subject: The Mentalist Seasons 1-2 - Exceptional Television Sequence With Obvious Flaws [print this page] The Mentalist Seasons 1-2 - Exceptional Television Sequence With Obvious Flaws
Simon Baker may be the most important character, and he is an individual you either really like or detest (or really like to detest)!!! Robin Tunney is wonderful as the skeptical boss, & the supporting players are good (including Gregory Itzin from "24" as the head of CBI (California Bureau of Investigation)!!!
However, I would like to point out some obvious GOOFS in this indicate, as we live in Sacramento, CA (where the fictional present takes place):
1) There is no such thing as CBI in California! We do not have a state police, but the California Highway Patrol (CHP, depicted in "Chips"), a state police agency that are basically glorified traffic cops who patrol the freeways and arrest men and women for speeding tickets.!!!.! California DOES NOT HAVE a detective agency based in Sacramento, although a small department of CHP are assigned to guard the State Capitol & governor Arnold Schwartzenneger.
2) The indicate supposedly takes place in Sacramento, but fails to use real location shots! Its basically a Hollywood-ized version in the California State Capitol. Some from the episodes use city names of nearby towns and 1 episode was in the Napa Valley.
3) A single episode involved a murder in San Francisco (2 hours from Sacramento)!.!!!.it made us laugh each time they were able to go from the CBI headquarters to the Crime Scene in only 5 minutes. (In a later episode, they mention that they have a Helicopter available--- obviously inserted by the writers to "cover" their continuity gaffe!)
4) Yet an additional episode took place in Davis, CA (a small town only 20 miles from Sacramento)!!! Yet the location shots were from Southern California: News flash, the city of Davis does NOT have palm trees (palm trees would freeze dead in the Northern California winters)!!! The Davis police department has only 1 part-time detective, yet the "Mentalist" made it look like they had a huge squad of detectives. (As a former University of Davis CA student, having lived in the town of Davis, it was very laughable!)
I am sure the folks who live in Miami scream out "CSI investigators do not drive Hummers" and the Vegas residents probably howl that "there is nobody who looks like Helgenberger working in the LVPD."
Hopefully, if the Mentalist makes it to a Third Season, they will correct some with the goofs and gaffes, and PLEASE do some real location shots in the Central Valley!
