Reading Your Mind
So I’m basically new to this show as I only saw an episode or two of the original season way back when. I never got around to watching the complete first season, so I’ve had to rely on the internet to get me at least somewhat caught up with what season two is bringing to the table. Unless you’re familiar with the show, I would encourage you to do the same as what you will find online at places like tv.com and tvrage.com will surely provide a better explanation than I am able to produce.
With that said, from what I have gathered from watching and reading about season two, this is a classic second act type of season. The first season presented the characters to us, gave us an over-arching plot, and ran us through a variety of interesting cases. Season two continues to develop that over-arching plot detail — the one about serial killer Red John, murderer of Patrick Jane’s wife and child. Jane is still trying to crack the Red John case, not too unlike Tony Shaloub’s character, Monk, was set up to do in the popular Monk series. Of course, the series also presents another twenty-two cases for Jane and his team of California Bureau of Investigators to solve. Jane is the lead role who does most of the mental heavy lifting in terms of analyzing and manipulating suspects to help him and the team understand the crime and find the solution. Each episode is a bit of a mystery, something many of the best dramas on TV create week after week.
The lead roles are all given some time to develop in this season as well. From Jane’s origins to a rekindled romance between two team members, season two makes it a point to give every major character a deeper story. This too is a formula that the better shows on television will make the effort to do, and it’s no wonder why — if you give your audience a reason to care about the characters, they’re more likely to stick with the series and that certainly seems to be working with The Mentalist.
On DVD
This five disc set contains all twenty-two episodes from the second season. The image and sound quality are on par for what you would expect from a TV show on DVD, nothing outstanding, but also nothing really disappointing, either. Expect a 1.77:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Surround 5.1 audio.
There are several extra features. The list includes:
-“Art of a Mentalist”: Producer Chris Long and ‘real-life mentalist’ Luke Jermay take a detailed looked at the “Redemption” episode and how the subliminal arts are utilized in the show.
-“Mentalism: A Subliminal Art – This feature is split up into eleven parts.
-The Art of Mind Reading with Simon Baker
-The Art of Suggestive Imagery with Robin Tunney
-Secrets of Cognitive Persuasion with Luke Jermay
-The Art of Knowing Secrets with Owain Yeoman
-The Art of Hidden Objects with Amanda Righetti
-Secrets of the Pendulum with Luke Jermay
-The Art of Suggestive Imagery with Tim Kang
-The Art of Intuitive Deduction with Bruno Heller
-Secrets of Interactive Mind Control with Luke Jermay
-The Art of Muscle Reading with Amanda Righetti
-Secrets of Ideomotor Manipulation with Luke Jermay
-Deleted Scenes – The set also contains ten deleted scenes from five different episodes.
With that, let’s get to the summary…
