TV News and Reviews

Tonight was what you would definitely call an explosive episode. Puns aside, “Bloodshot” was also one of the best episodes of The Mentalist thus far. We begin with Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) getting a text on his cell phone, warning of a bomb nearby. With Lisbon (Robin Tunney) keeping an eye on him, Jane heads into the parking lot, looking for the bomb. He finds a man inside of a van, handcuffed nexted to the explosive device. As you can see from the photo, there is no time to save him. Jane is closer to the explosion and gets hit pretty hard with the blast, giving him a concussion and blood vessel damage to his eyes.

This leaves Jane blind and the most vulnerable we’ve seen him this season. We also discover that Jane hates being vulnerable. After insulting and alienating the entire hospital staff, he takes his sunglasses, cane, and bad mood into work. This leads to some of the most intense Jane-ness we’ve seen as he stumbles around the office, depending on others in the squad to help him get to his favorite couch, or to make him tea. The squad does their best to react to his ornery nature, intense bravado, and inappropriate digging into their personal lives with the usual amount of amusement, chagrin, and irritation–but there’s also a note of indulgence and pity, for they know Jane fears that the condition may be permanent.

What Jane discovers is that his other senses are heightened, and he’s able to do his usual mentalist tricks by depending on smells and touch and the answers to his often blunt questions. He also knows his own squad well enough to identify when they’re upset with him, exchanging eyerolls, or grinning. There’s a wonderful moment between he and Lisbon when he makes her laugh, then touches her face so he can know what it feels like when she’s smiling. Lisbon lets him do it, and it’s a warm scene of friendship–and of course, there’s always just that tiniest hint of more between them.

*SPOILER ALERT* I also liked Jane’s interaction with Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) in this. He teases Cho (Tim Kang) and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman), and spars with Lisbon, but his relationship with Van Pelt has always been unusual. He seems harder on her than the others, often jabbing at her verbally with questions of a bluntly personal nature–and yet he seems to have a certain fondness for her, of sincerely caring what happens to her. We see in this episode that he’s guessed at a bad experience in her past, something that keeps her from having good relationships with men (and prevents her from pursuing the attention she gets from Rigsby). As usual, Van Pelt resents the intrusion, and quickly pretends as if she hadn’t heard him. Jane lets it go, sensing he’s once again hit a nerve.

But what he says sinks in, particularly when Van Pelt finds Rigsby alive and okay after a brutal physical attack from the bomber. I was filled with excited anticipation as they…almost kissed. It was delicious, even in its unrequitedness. I’m hoping this won’t be another moment that Van Pelt sweeps under the rug. Considering the small smiles the two exchanged, I’m thinking things might be different now. *crosses fingers*

Other things of note in the episode: one, I love that Lisbon coolly dispatched an ornery suspect by sneakily zapping him with a taser before he knew what had happened. She’s small but skilled, and that I can buy from a TV cop. I’m also glad that she seems to have returned to her tough cop persona, rather than the suddenly overly feminine hairdo and makeup she appeared with mid-season. Van Pelt’s the girly-girl of the squad–they should let Lisbon be the tomboy she is.

And Patrick Jane was ridiculously charming in this episode–it’s miraculous how he can be both confrontational and inappropriate, yet all I want to do is hug him. The characters in the show react much the same way–even when they’ve been insulted, pushed, annoyed, and taunted by Jane, they still like him and take care of him. It’s because there’s something else there, an impish boyishness and good humor and genuine affection for the people around him. There’s also that vulnerability that showed even more in this episode, and the good intentions he so often has despite his sometimes antagonistic way of going about it.

This episode of The Mentalist also captured both the light and dark sides of Jane’s life. It was rather symbolic that when he was blinded, he saw his past life more clearly than he ever had before. His skills as a scam artist/psychic had made him a lot of money, but had also destroyed a lot of lives. It’s another burden Jane now carries with him.

Watch The Mentalist on CBS, Tuesday nights at 9/8c.

__________

Simon Baker as Patrick Jane and Robin Tunney as Teresa Lisbon, “Bloodshot”, The Mentalist screencaps, c2009 Warner Bros. Television, CBS.

__________

The Mentalist came back tonight with a new episode, “Crimson Casanova”. This episode involved the CBI group investigating the murder of a woman who’d spent the night with the local “pick-up artist”. It was a fun episode, with the sleazy and somewhat dorky Casanova passing his “wisdom” on to the team and even influencing Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) to try out his techniques on Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti). Amusingly, and to the relief of offended women everywhere, she wasn’t impressed in the least.

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) was delightful in this episode, getting to be flirty, pushy, taunting, and bizarre, while using his unusual techniques of getting information out of people. Everything he does is always a tiny bit sensual, as he usually invades a suspect’s personal space in order to fluster them. With that gorgeous smile, soft voice, and gentle aggressiveness, he either seduces or frightens them–or both.

We also got to see Cho (Tim Kang) ramping up the sexy vibe in his undercover work as a pick-up artist. Jane, of course, was coaching him, but it turned out Cho was a natural. It was stunning to see how the cranky and rumpled Cho could turn into hot sexy designer-sunglasses-wearing hottie in no time flat. He also got to show a glimmer of sensitivity with one of the women in the case. It was a nice moment for Cho.

All in all, a good episode. I’m enjoying the balance in these between Patrick Jane’s quirkiness and the rest of the team’s investigative work. And I liked that Lisbon (Robin Tunney) gave Jane a dose of his own irreverent medicine, tweaking him on the nose in the same way he did a suspect. For the show to work, she needs to retain her power in the dynamic, even if it’s just through teasing. A two-way street is always more enjoyable to watch in a relationship. Jane gives the whole team a hard time, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and it’s good when they give it right back.

We also got to see a more serious moment with Jane, when two gorgeous girls try to pick him up at the bar. He declines, telling them he’s married. I’d noticed in previous episodes that he was still wearing the ring, but this was the first time I think it’s been acknowledged. His feelings bled through earlier in the episode, when he chastised the husband of the victim for not caring at all about the death of his wife. The thing that makes us accept Jane’s irreverence and sometime coldness is because we see the chinks in the armor. We see what he’s covering up, what he’s protecting underneath. And that makes him human, rather than just a collection of quirks.

A regretful Jane (Simon Baker), comforted by Lisbon (Robin Tunney), in The Mentalist episode “Red John’s friends”, c2009 CBS.

Watch The Mentalist on CBS Tuesdays, 9/8c.

The lovely Simon Baker, star of hit show The Mentalist, was a guest tonight on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The handsome Australian was a bit more shy than I had expected, but still funny and charming, and like his Mentalist character Patrick Jane, a little bit quirky. Of course this combination is lethal when being interviewed by Jay Leno, who tends to make fun of everything a person says and deliberately misunderstand their stories or jokes until they feel completely flustered, stymied, or embarrassed. This is particularly true if the guest is ridiculously handsome, as Simon Baker is, and not scary enough to intimidate Leno. I’ve been actually looking forward to Conan O’Brien taking over The Tonight Show–sure, Conan is insane sometimes, but he doesn’t seem quite as obsessed with making himself look superior to his guests.

(I’ll always be grateful to Wanda Sykes for gushing over Jude Law in front of Jay Leno, dismissing Leno’s pouting by saying Jay was cute, but when Jude Law walked down the street, buildings fell down, cars exploded…she just went on and on about the sheer force of his beauty, while he sat adorably blushing next to her and Leno tried to look as if he found it all amusing.)

But I digress. Simon Baker did get to tell an awkwardly funny story about a charity offering he made for his son’s school — surfing lessons to the high bidder, which he assumed would be one of the kids whose parents donated to the cause. Turns out the bidding had been opened nationwide, and a 32 year old woman from Texas won. He was completely stunned, and after some putting off, finally went and offered his surfing lesson to a gal who was probably completely euphoric at having won a day with Simon Baker–who actually picked her up in his car and all. He’d thought it would be a quick lesson, as surfing isn’t easy and wears newbies out quickly, but he described the woman as “quite fit’ (and no doubt running on endorphins of being so close to Baker). She lasted three hours, until Baker himself was so tired he joked that he’d started trying to get her doused by bigger waves so she’d wear out. He then apoligized to her on national TV for his evilness.

Honestly, I give him credit. He neatly dodged questions from Leno about the lady’s attractiveness, in deference to his wife and respect for the lady. And a three hour lesson is a lot to ask of an actor who’s just doing a charity stint, especially since he thought it would be for a child. Actors can be wild and crazy, but a lot of them are just regular people like the rest of us, and the strange situations they sometimes get placed in with media and fans must be tough to get used to.

And speaking of strange situations, Simon Baker was actually nice enough to stick around for the entire show, though he wasn’t rewarded for it (except perhaps for his own amusement). Jay’s follow-up guests were Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from the “reality” show The Hills. I have to say they were not as obnoxious as I’d thought they’d be, but I always judge a guest by how they treat the other person sitting on the couch–and Heidi and Spencer ignored Simon Baker completely. Here’re two actor wannabes, sitting next to an actual TV and movie actor and after saying hello, they completely forget he exists. I’ve always enjoyed when performers stick around during other interviews–you often get a different sort of interview and some funny interactions. Not this time. Simon Baker was there, but never made it on camera during their entire interview.

I’ll definitely be poking around the Net for video of Simon Baker’s other interviews. Jay wasn’t actually at his worst here, but I’d be interested to see if Baker’s more relaxed with other hosts.

____________________

Simon Baker screencaps, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, February 9, c2009.

____________________