Thoughts on The Mentalist: Season 6 (2013/14)
Having finished watching the season finale of the sixth season of The Mentalist, I feel I can now have a nice retrospective over the series as a whole. Oh boy...
OK, so this series can be split into two halves - the Red John half and the post-Red John half - which were separated by a mid-series gap. The Red John half was one of the most intense and surprising collection of TV episodes I have ever seen, and the mid-season finale was stunning. I think Simon Baker has always been the thing that pushed The Mentalist above the clichéd US crime dramas that swarm out Televisions now. He has this amazing sense of being quirky, but realistically quirky. I just think it was fantastic.
Then, the post-Red John half came in, and this was where things died down a bit too much. The first several episodes were great and continued the story well, and then it just seemed to trail off into episodes with Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon in them. Then there was a mini-arc surrounding a phone-hacking with ex-CBI members, which ultimately led to a boring and non-sensical resolution that didn't tie-up any loose ends. Hey, it was this guy all along! Forget how! The reveal of Red John left questions unanswered, but it didn't feel irritating at all, as it all finished well. It made sense, even the elements that were't explained.
This anti-climactic resoltuion was then followed by several forgettable episodes and then a mini-arc surrounding these missing girls, which went nowhere for me and seemed to be biding time for something greater. Then suddenly it was the season finale and...what an amazing end to The Mentalist. It was emotional and brilliant, but then it turns out that the series will return for a seventh season (I presume later this year). I felt a little upset that it didn't end there. It was the direction the series had gone in and now it had gotten to the satisfying ending. I didn't want the show to end, but it seemed such a good place to end it. I hope next season gives us a new story arc to rival Red John as The Mentalist hasn't been the same since. Then again, we do have that secret organisation collection of names that hasn't been mentioned for ages...
OK, so this series can be split into two halves - the Red John half and the post-Red John half - which were separated by a mid-series gap. The Red John half was one of the most intense and surprising collection of TV episodes I have ever seen, and the mid-season finale was stunning. I think Simon Baker has always been the thing that pushed The Mentalist above the clichéd US crime dramas that swarm out Televisions now. He has this amazing sense of being quirky, but realistically quirky. I just think it was fantastic.
Then, the post-Red John half came in, and this was where things died down a bit too much. The first several episodes were great and continued the story well, and then it just seemed to trail off into episodes with Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon in them. Then there was a mini-arc surrounding a phone-hacking with ex-CBI members, which ultimately led to a boring and non-sensical resolution that didn't tie-up any loose ends. Hey, it was this guy all along! Forget how! The reveal of Red John left questions unanswered, but it didn't feel irritating at all, as it all finished well. It made sense, even the elements that were't explained.
This anti-climactic resoltuion was then followed by several forgettable episodes and then a mini-arc surrounding these missing girls, which went nowhere for me and seemed to be biding time for something greater. Then suddenly it was the season finale and...what an amazing end to The Mentalist. It was emotional and brilliant, but then it turns out that the series will return for a seventh season (I presume later this year). I felt a little upset that it didn't end there. It was the direction the series had gone in and now it had gotten to the satisfying ending. I didn't want the show to end, but it seemed such a good place to end it. I hope next season gives us a new story arc to rival Red John as The Mentalist hasn't been the same since. Then again, we do have that secret organisation collection of names that hasn't been mentioned for ages...
Comments
Post a Comment