Patrick Jane and 'The Mentalist' gang are riding high in the American ratings and set to return for a fourth season. John Byrne swings by the cast and creator - and looks at the other top ten Stateside drama or comedy shows.
The latest Neilsen season ratings from across the Atlantic tell a few tales. No 'Desperate Housewives' in the top 20 most popular primetime network shows. No 'Grey’s Anatomy'. No '30 Rock' either, but that’s just my personal gripe.
When you take out reality shows such as 'American Idol' and 'Dancing with the Stars', 'Sunday Night Football' and current affairs’ staple '60 Minutes', there are a few surprises amongst the ten drama or comedy shows that make up the rest of the top 20.
What may surprise Irish viewers is the massive popularity of 'NCIS' and its spin-off, 'NCIS: Los Angeles', which are the top two non-reality, sports or news programmes. Over here, neither NCIS show makes much of a dent, but they really hit a nerve with the American audience. So too does third-placed 'The Mentalist' – but that show is also very popular here in Ireland.
Now going out on Thursday nights on RTÉ One One (you might remember it used to be a Sunday night staple), 'The Mentalist' enjoys a strong, dedicated following; people who enjoy its light style and fun approach to solving often gruesome crimes.
Starring Simon Baker as the eponymous mentalist (try saying that with a mouthful of popcorn), it offers an ideal hour of winding-down and can’t but help to gently ease viewers into the summer months.
The cast is strong, and each of the main characters get enough airtime to keep the actors happy: quite often, that’s the key to a hit show. It also helps if you’ve good writers and people behind the scenes who can keep a show in focus.
Bruno Heller is the man behind 'The Mentalist'. Born and raised in London, he moved up through the ranks in the film industry before making a mark as a writer. Locating to Los Angeles in 1997, he hit paydirt with 'Rome', which first appeared on HBO in 2005.
The massive costs of a show of that nature meant it never went beyond a second season, but Heller learned from the experience. Coming up with 'The Mentalist', a show almost the exact opposite of 'Rome', he suddenly had a massive network hit on his hands, and the fun procedural hasn’t looked back.
Now in its third season on RTÉ One, it’s been greenlighted for another year in the United States and looks set to run for several more.
When Heller came up with the concept of the show, he knew that Patrick Jayne had to be someone who could only play the game by his rules. “He doesn’t solve crimes by any method that the police are familiar with. He’s essentially . . . genuinely a mind reader in the sense, in the un-supernatural sense of that term. He’s just a very good judge of people,” Heller insists. “He picks up little things that other people don’t pick up.
And in these days when there’s a plethora of procedural shows ('CSI', 'Criminal Minds', 'CSI', you name it), 'The Mentalist' stands out, Heller feels, because “it’s a procedural but essentially we’re playing that group - that group as a little family that are learning to get along with each other; and it’s much more about them and their lives in the unit than it is kind of procedural.
“The show is unique in a number of ways, I think,” adds Heller. “It is a detective procedural but it’s not about the science of things. It’s not about DNA and evidence and hair samples and that sorts of things. It’s about human beings. It’s about human nature, and the way this unit solves crimes; the way Patrick Jane solves crimes is not by finding evidence but by getting into the minds of the people he’s dealing with and sometimes tricking them into revealing the truth. Sometimes finding other ways around to get to the truth. There’s also a lot more . . . I think there’s a lot more humour and kind of human drama than we’re used to seeing these days in police procedurals.”
Mentalist cast member Tim Kang agrees with Heller, and also feels that Simon Baker adds his own distinctive quality to the much-loved character: it’s not just a case of Patrick Jayne sipping tea and making wise cracks. Furthermore, he thinks the show’s mix of characters also helps to give it something different from the norm.
Kang says: “The Mentalist is unique in that there’s so many procedurals out there . . . and this is a procedural to a degree, but I believe what Simon brings to and what his character brings to this particular procedure kind of is a new idea. And the team dynamic as well is a little bit more - I mean I don’t want to go so far as to say real but it’s more - yeah real; realistic. There are goofs and we’re not so straight and by the numbers all the time. We sort of peak into these characters’ lives a little bit more in depth than the other procedurals, I think.”
For Kang, the empathic aspect of 'The Mentalist' adds to its appeal. “What The Mentalist offers is that sort of more inside look into human beings rather than the procedural side,” he feels. “Yes we have the procedural side and we are very familiar with the procedural side but it gives us a little bit more insight into what these guys go through as they’re solving these crimes and going through these situations. So it’s fun, it’s a lot of fun and the humanity of it comes out a little bit more I think.
We’ll leave the last words to Simon Baker. “I think Jane is a great character because there is still so much we don’t know about him, and hopefully in future seasons he will become even more fully developed.”
And what about Jayne catching his great nemesis, the ever-slippery Red John?
“I have no idea.”
According to Nielsen’s season-to-end of April ratings, American’s ten top prime time, non-reality shows are as follows:
1: NCIS
The title stands for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which tells you that it’s basically a varation of CSI, revolving around a fictional team of special agents who conduct criminal investigations involving the US Navy and Marine Corps. Eight seasons in, it’s more popular than ever – hence the spin-off. (RTÉ Two, FX)
2: NCIS: Los Angeles
This spin-off stars former Batman sidekick Chris O’Donnell and erstwhile rapper LL Cool J as two members of an LA-based unit. Like the original NCIS, it focuses on the characters in the team and is regarded as ‘comfort TV’ for its primary, US audience. (3e, Sky One)
3: The Mentalist
Take one former psychic, add in three-piece suits, tea-sipping and plenty of smart quips, and you’ve got a hit show. Simon Baker put the quiff into quirky with a George Michael haircut and smile – but behind the smile lies a man seriously damaged by serial killer Red John. (RTÉ One, Universal)
4: Criminal Minds
Much-loved and very dark (for a prime time, mainstream show) procedural that follows the exploits of a Behavioral Analysis Unit team as they track down a spooky assortment of killers across the USA. It features a great cast and strong characters – but has the recent cast chaos caused irreperable damage? (RTÉ Two, Sky Living)
5: CSI
The franchise to beat all franchises. The original of the species may have lost several cast members down the years (including former lead, William Petersen) but continues to be a big hit with viewers as the Las Vegas-based criminalists solve grisly crimes with the appliance of science. (RTÉ Two, 3e)
6: Two and a Half Men
Until Charlie Sheen’s recent spectacular fall, this was the number sitcom that looked as though it would last for many more years. But following Sheen’s very public spat with exec producer Chuck Lorre, the future of the show about two brothers and a boy is uncertain. How Ashton Kutcher will fare as Sheen's replacement only time will tell. (TG 4, Comedy Central)
7: The Big Bang Theory
‘Bazinga!’ The only comedy giving Charlie Sheen and co a good run is this laugh-a-second sitcom (also from Chuck Lorre) about a bunch of geeky guys and the pretty waitress who lives across the hall. Jim Parsons has deservedly won awards for outstanding performances as the insufferable theoretical physicist, Sheldon Cooper. (E4/Channel 4, RTÉ Two, 3e)
8: Body of Proof
Dana Delany took a gamble by quitting 'Desperate Housewives' to lead her own show, but Body of Proof’s mix of 'House' and 'CSI' (crimesolving by quirky medic) has proved an instant hit with American viewers, and the cast includes Sonia Sohn, aka Kima Griggs from The Wire. (Coming to RTÉ and Alibi)
9: Blue Bloods
Former Magnum PI star Tom Selleck made a massively impressive return to prime time TV in this procedural cop show about three generations of an Irish-American family who are all steeped in the NYPD. The strong cast includes Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynihan and Jennifer Esposito. (Sky Atlantic, coming to RTÉ)
10: The Good Wife
This cracking courtroom-cum-personal drama is about a mother who returns to law after her politician husband suffers a fall from grace, and revolves around a wonderful ensemble cast led by former ER star Julianna Margulies that features Alan Cumming, Josh Charles and Archie Panjabi. (More4/Channel 4, RTÉ Two)
John Byrne
