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As Doomed As Doomed Can Be, I Must Say!! Fox’s New Stab At A HOUSE Clone Only Makes Hercules Completely MENTAL!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
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.
Entertainment Weekly says:
… 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.
USA Today says:
… 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 New York Times says:
… 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. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… 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. …
The Chicago Sun-Times says:
… 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 Washington Post says:
… 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 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… 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.
The Boston Herald says:
… 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. …
The Boston Globe says:
… a stubbornly mediocre product that really, really, really wants to be "House" in a hospital psych ward. …
Variety says:
… 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.
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… 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.
9 p.m. Tuesday. Fox.
Last week the first six extra-crammed “24” season sets, including the ones with David Palmer and Naked Mandy, sold for $39.99. At the moment they’re all $17.99!!
24 Season One
24 Season Two
24 Season Three
24 Season Four
24 Season Five
24 Season Six
Galactica: The Complete Series
Galactica: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
Last week the first six extra-crammed “24” season sets, including the ones with David Palmer and Naked Mandy, sold for $39.99. At the moment they’re all $17.99!!
24 Season One
24 Season Two
24 Season Three
24 Season Four
24 Season Five
24 Season Six
Galactica: The Complete Series
Galactica: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
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Looks bad.
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it's sticky
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Being first is AWESOME! Unfortunately, Christian Bale wouldn't know that, from the box office returns this weekend. Just sayin'.
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May 26, 2009 2:29:03 AM CDT
Maybe Bale can ask Ben Stiller what it's like to be first
by theghostwholurks
...If Stiller will actually return his phone calls.
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jesus, I thought Vancouver for LA was miserable...this is a whole new level of cheapness and idiocy.the thing is, if you know you have a huge steaming pile of shit, and you are so sure that you shoot in BOGOTA so you don't waste an extra dollar on a show that's inevitably going to be cancelled...WHY MAKE IT?I just don't understand.
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That'd be hilarious.
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They all feel like a ripoff of something else. Grey's Anatomy is ER but with more sex and soap opera drama. Jada Pinkett's new show looks like Grey's Anatomy but with more nurses. Blech.
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There should be a five-year ban on any pilot episodes featuring the three aforementioned professions as protagonists, but that'd mean only six or seven shows would actually get produced...
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...just coked out. Support your local economy!
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where's the AICN love for our favorite cooker, Heisenberg?
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...it's "beefier-than-remembered". I bet Herc gets ALL the chicks.
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that something sucks. Krod Mandoon is another example, a good idea done poorly.
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May 26, 2009 9:48:01 AM CDT
' Homeland Security agent with the Canadian accent from “The 440
by big jim
That's funny, seeing as how Jacqueline McKenzie is from Australia.
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just from the previews.
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the guy who played "Haywire" on Prison Break. He's typecast as a batshit mental patient, but I'll be damned if he doesn't play and look the part convincingly.
Outside of that, nothing even remotely interests me in seeing the pilot. I would have preferred seeing Christ Whatshisface as a mental patient who THINKS he's a doctor. -
Dear gods, Herc, just say she's a big fat bitch, if you're going to be shallow. Why fixate on her body type? Would you describe her as "uglier-than-remembered" if she'd had some facial injury that required reconstructive surgery?
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maybe it's in reference to her stint on the Sopranos where she makes Tony a steak and throws it at him. But I doubt it. Plus, I wouldn't say the 3rd season of a 6 season show is "the later episodes", unless he meant "later than the second season".
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And another 2 points for the reviewer that said the cast acted like they had just got off a flight from a Vancouver Community Theatre.
Snap! -
Burn Notice starts up again on June 4th. I'm surprised this series doesn't get more love. It's probably one of the best shows on TV.
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May 26, 2009 3:13:56 PM CDT
Just waiting for the colorectal surgeon version of House now
by tangcameo
We praise the colorectal surgeon
Misunderstood and much maligned
Slaving away in the heart of darkness
Working where the sun don't shine
Respect the colorectal surgeon
It's a calling few would crave
Lift up your hands and join us
Let's all do the finger wave
When it comes to spreading joy
There are many techniques
Some spread joy to the world
And others just spread cheeks
Some may think the cardiologist
Is their best friend
But the colorectal surgeon knows...
He'll get you in the end!
Why be a colorectal surgeon?
It's one of those mysterious things.
Is it because in that profession
There are always openings?
When I first met a colorectal surgeon
He did not quite understand;
I said, "Hey nice to meet you
But do you mind? We don't shake hands."
He sailed right through medical school
Because he was a whiz
Oh but he never thought of psychology
Though he read passages.
A doctor he wanted to be
For golf he loved to play,
But this is not quite what he meant...
By eighteen holes a day!
Praise the colorectal surgeon
Misunderstood and much maligned
Slaving away in the heart of darkness
Working where the sun don't shine!
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Get AIDS, herc
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Comparing an actress's inability to stop putting pork chops in her mouth to having a facial injury like DennisMM did is silly.
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a great if late starting point for an excellent TB, wouldn't it? Considering FOX spends less money for a moderate 'House'-Clone it could mean they won't spend much money or love for a 7th season of our beloved Doctor! Come on, Herc. Please consider it!
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should have never been made in the first place, or reallity garbage (I'm A Celebrity, Shoot Me In The Head), I actually miss reruns.
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another useless medical drama...you know what we need...a good comedy/drama about teachers.Oh wait they've done that before and it got cancelled even though it was funny as shit and hilarious as hell.Too bad for me i guess
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seems like such a decent kind of guy don't you think?
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...did the only decent modern version of "Superman" in "Lois and Clark." That show when downhill fast when she was booted and John Shea left as Luthor.
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YAWN
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So she's not a walking skeleton, she still has a beautiful face and the black hair and the sexy ass glasses.
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If that was the season finale of House, and then this was a spin off show with him as his Dr.?? ANYONE!
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Mental and Mentalist are on at the same time.Idk why but I find amusing. I can't wait for Burn Notice next week.Last season began with him on fire(almost) and ended with him in water(atlantic).Plus bring on trueblood and psych!
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realize it was a House clone. Not that that's a bad thing, but it is proof originality is dead.
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While I won't disagree it was bad, some great shows take a little to find it's legs. WHich is too bad. Many great shows in the past would've been cancelled in today's world. I wish they would be required to run a season before cancelling a series. At least they would know how it would all turn out and could end the crap series and not leave it's followers hanging.
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Sons of Anarchy a chance after just one epsisode.
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I get that they're cheaper to cast than American actors and in some cases, take the craft a little more seriously than some of us over here, but it's a tad on the nose now.
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It was pure ass.
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"Mental is of some interest to those who cover the business of show business because it was shot in Bogotá, Colombia, making it a kind of next-step poster child for cost-cutting international co-productions"So do they have children operate the cameras too?
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That, and easy access to cheaper coke, make it a network exec's dream.
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Your retarded half assed shows that try to capitalize on previous successes.
If only you had a critically acclaimed show that you canned to replace it Oh wait, you have alot of those...
I think the body is still warm on T:SCC if you get down on your knees soon enough maybe you can bring it back? -
i started out really liking this show, but the more House i see, i think he really is just a prick, and its getting old.
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...Atkinson to make the next series of BlackAdder and call it BlackAdder MD and have Robinson either an intern or a male nurse, Frye in the Cuddy role (sort of) and Laurie as a patient.
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When I first saw the ads for Mental I thought, "Isn't she busy with 30 Rock? Does she really need to do two shows at once?"
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