When I saw that The Mentalist was set behind the scenes of a chef’s contest, I was right at home. Good food, good TV … I’m sold, right? Alas, it was not be, as the only recipe that came from it was the recipe for murder.
I’m not talking about the “take one drunk brother, one pregnant and estranged wife, one disgruntled sous chef, a mistress, a restaurant going under and several fierce competitors and wind up with a murder and some red herrings” recipe. I instead refer to the interesting Google search I did for the ricin recipe. No, I’m not looking to kill anyone (this week) but I was fascinated that by cooking castor beans you could end up with a deadly poison.
Some say that there’s no accurate recipe available for cooking ricin on the Internet. Other sites mysteriously have their accounts suspended … perhaps because their recipe was too accurate? Have I discovered a mystery greater than the one presented to us on this week’s Mentalist?
Yes, and no. On the one hand, I found the mystery a little boring (though it did have quite a few twists), but I think that’s also because I had high expectations based on the subject matter. On the other, I didn’t guess whodunit in the first 15 minutes as I often do with this show, so that’s something.
I think what really irked me was that all of the forward motion we’ve been getting on character development this season came to a screeching halt in “Red Herring.” The dynamics between Jane and Lisbon could have taken place at any time during the series, and the most meaningful interaction they had was when he pickpocketed her keys and she needled him about his driving. We’ve already been there.
The last scene was supposed to be so meaningful, I get that, with Lisbon instead of Jane connecting with the victim’s pregnant wife. The whole “living with a drunk” sympathizing was supposed to give us some more insight behind Lisbon’s facade, but it just didn’t resonate with me. We got nothing with Grace and Rigsby, nothing with Cho … it was just an empty episode.
Jane bugging the chefs in the kitchen was the highlight for me. I loved watching him read the people based on their cooking style, and when he caused the kitchen fire so he could spike the soup with the pepper — and set up the real killer to reveal herself — it was awesome. I love Jane when he’s annoying.
I leave you with this one burning question that permeated the whole episode for me: what’s with the scene-setting subtitles? Do the producers suddenly think the viewers are confused by run-of-the-mill scene changes? The most perplexing mystery of them all….
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Mar 06, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
One of the few times this show has faked me out. When Dinah Meyer’s name came up in the opening credits, I was sure she would be the killer, but they wasted her on the role of the wife. Instead it wound up being my second choice, purely based on the actor.