I remember watching the Emmys over the weekend, and seeing Simon Baker present an award.  I know he's Australian, but I can't get used to hearing him with an Australian accent, and a pretty thick one, too.  How does he do it?

Maybe I should go explore his speech patterns.  But that's a different show altogether.

The Mentalist made it big last season, but will it this year?  Maybe, if you keep up with the recipe of a good-looking-yet-annoying former fake psychic with a hard-working (and good-looking) team, a budding romance, a possible romance, a lot of slightly outrageous situations, and a really sinister serial killer.  Although on tonight's season premiere, they're tweaking with that formula by removing that one crucial element: Red John.

Well, only Lisbon's team--and, by association, Patrick Jane--will lose Red John.  They got pretty close at the end of their first season, and on their sophomore offing, the CBI will reassign the case to someone else.  Cue Sam Bosco, a straight-shooting officer who seems like the no-nonsense type.  You know, the complete opposite of Jane, who's the sort of guy whose thoughts you can never guess even if you tried.

And surely he won't like it.  The way he turns serious on everyone when that smiley face shows up?  I think he wants that as a counterbalance to his sometimes goofy stance.

Terry Kinney joins the cast as that Bosco guy, on tonight's season premiere of The Mentalist, now on Thursdays from 10pm on CBS.  Go ogle at Jane.  I'll ogle at Van Pelt.  And everyone else, well, go do the smiley face somewhere else.  And keep track with the red references on the episode titles.  The photos are right below.





- Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of CBS)