Mentalist: Chinatown

I get a kick out of it whenever the mentalist wanders off and the rest of the cast calls out for him like Tarzan: Jane! Jane! His little bit with Lisbon at the beginning was one of those gags that relies on giving people a limited number of choices and then leading them to them. Take away a square and you aren’t left with many common shapes, and he literally drew the circle for her. As much as I like his character, I think the rest of the cast is pretty much a joke. Lisbon looks like she’s half asleep most of the time, and the other cops remind me of the flunkies from Matlock. All the same, the guest actor who played the killer in this week’s episode was really quite good, especially when we see his transformation at the end. Like Chinatown, it was all about the water. Every now and then Jane’s mask slips and we see the hard, unflinching person beneath. The more I see of the show, the more I think that his jovial appearance is pretext, as much a carefully constructed disguise as that of last night’s killer.

I haven’t heard anything more about the cancellation of Eli Stone, but they’re still running episodes and the show is still one I enjoy watching. While this week’s episode wasn’t outstanding, neither was it particularly weak.

I was sure that Jonas Blaine’s bit at the end of this week’s episode of The Unit was going to be a practical joke on Dr. Death. Get him all riled up by calling his bluff about his military experience and then humiliate him. I suppose it could still work out that way, but maybe not, too. This week was Mission: Impossible with trial runs—it was interesting to see them run different scenarios acted out as if they were happening for real. I’m nobody’s military hawk, but I like this show. It regularly raises my pulse rate more than just about anything else I watch.