The Mentalist
CBS | Release Date: September 23, 2008
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: This role is tailor-made for Baker, who has a flair for playing irreverent characters who are crucial to the success of the system even as they tweak its authority figures. Read full review
80
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: In its solidly crafted premiere, the CBS drama demonstrates admirable restraint while still telling a reasonably interesting story. Read full review
80
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: The Mentalist is safe, predictable, manufactured crime drama … and it works. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
Season 1 Review: Psychological sleight of hand can't fill an hour every week. For that you need complicated, interesting crimes and complicated, interesting characters solving them. The Mentalist seems prepared to deliver just that. Read full review
80
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: Stunning opening suggests the potential. It's Baker's show, and he excels. But guest stars impress, too. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyGillian Flynn
Season 1 Review: The tricks he performs are overshadowed by the glee with which Baker performs them. Like any good grifter, he gets a genuine thrill out of entertaining, manipulating, or confusing people. Read full review
75
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: The formula--must find murderer of beautiful woman before last commercial break--predates the dinosaurs, but also incorporates some satisfying twists. Read full review
75
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: The Mentalist may be a copy, but it's a well-done copy sparked by an actor who has come into his own as a TV star. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyRobert Abele
Season 1 Review: Because as much as Baker's suavely sly version of a gotcha artist is a welcome addition, thanks to a few not-so-hidden laws of character-actor placement, you'll guess the pilot scenario's killer before anybody else. Read full review
70
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: The CBS show has very little dramatic heft or distinction, but it's wily and brisk enough to engage you for an hour. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: The Mentalist is anything but irksome, proving once again that watchable television isn't so much about originality--if something hasn't been done before, there might be a reason--as it is about execution. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: It's not groundbreaking TV, but the pilot does a good job of introducing the characters, their relationships, their potential relationships. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: Mr. Baker keeps The Mentalist easy on the eyes and brain. Read full review
70
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Baker and his wily line readings and intimidatingly sly stares can snap the show out of occasional stupors. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalDorothy Rabinowitz
Season 1 Review: Its semi-psychic hero is intriguing enough and confident enough--not everybody can sneak a hypnosis-inducing trance into an exchange with a reluctant witness as deftly as he can--to bring viewers under his spell. Read full review
70
SlateTroy Patterson
Season 1 Review: Its detective plots are cozily formulaic, its defining twist cheerfully preposterous. As cop-show comfort food, it's a kind of California fusion cooked up to appeal to people fed up with techno-beat lab scenes. Read full review
60
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: The results are satisfying, and suspenseful, yes, but also a little bit stupid and predictable, too. Read full review
60
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Baker has an unforced masculinity that allows him to play likable bastards like this, and with the other regular characters (played by Robin Tunney, Owain Yeoman, Tim Kang and Amanda Righetti) so far ciphers at best, he's able to carry the show by his lonesome. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: There's an old-school feel to the storytelling (shades of "Columbo") that makes it feel comfortable--perhaps too comfortable, or at least too easy. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Baker does possess a certain roguish charm, and writer Bruno Heller ("Rome") and pilot-directing guru David Nutter mine that--as well as the central character's slightly menacing backstory--to try and invest the series with a bit of depth, mostly to little avail. Read full review
50
New York PostAdam Buckman
Season 1 Review: Too many serial killers threaten to overwhelm The Mentalist, whose charismatic lead character can stand on his own, if the show's producers would only realize that murders committed singly can be just as interesting as serial murders, and just as difficult to solve, too Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Smart guys from the outskirts of society have been solving tough cases entertainingly at least as long as Sherlock Holmes. The Mentalist simply presents another, along with no compelling reason either to tune in or turn off. Read full review
50
PopMattersCynthia Fuchs
Season 1 Review: Patrick dramatizes his sense of superiority, intimidating and irritating just about anyone who comes in contact with him....The Mentalist does offer its own charms, chief among them Baker’s low-key, apparently complicated sarcasm. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik
Season 1 Review: As the lead, Simon Baker is too one-note smirky for me. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)John Leonard
Season 1 Review: And so far, so-so. Read full review
40
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: The smirky cynicism, savage mockery of New Age verities and prickly atheism of its lead character could have made The Mentalist fascinating (if not altogether pleasant) viewing. Instead, it turns down the same formulaic path as CBS' other police procedurals, a sort of CSI-with-a-fake-crystal-ball. Read full review
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