he’s just an ordinary guy’ card, presumably when/if we do unmask the real Red John he’ll have to be more interesting: so either someone we thought was dead (Terri the unfortunate psychic?), a key member of the team (which is possibly why the head of the unit came over all comedy villain at the start of the episode), or the devil himself, otherwise the whole thing will be a massive anti-climax (though I must admit to liking my friend Steve’s suggestion, that the killer be Patrick Jane, who is revealed to have psychotic episodes).

The problem is I no longer care. The show has hit a wall for me, and now it’s missed the opportunity to do something bold, even the ever entertaining Cho isn’t enough to make this must see TV for me. I suspect I’ll dip in and out of it, but this season feels like the moment when it just became a ‘murder of the week’ show, and that’s simply not enough to keep me hooked.

Gratuitous wet t-shirt photo, you say?