I've been watching this since it began, although I'm not entirely sure why I'm still watching it, since every episode leaves me feeling a little deflated and.... bored.
The main character, The Mentalist, is a good character. He's interesting, charming, intriguing, a good actor..... and I think that's the only thing the show has going for it. Him. Not his 'abilities', which as someone pointed out, aren't used to their full potential. I hoped it would be some sort of play on Derren Brown's style of work.
Actually, as a whole, considering the dark past of his character, and the serial killer plot bubbling in the background, I expected it to be a lot darker than it actually is. It could easily be made darker, with some blackly comic moments, but a grittier undertone. I think that would make it have more of a style to it...
The other problem is, as people have said, the plots are so obvious, there really isn't much trickery involved, and the supporting characters, both main and the guest stars, are rubbish and 1 dimensional. The other investigators seem only to serve purpose in rolling their eyes at The Mentalist and then having to begrudgingly accept he was right at the end of every episode.
I mean, is that how it's going to play out every. single. week? He picks up on something they don't. They don't believe him and go off on some other trail. He follows his own and concludes the case with relative ease. They all look pissed off but have to admit he's pretty good at what he does.
*blinks*