Mental - pilot 5/26

[tiams]

A House retread. Doubt I would give it a second look if there were anything else on. There were occasions when I had to rewind because I couldn't understand his accent. That was annoying. So in that regard, it is different from House because Hugh Laurie hides his accent. The mystery breather on the phone could be an interesting subplot. Or not.

[Andrew_S]

I watched maybe 30 seconds and it was terrrrrible. Low budget, poorly shot, cliched. I can't imagine that the other 42 minutes were any better. Ugh, this one shouldn't make it to episode number 2.

[ElJay]

I didn't have any problems with accents, but that bumper before every commercial break was pretty darn annoying.

I hate to dismiss shows based on pilots but this one did not pull me in at all.

[MikeMar]

I was very bored with it as well. Maggie put it on, I never would have

Very bad House knockoff for sure

[Havana Brown]

Horrrrrible, couldn't even finish watching it.

[stellie93]

I almost didn't watch it after reading these reviews. I didn't think it was that bad. Not great, but cute guy...cute accent... I never did like the woman from the 4400 all that well. I'll try one more week.

[sieglinde]

I didn't consider it a House knockoff because though the head doctor was excentric, he had a better personality. It was just sort of "meh" though. The illnesses were not as interesting as the illnesses on House. I will try one more episode.

[bareyb]

My wife and I started watching it and she made me change the channel after about 5 minutes. So I guess I'm either watching this one by myself, or deleting the SP. Was it really THAT bad? :D

[Zevida]

Chris Vance is so hot that I really wanted to like this. But, not so much. The sound was also pretty bad in my broadcast which made it hard to watch.

[Adam1115]

I thought it was ok, I'll try it again next week...

[Queue]

I didn't like the pilot. But I try and give shows more of a chance than one episode, especially on Fox. So I'll watch the next couple of eps.

[Rob Helmerichs]

I didn't like the pilot. But I try and give shows more of a chance than one episode, especially on Fox.
Especially in summer.

In October, this show would be toast already for me. But now, why not give it another week? It's not like watching it would push something else off my To Do List! And I gotta keep those eye muscles in shape, otherwise I'll be suffering when the fall season finally starts. :D

[BrandonRe]

I thought it was meh, ok. Not great by a long shot, but watchable. Except they took liberties with the diagnoses on the written graphics (and I think with the dialog as well, but I don't remember for sure). If you are making a show about a mental health unit then you have to have a competent MH professional on staff as a consultant for such things, don't you?

[bicker]

I don't see this as a House retread, at all. First, that's a disservice to House, because this simply isn't even good enough to be compared to House. But, second, I think it was the producers or the network working hard to draw the parallel, but it simply isn't there. Jack isn't abusively rude and inconsiderate; and Jack isn't pitiful/pathetic. Jack is unconventional, closer to Patch Adams than to Gregory House, AFAIC. The common elements (like breaking into a patient's home) are superficial commonalities IMHO.

And I agree that this isn't a great series. We may or may not watch it, but only if we run out of much of the rest of what is on. It isn't something that would even get onto the DVR in the fall or winter. This is #29 out of 31 on our Season Pass list for the summer (i.e., just series that are going to have episodes broadcast this summer), with only (so far) the mini-series Diamonds, and the TNT series Dark Blue, lower than it (and that's not including the six series, and ten movies, that we have in our Netflix queue, all of which we are going to watch before Mental).

I resonate, a little bit, with what Andrew said about it being poorly shot. However, I suspect that's state-of-the-art for Columbia SA. I kept expecting to see facility incongruities, i.e., the wrong kind of electrical sockets and such; I'm sure they were there, but I didn't really work too hard to watch out for them. :)

[mattack]

I actually thought it was pretty decent.. That's sort of a backhanded compliment, since I'm still not sure if I'll keep watching, simply because I still have too much already recorded stuff that I like more. (Gee, I usually make inroads into the backlog of Tivoed material after the main season stops.. but it hasn't happened much so far...)

[Graymalkin]

I'm keeping the SP for a lack of better things to watch.

[scooterboy]

It will be something to watch over the summer.

As for the sound, it was boomy and muffled making it hard to understand some of the dialog. I hope they fix that.

[bareyb]

I finally got a chance to see the Pilot. Not as horrible as I would have thought and it passed the "big test". I watched the whole thing...

So I setup a SP and will give it a couple more weeks and see if they start stacking up in the folder (big test #2). I think we'll probably watch it though. It's not like there's a whole lot of competition right now... ;)

[RaleighDavid]

I don't see this as a House retread, at all. First, that's a disservice to House, because this simply isn't even good enough to be compared to House. But, second, I think it was the producers or the network working hard to draw the parallel, but it simply isn't there. Jack isn't abusively rude and inconsiderate; and Jack isn't pitiful/pathetic. Jack is unconventional, closer to Patch Adams than to Gregory House, AFAIC. The common elements (like breaking into a patient's home) are superficial commonalities IMHO.

And I agree that this isn't a great series. We may or may not watch it, but only if we run out of much of the rest of what is on. It isn't something that would even get onto the DVR in the fall or winter. This is #29 out of 31 on our Season Pass list for the summer (i.e., just series that are going to have episodes broadcast this summer), with only (so far) the mini-series Diamonds, and the TNT series Dark Blue, lower than it (and that's not including the six series, and ten movies, that we have in our Netflix queue, all of which we are going to watch before Mental).

I resonate, a little bit, with what Andrew said about it being poorly shot. However, I suspect that's state-of-the-art for Columbia SA. I kept expecting to see facility incongruities, i.e., the wrong kind of electrical sockets and such; I'm sure they were there, but I didn't really work too hard to watch out for them. :)

Similarities:

Male doctor, female administrator, sexual tension
Male doctor breaks "all the rules"
Alienates all other doctors
One "case" per week that's focussed on
Residents do similar things (break into houses, etc)
Doctor gets the unusual cases, breakthrough comes next, saves the day


Watching the pilot I just kept thinking - this is decaf house. Don't know if I'll watch the second episode. And I *hate* the 4400 woman - don't know why just do.

[bicker]

Similarities:

Male doctor, female administrator, sexual tension

Uh, but in House the tension is remarkable because the male doctor is naturally repulsive, while in Mental the male doctor is attractive. The exact opposite.


Male doctor breaks "all the rules"
Uh, but in House, there is a lot of substantial law breaking, sometimes very severe felonies, sometimes with several risk of harm, while in Mental, there are mostly just some unconventional measures applied. Big difference.


Alienates all other doctors
Uh, but in House, there is some real animosity, almost ubiquitously held, and well-deserved, while in Mental, its actually mostly a matter of casual annoyance, and not even necessarily widely-held.


One "case" per week that's focussed on
Uh, so? That's not unusual.


Residents do similar things (break into houses, etc)
Uh, just a little, and that almost seemed to me like a rip-off, rather that a similarity.


Doctor gets the unusual cases, breakthrough comes next, saves the day
Uh, but in House, that's the whole point: House is in business to handle the unusual cases, while in Mental, it's really a general practice, that happens to have some interesting cases.[/QUOTE]

[bareyb]

I watched it again last night and I like it well enough. It's certainly watchable. The only parallel to "House" that I see, is a Doctor messing with the person who hired him (and who obviously really likes and admires him deep down inside).

I'd like to see more character development on the main character though. I like the whole "exercise addict" angle. Would be fun to see that explored in more detail. I think it's good enough for a summer replacement show. :)

[Queue]

So I've watched every episode except last weeks. Still not impressed. Seems almost like a sitcom with how it resolves situations.

Like the mother and daughter. The daughter has a sexy website and it gets turned around on the mother for having cancer, then at the end they're laughing, going to dinner together, and talking about how sexy the other doctor is. I almost expected a laugh track there.

[SorenTodd]

So I've watched every episode except last weeks. Still not impressed. Seems almost like a sitcom with how it resolves situations.

Like the mother and daughter. The daughter has a sexy website and it gets turned around on the mother for having cancer, then at the end they're laughing, going to dinner together, and talking about how sexy the other doctor is. I almost expected a laugh track there.

I totally agree. If that were MY daughter I would have confiscated her laptop in a New York minute.

Anyways, the show is OK, but it's no House. Of all the eps I have seen my favorite was the one with the boy who was obsessed with playing video games.