Blue Bird

A lousy finale to go with a lousy 6th season. Some shows go off the rails jump the shark after a few good seasons; this show just drove itself off a cliff and into a bottomless pit. What a shame. It started out edgy and creative and bold and turned into total mush -- like somebody left a cake out in the rain in MacArthur Park. It turned from a witty drama into a goofy soap opera. The writers and directors should be ashamed. Better yet...they should be arrested because what they did was criminal.

My overall rating of "The mentalist"'s Season 6: 2/10.

In Season 6 "The mentalist" takes some of its sharpest genre turns and zigzags. It sheds its heavily-serialised jokey police procedural skin bit by bit to reveal the layer underneath, which has always been visible through the translucent covering, but now becomes vibrant, which is the dramatic, tantalising overarching plot. Then it briefly crosses the shore of romcomy implications to jump into the river of unfunny comedy where the heavily-serialised police procedural crystallises right back onto its skin, except worse in quality, as its waters can't draw out the crystallised dramatic gold by interplay with the overarching plot and themes. Its overarching skin cracks into tiny, poorly-done, pathetic arcs. But then "Blue Bird" comes about. The river of unfunny comedy leads into a wondrous, shiny sea of actually reasonably funny comedy.

And then the show beaches itself in the desert of romcom mawkishness, tearing its flesh against rocks of cliché. I don't know whether the 7th Season is its being taken for taxidermy to be proudly displayed in a museum for posterity, or an inglorious end as fertiliser, and I don't care. I can't take any more of it. S6 killed "The mentalist" for me.

To address specifically this episode: Jane's too wimpy and too much of an open book emotionally; his manipulativeness is in-character but everything else isn't. The comedic interlude in his room is really great and hilarious - it makes next to no sense logically, but the pure comedic value is worth it. It's been an almost forgotten feeling for me to feel something other than cringe while watching "The mentalist". I don't love this bit, but it gives an interesting counterfactual: if "The mentalist" was a pure comedy, which it wasn't and shouldn't seek to be, this is what it would hopefully look like - and it's glorious, but just not the genre I tuned in for.

And then everybody drowns in sap, and is crushed by the cliches. The usual "The mentalist" flaws and the bizarre stock footage insert in the middle don't help, but any flaw looks good against the backdrop that is the plane scene, and Lisbon's decision.

It's June 2021. Yet as a I near the homestretch of serial streaming this series for the first time, without having left even one review to date, I am FORCED to pen something after the shock I just received with the ending of season 6.

Let's be clear. This was a GREAT show. I really should say IS a great show, because in spite of the heart attack I just had at the news the producers committed series Hari-Kari by going all-romantic with Jane and Lisbon, there were great and laughing out loud funny moments (as usual) in the episode.

Here's the thing. I came off of a serial replaying of all 7 MONK seasons, wondering if any of the other 2000 era detective shows could match what Tony Shalhoub had done with his character in that show. That show was COLUMBO and ROCKFORD FILES good. Maybe better.

When I first saw that Simon Baker was the star of The Mentalist I was despondent. Baker had played an arrogant, smug, cutthroat financial executive in the most excellent post-2008 crisis film MARGIN CALL. Baker was so good in that movie I concluded that the actor was just playing himself. From his top of his curleylocks hair to the bottom of his effected walk, how could this guy play anything other than "smug"?

And I was kind of right. Simon Baker simply has a congenital look of smugness to his natural facial expression. But in a brilliant move Baker and the producers of The Mentalist (think, the brilliant creator of ROME, Bruno Heller), did not fight that image. They played into it!

And, to my surprise, Baker is an outstanding actor. Combined with the unique storylines of Heller, this show trapped me in and I've been enjoying the ride for all these six seasons.

But the question with a highly successful, long running series is always the same.... how long before they screw it up? It pretty much always happens. Anyone remember NORTHERN EXPOSURE? A great example of a series we came to love and trust taking its own life toward the end. So sad when this happens. For me, The Mentalist made it this far; Episode 22 of Season 6. There have of course been many missteps to date, and the reveal of Red John is controversial, but in my view the sign of a truly great show is that it can survive its foibles.

But the admission of love by Jane, and the subsequent kiss between Jane and Lisbon had me throwing up all over my TV (well, laptop actually. And I'm being metaphorical). I saw it coming but I kept screaming, "No! No! Don't do it! Have Lisbon leave the show. That would be much better. And credible. Less credible would be for her finance to be another serial killer. Like what happened to Van Pelt. Disappointing, yes. But it would not have driven the show over the cliff, Thelma and Louise style. Which is what they did the moment Jane professed his love to Lisbon.

So, am I going to watch season 7? Of course. Like a say, I love the show.