The Mentalist has one thing going for it and that is that it's much easier to keep writing compelling television about murder mysteries than about medical mysteries. If the writers can keep up some original plots here and there, it has a better chance of working than House did.
I mean The Mentalist can always pull off "SUDDENLY A CHARACTER GETS KILLED BY A SERIAL KILLER AND STUFF HAPPENS." That can always lead to an interesting plot. House's equivalent is "character X gets illness Y" which they did a few times and was boring every time.