The Mentalist Review:You don't need to be psychic to see that it's one of the best things on TV

I came across a review of The Mentalist by Independent.ie, which praises Robin's work, as the article says:

[...]"she's damn good: Lisbon is a believable, grounded and fully rounded character, the balls and heart of the show, in perfect complement to Baker's more cerebral contributions."

For the full article, click on Read More

Source: independent.ie

Mentalist exhibits a sixth sense for dramatised cool- You don't need to be psychic to see that it's one of the best things on TV. . .





Thursday May 12 2011
Gripping: The Mentalist stars Simon Baker as Patrick Jane and Robin Tunney, right, who plays Agent Theresa Lisbon, also pictured below.
It's yet another in a seemingly endless line of police procedurals. There's nothing especially edgy about it. The crimes are solved handily enough in the end. Oftentimes no great drama happens. It's all quite gentle and easy-going compared to the whizz-bang pyrotechnics of the likes of CSI. And its title reminds you of that moment when Alan Partridge fled a stalker in deepest Norfolk, using a decidedly un-PC term to describe the fellow.


Yet The Mentalist is one of the best things on TV right now.
Following the adventures of the fictional California Bureau of Investigation, this has been a phenomenal success Stateside since launching in 2008, with Bruno Heller, who brought us the groundbreaking HBO series Rome, at the tiller. And as Season 3 really gets into its groove on RTE, the programme is getting better and better.
Its star is Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker, a consultant with the CBI who has an uncanny ability to spot the truth and know when someone else is not telling it. Everyone assumes Jane is psychic -- indeed, he used to make a good living pretending to have a sixth sense, of which more later -- but he admits he's not, and constantly repeats his mantra: "There's no such thing as a psychic."
Rather, he's a very clever and sensitive man who uses his powers of deduction and observation, knowledge of human behaviour and well-tuned sense of intuition to solve mysteries and catch the bad guys. That's one of the best things about The Mentalist: nothing he does, and nothing that happens, is ridiculous, outlandish or impossible. When you see it explained, it all makes perfect sense.
In the pilot episode, for example, he reads the body language of a couple whose daughter is missing. He then asks the wife if she suspects her husband of having murdered the girl. She protests, but he instructs her to ask straight out, saying, "In my experience, a wife will generally know if her husband is lying." She does -- he is.
There's no magic formula to what Jane does, no supernatural element, as he keeps explaining, to general disbelief and his own bemused exasperation. People's eyes dilate when they speak of something they want, so he'll watch for this giveaway. We divert the conversation when we're lying: this is another 'tell' in our behaviour.
The Mentalist is consistently funny, smart and intricately plotted; the tone is cool and laidback sometimes, but they know how to ratchet up the tension, too. And notably, the show is very good at shifting gears, in theme and mood and subject matter. There's a running storyline, concerning a sociopathic serial killer called Red John, who murdered Jane's wife and daughter in revenge at a slight. Every few episodes, the Red John narrative will intersect with the weekly story; and these programmes are much darker, stranger, scarier and more emotionally gruelling than usual.


But crucially, the show never lurches awkwardly between one and the other; it can flip the switch from playful to powerful, from flippant to fearsome, without the viewer noticing the joins in between. A sure sign of excellent writing and acting, and an overall producer confidence in what they're doing and where they're going.
The heart of The Mentalist, of course, is Jane, and Baker plays him perfectly. He's cocky but not arrogant, philosophical without being dogmatic, mischievous but not a total pain in the neck. In short, Jane is a very likeable, interesting and sometimes infuriating character. But most importantly, he always engages the viewer's attention. We want him to succeed, we empathise with his travails (and indeed those of the whole team), we like spending time with this person.
It also helps that Australian actor Baker essays a very convincing American accent (we still shudder at the thought of Hugh Laurie's molestation of that accent on House -- he sounds like a caricature). His first big role was as Hollywood gigolo Matt Reynolds in the great LA Confidential, and Baker has since appeared in The Devil Wears Prada and, on television, The Guardian. This is his big, big break: he has reportedly just signed a staggering $30m three-year deal, which proves how popular the show is, and how important he is to the project.


But he's not the only reason this programme is pressing the pleasure buttons of millions of TV fans. The support cast is uniformly excellent also, especially Jane's boss -- though he rarely obeys her orders -- Agent Theresa Lisbon, played by Robin Tunney. There's a great chemistry between the pair, not too dissimilar to Cybil Sheppard and Bruce Willis in Moonlighting, though not quite as flippant and arch as that show.


Tunney's dad emigrated from Ireland as a teenager; she had a classic Irish Catholic upbringing in Chicago (an uncle is even a local politician). She's done well in movies like The Craft and End of Days, and TV shows like Prison Break. But this is her first real starring role, and she's damn good: Lisbon is a believable, grounded and fully rounded character, the balls and heart of the show, in perfect complement to Baker's more cerebral contributions.


Irish Independent