CBS’ ‘The Mentalist’

Simon Baker’s Patrick Jane reminds me of another smug fictional blond — Gilderoy Lockhart, from the Harry Potter books, “five-time winner of Witch Weekly’s Most Charming Smile Award.” If you didn’t know this crime drama, you would think “The Mentalist” was a romantic comedy. Or, with the poster’s freaky ghostlike haze around his head, that Jane dies next season and is solving crimes in heaven. CBS is not trying too hard here for a hit show that doesn’t need help. “I’m surprised they did not advance the creative this season,” one marketer said. 

Grade: C+