CBS's new hit drama "The Mentalist" closes in on its first season finale next week as Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) gets close to serial killer Red John. But don't expect a cliffhanger ending.
"Cliffhangers can be problematic," said co-executive producer Ashley Gable in a phone interview last month. "They can be gimmicky. I think what [series creator] Bruno Heller has done is the right move to tantalize the audience but give the audience a little satisfaction. We're learning more things about Red John ... and going deeper into that mythology."
Although "The Mentalist" is a procedural crime drama, it doesn't traffic in overly gruesome crime scenes.
"Because the tone of our show is so much lighter, it would be jarring to have sawed-off heads and all that stuff," Gable said. "We're not about the forensics. You'll never see a 'Mentalist' episode that revolves around the bug found in the dead guy's stomach and what the bug ate for breakfast and how that tells us who the murderer is. It's always going to be Jane and the Sherlock Holmes thing. It's also about the way he likes to poke at people. If Sherlock Holmes was the world's first consulting detective, Jane is the world's first trickster detective."
That Jane owes a debt to his TV forerunners is not lost on Baker or the "Mentlaist" writers.
"Simon bought the first season DVDs of 'Columbo' for the writers' office," Gable said. "He was very aware of that comparison and he loved it."
Posted
May 12 2009, 01:55 AM
by
Rob Owen