A snoozy, slow-moving and thoroughly unconvincing Fox hourlong from writer-producers Deborah Joy LeVine & Dan Levine (“Lois & Clark,” “The Division”), “Mental” follows Dr. Jack Gallagher, the maverick new British director of psychiatric services at a Los Angeles hospital. It co-stars a beefier-than-remembered (but still plenty hot) Annabella Sciorra (Gloria Trillo from the later “Sopranos” episodes) and Jacqueline McKenzie (the Homeland Security agent with the Canadian accent from “The 4400”).
An international co-production in the tradition of NBC’s “Crusoe” and “The Last Templar,” it was apparently shot on the cheap in the South American city of Bogota!
Gallagher likes to ride a bicycle around town and illustrate his not very illuminating points with card tricks during staff meetings. He likes to send his residents out on fact-finding field trips. He gets arrested climbing through second-story windows looking for clues.
In the pilot we get one patient who sees “V”-like CGI lizard people everywhere and another who keeps his dead cats in his freezer. Both plotlines turn out to be a lot more familiar than compelling.
You’ll find few reviews that do not (unfavorably) compare “Mental” to “House.” Even its theme music sounds just like that of Fox’s Hugh Laurie series.
… Mental's plots are trite and secondary to establishing Gallagher as a policy-defying Brit who says ''Bang on!'' to express enthusiasm. … Mental's creators, Deborah Joy LeVine and Dan Levine (both once of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), probably didn't intend for me to side with Hotsy Redheaded Psychiatrist in feeling Sciorra's administrator has made a terrible mistake hiring this genial lout. But I do.
… this one is hideously tired. It's not just that you've seen the same show done better — that's true of much of TV. It's that you've seen the same show done adequately, and this one isn't. …
… The only difference is that unlike the sarcastic misanthrope played by Hugh Laurie, Gallagher is a handsome, cocky do-gooder with a deep, intuitive empathy for his patients. In short, he is insufferable. … The creators of “Mental” couldn’t take Gallagher any further up the mean-spirited scale, so instead they went too far in the other direction and ran smack into cliché. …
… All of these inanities we could live with if the show turned out to have even a small understanding of the difference between edgy and derivative or unorthodox and ridiculous, which, alas, it does not. …
… He's played by Chris Vance ("Prison Break"), who tries to overcome the cheesy script with a British accent and a little dignity. He fails. … I'm rooting for him to lose his license.
… The parts of the show that don't seem recycled from previous medical dramas seem recycled from previous crime dramas, with just a few changes of vernacular and gadgetry. Life is much too short to endure cliches like these more than twice, much less, depending on one's age, two or three dozen times. …
… The medical cases, all mental illnesses, are sometimes interesting (a hysterical pregnancy in an upcoming episode takes an unexpected turn) but the combination of tired characters -- especially the tightly-wound Dr. Veronica Hayden-Jones (Jacqueline McKenzie, "The 4400") -- and relationships makes "Mental" a dull summer entry.
… works from the playbook of the network’s more successful “House,” only with a perpetually perky Pollyanna instead of a sourpuss. … for a network show, the sets look cheap, and the guest casting looks as if it just got off the first flight from Vancouver community theater. …
… Unless audiences go ga-ga over British lead Chris Vance -- and while he's kinda cute, there's no reason they should -- this ought to be a short-lived ride aboard the crazy train. … after screening two episodes of "Mental," a critic might easily feel his own tenuous hold on sanity is being tested by unwelcome visions of clones.
… Dr. Jack Gallagher, the newly hired director of psychiatric services at L.A.'s Wharton Memorial Hospital, is one of the most deeply irritating television characters ever conceived. … Ultimately, the problem is that while someone's used considerable brain power to put all these pieces together, they clearly just haven't thought things through.
