My goodness, the reviews of this episode! I keep recalling one of Virgil Minelli's laments to Lisbon about some situation that Jane got them all into: "It will blot out the sun!"
"My candidate for Red John wasn't written into the episode! Waah, waah, waah! Bruno Heller didn't consult me first or read my mind or do the right thing by my own personal private thoughts, boo hoo hoo! He is now officially a terrible writer who doesn't know what he's doing, hissy, hissy, hiss!"
Get over yourselves. The episode was cohesive and intelligent, as per Mr. Heller's standard. It was suspenseful and kept moving. It had some great character moments. (I for one really enjoyed seeing Rigsby and Van Pelt go all spousal on a new level for a few moments there.)
Think about it: no matter who RJ turned out to be, it was going to be a letdown. In our own lives, and by proxy as we fantasize about characters that grab us, we tend to inflate hurtful people into monsters. "Strawberries and Cream" addressed it directly when the fake RJ told Jane, "You thought I'd have horns." He played on the fact that Jane had created a mythology about him in his head.
The fact is that RJ was always just going to be some guy, and the end was always going to be grubby because of that fact precisely. It almost didn't matter who he turned out to be. Putting the limits of a body and a human identity on him was always going to be a letdown, which might give even the most rabid episode-haters food for thought if they would just stop screaming. Perhaps it's why Jane admitted to McAllister that he himself was disappointed. In the end, there were no horns. In the end, it's a man that Jane kills - a sick, sad, wicked mortal man - and what does that make Jane?
I don't expect the creative team of The Mentalist to apologize for anything. They're writing a show for entertainment, therefore the reality quotient is negotiable - but they aren't in the fantasy genres of superheroes or sci-fi. RJ's inevitable boring humanity was fated to burst all kinds of bubbles.
For that reason, perhaps they should have finished him off sooner - though I greatly admire how the ever-increasing burden of RJ upon Jane was handled (kudos to Simon Baker's exceptional work, and Robin Tunney's rock-solid support).
I also felt a little flattened by Xander Berkeley's work in the chapel at first. I felt his rhythm was off and wish he'd been able to put more into his eyes. (For tip-top eye work, see S. Baker.)
I was hoping that RJ would be Walter Mashburn, but I'm fine. I'm even liking that it wasn't all tidy and explicable. The Mentalist is created by an excellent team who have their own minds and their own process. Their points of view are different to mine and that's as it should be - unlike many of the negative reviewers of this episode, whose talents are obvious, I could never create or write for a top-notch TV show.
I've loved almost all of what The Mentalist's crew has done all these years. They have a vision and a cohesion as a group which, God help me - it IS only a TV show - has enriched my life somehow. On the whole, it makes me happy and grateful to see their work, and whoever they say is Red John is fine with me, because - um, they DO know what they're doing.
"My candidate for Red John wasn't written into the episode! Waah, waah, waah! Bruno Heller didn't consult me first or read my mind or do the right thing by my own personal private thoughts, boo hoo hoo! He is now officially a terrible writer who doesn't know what he's doing, hissy, hissy, hiss!"
Get over yourselves. The episode was cohesive and intelligent, as per Mr. Heller's standard. It was suspenseful and kept moving. It had some great character moments. (I for one really enjoyed seeing Rigsby and Van Pelt go all spousal on a new level for a few moments there.)
Think about it: no matter who RJ turned out to be, it was going to be a letdown. In our own lives, and by proxy as we fantasize about characters that grab us, we tend to inflate hurtful people into monsters. "Strawberries and Cream" addressed it directly when the fake RJ told Jane, "You thought I'd have horns." He played on the fact that Jane had created a mythology about him in his head.
The fact is that RJ was always just going to be some guy, and the end was always going to be grubby because of that fact precisely. It almost didn't matter who he turned out to be. Putting the limits of a body and a human identity on him was always going to be a letdown, which might give even the most rabid episode-haters food for thought if they would just stop screaming. Perhaps it's why Jane admitted to McAllister that he himself was disappointed. In the end, there were no horns. In the end, it's a man that Jane kills - a sick, sad, wicked mortal man - and what does that make Jane?
I don't expect the creative team of The Mentalist to apologize for anything. They're writing a show for entertainment, therefore the reality quotient is negotiable - but they aren't in the fantasy genres of superheroes or sci-fi. RJ's inevitable boring humanity was fated to burst all kinds of bubbles.
For that reason, perhaps they should have finished him off sooner - though I greatly admire how the ever-increasing burden of RJ upon Jane was handled (kudos to Simon Baker's exceptional work, and Robin Tunney's rock-solid support).
I also felt a little flattened by Xander Berkeley's work in the chapel at first. I felt his rhythm was off and wish he'd been able to put more into his eyes. (For tip-top eye work, see S. Baker.)
I was hoping that RJ would be Walter Mashburn, but I'm fine. I'm even liking that it wasn't all tidy and explicable. The Mentalist is created by an excellent team who have their own minds and their own process. Their points of view are different to mine and that's as it should be - unlike many of the negative reviewers of this episode, whose talents are obvious, I could never create or write for a top-notch TV show.
I've loved almost all of what The Mentalist's crew has done all these years. They have a vision and a cohesion as a group which, God help me - it IS only a TV show - has enriched my life somehow. On the whole, it makes me happy and grateful to see their work, and whoever they say is Red John is fine with me, because - um, they DO know what they're doing.