Last night’s season premiere of The Mentalist addressed an issue that has always sorta bugged me in this type of show. You’ve got a precinct of police officers and detectives working to solve crimes every day, all of them fully disciplined and licensed to uphold the law, apprehend suspects and question witnesses. Enter expert Mr. Know-it-all, who has nary a minute of real policing experience under his belt, and suddenly he’s Dirty Harry … without a badge.
This isn’t something new to television, though right now there are a few shows of note that follow this absurdity. Castle is one, for example. Oh, and Bones. Then there’s the new show The Forgotten and, of course, Psych. All of these shows feature non-cops pretty much carrying out the law to some degree, most of the time sans-gun. But, in the end, they are not cops and should not be privileged to the same resources of true detectives. So, finally, someone stood up to Jane and told him like it is.
Jane certainly has a lot to offer to the detectives he works with, though he hardly stands back when he should be way, WAY back. When it comes time to actually prosecute these felons, I imagine it wouldn’t take much to throw the case out of court because evidence was obtained by an unlicensed citizen. He’s a smart guy, for sure, but does he really know enough about the law to know what things he really shouldn’t be touching, let alone be in the vicinity of?
This episode started out reminding me of Psych in that the team initially tried to do their jobs without Jane’s help, though it was a bit over the top — Van Pelt not being able to simply start the car, for example. This is something we see on Psych all the time, and perhaps this was simply poking fun at the show (just as Psych has done on more than one occasion.) I really hope it was an isolated incident, because how are we supposed to take these guys seriously if they can’t do a simply job without Jane?
Sam Bosco is brought on as the new lead investigator for the Red John case, and though he’s introduced as a sort-of bad guy, he brings up the point I started out with here: Jane is not a cop, and even if he was, his judgment is clouded by revenge. Bosco came off as a bit of a dick, but he told it like it was, with all honesty, and appears to know what he’s doing. Why should he give Jane any updates on the case at all? He shouldn’t.
However, without the Red John case, things on The Mentalist might get pretty boring. I imagine Red John will come back onto the scene and fully involve Jane in a way that even Bosco can’t deny. Just wait and see.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Sep 25, 2009 @ 15:30 EST5EDT
Hmm, I have to agree with you on the count of civilians and cop shows. I’ve noticed this recent trend of civilians (Bones, Castle, etc.) solving crimes better than the crime-solvers (who just carry guns and put the cuffs on). It never really bugged me until last year. However, it truly bugged me during Castle’s premiere when Castle, as opposed to merely surveying decides to deliberately ‘fish,’ takes on a subject and potentially blows it for the department. Last year, I loved his rakish charm, but this time I thought – ‘Really? No one shoots him? Really?’
I like that for Psych’s season premiere (or the ep with Mohinder) we actually see Sean and Lassiter on equal footing of solving the crime while making the wrong conclusions along the way.
So, while I’d like to pretend I have the crime-solving skills of a Numb3rs genius, in the interim, can’t we pretend, at least 40% of the time, that the elite crime fighting units are just that?
Nitpick: there was actually a major plot point that revolved around Bones carrying and using a gun.
Red John is purposely involving Jane … giving the cases to a different team is not going to stop Jane’s team from dealing with him.
I miss the old theme music. :(
I liked the new opening credits – they had a real late 60’s/early 70’s type feel. But shows like this have to be careful, as you point out, they are based on a certain suspension of disbelief about what the police would or would not allow. If they start to let reality intrude too much, it can quickly deflate the narrative possibilities.
i loved the first season but now the show is getting boring every week its the same thing jane acts like a ass but is right at the end there are sexual tensions with rigsby and van pelt but they dont act on it cho tries to be the hard ass cop when interrogating a suspect lisbon tries to bring in jane and atleast tone him down but he just laughs in her face this show needs to do something to mix it up maybe they should kill some one off but they need to do something because this show is getting boring if not this show will go down with heroes who i dont think will be back for season 5 unless they do the same trust me