For several years I have watched The Mentalist. Other than my wife and myself, I do not know anyone who else who watches it. This disparity is interesting, considering that The Mentalist has been one of the most watched shows on television in the past few years. It is also currently winning the largest audience among a Thursday night lineup full of historically popular shows. So what is it all about?

On the surface, The Mentalist looks like any other crime show on television. I usually am not drawn in by ubiquitous crime shows like CSI and Law and Order. When I lived in Peru last year, however, The Mentalist had an interesting ad campaign. One of the things that initially appealed to my curiosity was how the wrist watch of the show’s star, Simon Baker, was being promoted as a glamorous item you could buy.

Before I go further, I should mention that watching tv in Peru was much more enjoyable for me than in the United States. The reason related to how most American television shows are organized there by brand, rather than by networks. In other words, we had the Warner Channel, Sony Entertainment Television, and so on. They would frequently show full-length movies in addition to heavily promoting previews of shows you could watch (yay!). I actually KNEW when shows came on thanks to the frequent previews, which as a person with a young child is half the battle.

Getting back to The Mentalist and the Latin American ad campaign, the selling of the watch was emblematic of a larger trend. The Mentalist’s lead character was depicted in Latin American media as a slick, upper class, James Bond type. I did a little reading up on what the show was about, especially because as anyone can wonder, what the hell is a Mentalist anyway?

The first thing I discovered was that the show was created and written by Bruno Heller. He’s definitely not a household name, but as an avid fan of the excellent epic HBO Series Rome I knew that Heller had written that masterpiece of a show. I was instantly hoping The Mentalist would help fill the void left in my TV lineup when Rome ended.

What’s interesting is that The Mentalist is nothing like Rome! Nothing like it at all! Even the writing seems totally different. But it clearly shows that Bruno Heller knows how to create some damn good shows.

The show takes place in California, where a crime investigation unit has enlisted the help of a curious consultant known as Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker, to help them solve murders and other serious crimes. Jane is “the Mentalist.”

As the show defines the term in its opening sequence, a Mentalist is “someone who uses mental acuity, hypnosis, and/or suggestion. A master manipulator of thoughts and behavior.” Jane fits the bill, serving as a master psychologist who is constantly leading suspects into traps that they will not expect. But beyond these traits Jane has an interesting backstory.

Prior to joining the Crime Investigation Team, Jane was a psychic to the celebrities and rich, but made his living based on deception and fakery. Basically, he shamelessly ripped people off. He fed them “lies they wanted to hear” about people with whom he claimed to communicate with beyond the grave.

During this time a serial killer named Red John begins to terrify Californians. He has signature tells that mark his kills, including a creepy red smiley face he paints on the walls with blood where his victims lie. Jane goes on to a TV talk show and casually calls the killer a coward. Red John then kills Jane’s wife and daughter, basically arguing that Jane is full of shit and a liar who was not really a “psychic.” He exposes Jane, aiming to teach him some kind of lesson about human nature and morality (aren’t serial killers always trying to do that?).

These events all take place years before the show’s timeline begins. While the show has many episodes that do not concern Red John, the show’s story arc over 2 + seasons has primarily focused on Patrick Jane’s hunt for the murderer of his family and Jane’s subsequent quest for redemption after living life as a crook.

So beyond the basic story arc, why is The Mentalist so enjoyable? The short answer: Simon Baker.

Rarely is the star of a show so charismatic that he or she can essentially carry a one hour show on his or her own. But that’s what Simon Baker does in The Mentalist. He is able to portray a person that seems believable despite having so many eccentric traits. For instance, Patrick Jane almost always wears a dress-up vest (getting back to the stylish image portrayed in the Latin American ad campaign). He’s also always drinking tea, and basically seems to live on the couch of his police unit.  In his dealings with people, he’s charming, intelligent, annoying, a smart-ass, and exceedingly compassionate within seconds of one another. Yet despite these odd mixes of panache and varied social interactions, we can still believe that Jane is a real person.  The supporting cast of the Mentalist is also good, and the leader of the investigative unit, Agent Lisbon, has an overly flirtatious relationship with Jane that eventually will have to run its course (this is TV you know).

If there are any weaknesses to The Mentalist, on a week to week basis they mostly concern the occasional lack of a coherent narrative to the crime stories in the episodes. Dare I say it though– they really don’t matter because they all end up the same anyway. We are mostly watching the show for Patrick Jane’s antics, happy to go along for the ride.

A bigger weakness that threatens the show’s longevity will concern how the Red John storyline comes to a close. So far, we have had the story arc run into the third season. Having looked at some of the reaction on Twitter, the show’s audience is losing their patience. They want for the mystery of who Red John is to be revealed this season. To their credit, Bruno Heller and the rest of The Mentalist production crew seem to understand that they can’t keep stringing us on much longer. It’s looking like we will find out who Red John is by the end or even the middle of the season, and there are already some likely possibilities.

The question will be, once we we know who Red John is, will we still have a desire to watch The Mentalist? I sure hope so, but I’m doubtful that the show will be able to last much longer given how much of the  show’s thrust is tied to that one event. In an interview during the Mentalist’s first season, Heller even said that the revelation of Red John’s identity will be the end of the show.

I’m not sure that’s true, but one thing is certain: we are going to be seeing a lot more of Simon Baker. He’s magnetism approaches Pitt-Cruise-Ford-Clooney levels and a movie career is undoubtedly in store. I only imagine it’s a matter of time before he plays a romantic lead in a Jennifer Aniston movie.

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If you have never seen the show, watch the short clip below to get a pretty good sample of its flavor. It is the introduction to one episode. Due to CBS’s copyright desires, you will be prompted to (easily) click through to YouTube to watch it.

For those of you who don’t what a blogroll is, it’s generally just a set of links placed in a box on a website’s sidebar that give people a suggestion of the kind of websites you like to read and/or recommend. Without doubt you’ve seen them, even if you never cared to ask what they are called.

I’ve never particularly liked blogrolls, and instead chose to make a more personalized “Friends” section when I created my website. I borrowed the idea from Carl Hiassen, who is one of my favorite authors.

After considerable thought, discussion, and investigation, I’ve decided that I’m going to eliminate the Friends section of my website. I’m also going to forgo replacing it with a blogroll. Instead I will be trying something else that I think will be of more value to me, my friends, and my readers. But before I reveal my new experiment, I’d like to discuss my rationale in greater detail.

As I mentioned, my original goal with having a Friends section was to essentially say “Hey! Look at all of these cool people I know and check out their websites for these reasons.” Obviously I knew that readers would pick and choose based on their interests where they might click.

What soon occurred though was that I had a problem maintaining the Friends section. In truth, I never even was able to entirely complete the page. The primary reason is that the internet has made it wonderfully possible for us to constantly meet new people with similar interests. I have limited time as it is, and constantly updating my friends section seemed hard to do. I even felt embarrassed that I never took the time to finish writing descriptions for some friends who create great online content. I always planned I would do it, but never prioritized the time.

Likewise, sometimes friends would stop updating their websites, and it felt like it would be weird to suddenly say “Your off the site slacker!!” In the end, my “Friends” section seems like it has the potential to alienate my friends just as easily as making them feel honored.

After a discussion about it with my friend Zachary Shahan, he persuaded me that the “Friends” section nonetheless has value in that it allows readers to obtain a more personalized context of who I am through the connections I have made in my life. I agree. But maintaining it is something I haven’t been able to successfully do with my limited time.

While my website also currently does not have loads of traffic (hoping to improve that soon!), the number of clicks people make over to my friends’ websites is decidedly low.  So something needs to change.

I decided to look for advice on the internet about blogrolls, which on first glance seem much easier to maintain. I also wonder if they ultimately attract more clicks just from ease and curiosity. In my search for answers, I discovered that some people think they don’t generate many clicks. I also found an excellent article by Terry Freedman listing “8 Reasons Not to have a Blogroll.”

While I agree with all of Freedman’s reasons for not having a blogroll, I would like to highlight these 2:

“I think from what may be called a marketing point of view, having a blogroll on the front page is rather silly. To my mind, it’s the equivalent of a store displaying a list of other stores outside the main entrance!”

“Another reason I shy away from having a blogroll is that I’d be concerned about leaving people out. Silly, perhaps, but I sometimes feel slightly “miffed” when I notice that someone who I know reads my blog hasn’t listed it in their blogroll. I shouldn’t wish to upset someone else in a similar way!”

Agreed! So a blogroll doesn’t really meet my needs either when you combine all of these factors.

Freedman proposes that working the links of friends into relevant articles and blogposts is an elegant solution to this problem. I think he is right, but that this is rarely achievable based on what I write (although it definitely won’t hurt to try to do it more often).

I also tend to think that this is what social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can help do efficiently. Posting a great article from one of my friends to Facebook is something I do all the time and I often think it helps them gain readers immediately. A blogroll seems like a more haphazard shot in the dark.

So here is what I think is a solution to my own dilemma:

Another neglected area of my website has been the “Cool Links” section. I’ve always intended for this section to have outstanding evergreen web content (content that can be cool to read or watch over a period of years). I still think that this concept is a great idea and helps reflect my personality by showing what I find interesting. So I am going to try to place more here, especially from my friends (who produce great content consistently).

We will see how my experiment ends up working, and I am open to any other thoughts people have about better ways I might honor and recognize my friends’ excellent contributions to the web in a way that provides value to some readers– if not all of them. Thanks!

Image courtesy of Zaius Nation

I always like when businesses choose to show some imagination and personality rather than opt for a stale uniform way of promoting their business. So I was happy to see this sign in a local business called Ike & Jane Cafe and Bakery.

It was only the 2nd time I had been there and so I asked if this sign was up all the time. The woman who was selling food behind the counter cheerfully told me that they change the sign every day. She said “I’m not sure if anyone has ordered like yoda today,  but it’s rare that people do it. When people do what the sign asks we are always really excited.”

Peter Pan's New "Earth-Friendly Jar" label is a classic case of greenwashing.

I recently bought some Peter Pan peanut butter. Being the environmental nerd that I am, I was quick to notice the brand’s new label. Rather than describing their new jar as something that didn’t sound quite as good like “eco-friendlier,” they just went ahead and described their new jars as “earth-friendly.”

The marketing executives at ConAgra Foods, the makers of Peter Pan, apparently thought that their jars merited this description because, as they say on their jar and website: “Our new jar uses 9 percent to 12 percent less plastic per ounce, which isn’t only great for the environment, but for your budget, too.”

Click here to continue reading on GreenUpgrader

In the first, a young Peruvian man is propositioned by an American girl who is very horny. He doesn’t understand her very well. He thinks she is saying she wants to go to “Yungay,” a city that was once famously and horrifically destroyed by an earthquake in the highlands of Peru. She’s actually saying that she wants “you guy.” This is a clever advertisement for a company offering english courses.

In the next commercial, a man on a combi (a Peruvian bus) sees an attractive woman (once again not looking very Peruvian) but feels powerless to win her affections.  A Brahma beer saint-figure/spokesperson then enters the bus and gives our hero a Brahma hat. Transformed with the hat, our hero is able to win the affections of the woman of his affections and also become a hero to the people on the combi.

The last commercial I will post is also from a beer company. In an advertisement titled “abuelitos” (grandparents), some older people drink Cristal beer, transforming themselves into younger people. Beer companies would like us to think beer has transformational power, and who can blame them?