Has Patrick Jane met his mental match? That’s the question fans of THE MENTALIST will be asking themselves when last season’s only bona-fide break-out hit returns this September 24. And here with your first look is the reason why: Agent Sam Bosco (OZ alum Terry Kinney) who is brought on board (for at reported seven episodes) to assist Team CBI in their hunt for the elusive Red John serial killer. But don’t let the folically challenged Bosco fool you. Not only does the by-the-book Agent possess the mental capacity to go tête-à-tête with the folically blessed Patrick Jane, he shares a history (and this being TV, a dark secret!) with Agent Lisbon. 
If you’re anything like this TV Addict, odds are fairly good that you haven’t stopped listening to “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and “Rehab” since the curtain fell on last night’s GLEE premiere. Of course, the popularity of CBS’ entire schedule is evidence enough that this TV Addict and your average television viewer don’t always see eye-to-eye. Which is why we thought we’d ask you to put your critics hat on and post away with your thoughts on GLEE, who should win AMERICAN IDOL, and last night’s season finales of 90210 and THE MENTALIST.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING:
AMERICAN IDOL (8PM CBS, CTV in Canada)
Adam and Kris are given three songs each to woo your vote. Unless of course you’ve already made up your mind, making tonight’s penultimate episode of IDOL pretty much pointless.
90210 (9PM CW, Global in Canada)
Assuming a Jim Walsh sighting and the return of Brenda aren’t enough to entice you back to the infamous zip code one more time, how does this sound: Shenae Grimes’ Annie Mills finds herself on the wrong end of one of the most memorable meltdowns since Emily Valentine tried to burn down the West Beverly High Homecoming float.
THE MENTALIST (9PM CBS, CTV in Canada)
Red John returns! Something that would probably mean more to us had we jumped on the Simon Baker bandwagon earlier in the season.
GLEE (9PM FOX)
Do you really need to ask what we’ll be watching at 9PM tonight? Look around!
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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING:
AMERICAN IDOL (8PM FOX, CTV in Canada)
The top 3 finalists sing two songs each. Translation: It would probably behoove FRINGE fans to set their PVR/DVR for a few extra minutes in order to accommodate the inevitable AMERICAN IDOL overrun.
FRINGE (9PM FOX, CTV in Canada)
After JJ Abrams single-handidly revitalized the STAR TREK franchise with a 72.5 million dollar record-breaking opening weekend, Leonard Nimoy returns the favor by beaming down to FRINGE to play the mysterious and thus far unforeseen founder of Massive Dynamics Dr. William Bell.
90210 (9PM CW, Global in Canada)
Annie Mills Graduate! Annie Mills Gradu… err… sorry, we’re just practicing our chant since tonight marks our first West Beverly High prom in quite some time.
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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING:
AMERICAN IDOL (8PM FOX, CTV in Canada)
The remaining five interpret songs popularized by the Rat Pack.
FRINGE (8PM CBS, Global in Canada)
Now far be it from us to tell Olivia, Peter and Walter how to do their job, but maybe after they look into tonight’s serial-killer-of-the-week they wouldn’t mind taking a look at this whole swine flu thing. We’re just sayin’
90210 (9PM CW, Global in Canada)
And the #1 sign May sweeps has begun: Naomi’s never before discussed big sis surprises everyone by returning to town.
NEW & NOTABLE:
NCIS (8PM CBS, Global in Canada)
Because it’s never too early for a little fall TV preview, Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J drop by NCIS giving us an early look at next fall’s NCIS spinoff which takes place in the NCIS Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles.
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Our Paley Festival adventure continues with a report from Friday night’s panel honoring THE MENTALIST featuring the cast (Simon Baker, Robin Tunney, Owain Yeoman, Amanda Righetti, missing in action Tim Kang) and creative team (Bruno Heller and Chris Demetral).
On the show’s origins:
Creator/executive producer Bruno Heller’s basic pitch for THE MENTALIST was Sherlock Homes, with a spin. “Essentially it was our attempt to get back to an old fashioned detective in which we tried to create a framework for a bravura performance by a great actor and this is the result.”
Inspiration for Thomas Jane:
“If you go to any city in America, any part of town, you’ll find a psychic on the block who is essentially applying the same trade as mentalists,” explains Heller. “They’re trying to create the illusion that they can read your mind, that they can see beyond the veil. And what they’re doing is essentially using genuine nature skills of empathy… to create the illusion of supernatural powers. And that seemed to be a very interesting moral position to be in because they’re essentially performing the function of a psychoanalyst or a priest. But at the same time they’re lying about their powers. And least that’s my opinion. I think the interesting thing about the psychics is that half the country will say they’re, it’s not real, they’re charlatans, the other half will say, no, they are truthful and profound things about them. And it’s precisely that line that mentalists walks along.”
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By: Aleks Chan
It been established – both ratings-wise and in the press – that CBS’s THE MENTALIST is the season’s only true hit. Starring Simon Baker as a former TV psychic who helps nab murderers for the California Bureau of Investigation (CBS has a crafty knack for surrounding its procedurals around important-sounding government agencies no one has ever heard of), it plays up what BONES has been doing for awhile now, but in a tasty, poppable way, so that you have no reason to object to watching it while it’s on, but will completely forget after the fact.
Whatever recreational drug CBS has been spoon-feeding its viewers, it has become especially popular during a time when viewers want escapism they don’t have to think about. It’s TV at its trendiest: when real world problems get hairier, it gets easier. Which is fine – THE MENTALIST is the kind of breezy, set-it-and-forget-it programming that makes for a nice refresher after busying oneself over something as complicated and twisty as LOST. And that can be afforded by Simon Baker, who as Patrick Jane, reads people with such a palpable sense of glee, that you can forgive just how absurd the show’s initial premise is (his psychic facade ended after the murderer he was pretending to profile killed his family).
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