The cases aren't that bad either. Jane's an *******. I'd hate to know him in real life, but you can say that for a lot of people. It's just easier to say with Jane because you never know if he or someone like him could really show up, and you wouldn't know it if he were there. He just asks simple questions, studies your family portraits, then leaves you alone while he torments your friends and bosses and then you again in a few days. It's played out excellently, too. A lot of shows, you can quickly peg who the killer is by the halfway point. The Mentalist always keeps you on your toes, especially since if there's one recognizable guest star, there's usually quite a few more so you can't just peg it early on that.
Amanda Righetti's beautiful, but she's soooo stiff it's unnatural. I've seen her fun and loose and different in other things, but in The Mentalist, she's just odd, but I guess she has to be? I can't get past Rigsby's bad American accent most of the time. Lisbon walks like she's got a duck stuffed up her butt. And Cho... I can't complain about Cho. Cho is hilarious. Cho is the best damn character on the show. I'm not joking. He is so straight-faced that it's comic. I love him.
I also laugh. A lot. Psych and Castle are generally funnier overall, but some of the outlandish and smarmy charmy things Jane does... it's like Boston Legal's humor in a sense. Ha. Patrick Jane is Alan Shore. Wow. It makes a lot more sense now. Anyway, yeah. I came on here to post this because I couldn't watch any more Mentalist because I was laughing too hard. The "there's something in the pocket" bit is an old joke, but the set-up and execution of it was flawless and hilarious, and it helps that the coroner sounded just like Vizzini when he said, "Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!" I just wish there was some epic laughter that followed. I rewound it five times because it was so damn good. And the hospital episode before it with Cho in charge and J. August Richards and the girl from Sister Act II/Beakman's World/Brady Bunch Movie? So hilarious.
And as seen in the finale and Red John episodes throughout the series, it does the drama especially well. There's a lot of humor on the show, but it's all coming from this guy who is so broken and shattered that it hurts to think about, that maybe humor's how he shields himself from everything else. And he's definitely broken. That finale... I'm looking very forward to next season. No Skip.