'The Mentalist' is magic

BURBANK, Calif. — Anybody who tells you they aren't surprised by how big a success "The Mentalist" has become is lying.

Oh, a lot of people inside and outside the TV industry expected the show to succeed. But not to so quickly become a big hit that just keeps getting bigger.

Last week, "The Mentalist" attracted its largest audience ever — a whopping 19.7 million viewers. It was CBS's best performance with regular programming on a Tuesday at 8 p.m. in 14 years.

Which is more than even the most optimistic folks at the network were expecting out of the 10th procedural crime drama on their schedule. Albeit one about a Patrick Jane (Simon Baker), a formerly highly successful fake psychic who now uses his powers of observation to solve crimes.

And nobody can quite explain why "The Mentalist" has taken off. CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said it all starts with creator/executive producer Bruno Heller, "a terrific writer, a terrific showrunner."

"And, in many ways, the show represents for us a concept that is absolutely within the brand of the network, but slightly off," Tassler said. "It is a crime mystery every week, but there's something slightly off about it. It has a more comedic tone. It doesn't take itself that seriously."

Despite the fact that Patrick Jane entered the field of crime-solving when his family was murdered by serial killer Red John, there is indeed a good deal of humor in "The Mentalist." It's a big change from the deadly serious nature of the last show Baker starred in, "The Guardian."

Baker said that when this show began, "The main focus for me was to do a show that was going to be entertaining, first and foremost. When I was doing 'The Guardian,' I wanted to act and move people and move the world and do those things.

"I was young."

(He's now 39.)

Baker was quick to give credit to Heller, and Heller returned the favor.

"What Simon brings to it (is) a combination of, on the surface, great, kind of Cary Grant-ish charm, but underlying is a real kind of steel and menace," Heller said. "So those moments where he's being light and charming, there's still that dark side underneath. And that's really, really difficult to do as an actor and consistently."

Heller said getting a first-year show on its feet involved "identifying what makes the show work, what's popping, what isn't." And what's popping is "the cast."

"This group just has a kind of natural, organic feel of the general workplace, of people that you want to spend time with," Heller said. "And that, ultimately, is all you can ask from TV is people you want to spend time with."