The Mentalist

A little list of things I like about The Mentalist though, because I came in expecting your usual crime show with a jerk genius and people getting slapped in the face and, to my very pleased surprise, I wasn’t quite right about that.

• Patrick Jane is a very observant man, but instead of acting superior and calling people dull (looking at you, Sherlock) he uses what he knows to help people –not just solve riddles. He helps people.
  In fact, he also shares his knowledge. In 16 episodes, there were several scenes in which he tried to explain and teach his coworkers how to do what he does.
• Theresa Lisbon is emotionally guarded, but she’s never painted a sa bad person or a bad leader for it. She keeps her cards close to her chest, and that’s it. No pressure for her to be more emotional, which is refreshing.
• Wayne Rigsby is the softest puppy ever. Which, for a male character who is the resident “Manly Man” is rare enough. Sure, he’s got machismo, but you really get the feeling he’s going (and trying) to move on past that, which is really nice, especially considering it’s absolutely not presented as something that’ll harm his masculinity in any way.
• Kimball Cho is just awesome. I know the quiet/stoic Asian man is a problematic trope and that’s not a cool point for everyone, but what I appreciate with Cho is how they did the silent asian man. Usually when I see asian men on TV/in movies, they’re depicted as what I’d call “angrily/agressively stoic”. As in, I often get the feeling those characters would snap at you for laughing. Here it’s just how he is –and in fact, there’s a sarcastically blunt side to him that kind of softens/belies the stoicism imo.
• Grace Van Pelt is caring but refuses to put up with people’s shit. She’s shy but also capable of standing up for herself and reaching out when she feels it’s necessary, and most importantly (so far at least) I feel like she could have been a Patrick Jane.
  I mean, she’s very perceptive and so far she’s the one who seems the most willing to answer Patrick’s bluntness with other blunt statements (even if she has trouble owning up to it yet). She’s also the one with the sense of humor that seems closest to Jane’s and she’s the one who seems the most interested in what Jane does so far. And I really, really love that.
  (In fact, I would kill for a version of this show where Grace Van Pelt is the Mentalist and Patrick Jane is the new CBI agent tbh.)
• People aren’t rude to each other. They’re not mean.
  No one in the team calls Jane a freak. No one blames the women for being too “womanly”, not one shames the other in any way, and they all seem to genuinely get along and there’s no artificial drama so far, all while managing to stay interesting in terms of characters dynamics.

I mean sure, there are defaults (homophobic comments, racist tropes etc.) but yeah, definitely things to like I guess.