I’m a crime tv junkie, always have been, always will be. I love having them in the background, it’s such a comforting presence for me. So when I discovered The Mentalist I was immediately drawn in. The premise of the show was that this dude was a fake psychic and now turned into a police consultant. Kind of similar to psych, only difference was Jane had a much darker history than Shawn.

Jane and the entire Mentalist team made the show what it was. Lisbon and Jane had this odd dynamic, where she was technically the boss, but the reality was she let him do whatever he wanted. Jane cared about Lisbon no matter how much he denied it in the beginning. Then we have my favourite – Cho.

I loved those episodes in the earlier seasons where we could get a little bit more history on the main cast. That definitely fell off later on. The humour was subtle but effective, rarely dark though.

Rigsby and Cho were my favourite duo. One had this monotone and expressionless face, the other was this hottie that was a mess. Somehow they made the best team ever. They got work done and at the same time they complimented each other personalities so well. Again in the later seasons this fell off as well.

These little aspects of the show definitely played a backseat to the real storyline: the actual crime.

I don’t think The Mentalist ran for too long. It had the perfect amount of seasons. Things just got majorly convoluted after Lisbon and Jane got together. They had characters not exist in the main storyline anymore, and the essence of the show was initially the OG 5. When they were gone, they had that new FBI environment, I frankly lost interest.

Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the new characters they introduced in the FBI season – I just wish we could have seen more interactions between them and Rigsby/Grace. The showmakers did an excellent job at incorporating new characters, I’m just bitter about them getting rid of the old ones.

I’ve left some pretty non-scathing spoilers in this post. But you really have to watch the show to get a feel for all the mysteries and getting all the answers. I wouldn’t want to ruin that, I had so much fun watching to end up at the conclusion eventually. It’s such a fun piece of television!

I hope I didn’t come across as a hater, The Mentalist is probably one of my favourite crime shows out there. I have rewatched multiple times – but I usually stop right after the whole Red John incident. I like to think that that’s the universe where everything ended. It was wrapped up in a tight little bow at that point. Yes after that the episodes were good as well, they just weren’t the neat conclusion, it felt prolonged.

I love The Mentalist. It’s funny, occasionally dark, mysterious, and nothing is ever obvious. Also love every how they logically explain Jane’s thinking process, that always fascinates me. The characters all bring so much, and the actors have done a lovely job at giving the show life.

If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend watching! It’s the perfect show to unwind to after a long day. But that could be just, figuring out fictional murderers is soothing to me.