He is a superhero. A cerebral superhero, to be precise. He routinely wins hundreds of thousands of dollars at poker. Like all elite chess players, he can play chess in his mind without a board. He is an excellent magician. Other people read books, he reads people. He can get chummy with an Italian mafioso, a Russian drug czar or a Mexican drug lord within minutes of meeting them. He can tell in an instant who is telling the truth and who is not. He picks locks or handcuffs effortlessly. He can read what someone’s writing by following the movement of the pen. He can recite the complete works of Shakespeare in alphabetical order. He reads phone books for mnemonic exercises. He uses the memory palace regularly. He hypnotizes witnesses of a crime to help them remember things they did not know they had seen or heard. And he always relies on his strong intuition that guides him in the right direction.
Meet Patrick Jane, a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the lead character in the TV series The Mentalist. The Mentalist is good TV if you are interested in typical crime solving shows. It’s not path breaking the way Breaking Bad or Seinfeld was, but it’s good, solid entertainment.
Patrick Jane is quite different from your usual crime solving detectives. I have already mentioned some his qualities but he also has some glaring flaws. For instance, he does not do violence. Whenever the CBI conducts a raid, he hides behind to watch. Moreover, his senior officer is a woman, Teresa Lisbon and he has no qualms about literally hiding behind her in dangerous situations. Based on the number of times that Teresa has saved Patrick’s life, The Mentalist turns the popular premise of damsel in distress on its head. Patrick is well aware of this flaw and accepts it with great style and confidence. Even his name, Jane, is that of a girl and he often introduces himself as “Jane, like the girl.” This can be a tricky character and Simon Baker has played it with great style.
If you are a skeptic, you may say that The Mentalist is like any other crime series, with few differences here and there. And you may well be right. The show is quite predictable, always starting with the CBI team arriving on the crime scene and the inevitable question, “What have we got?”
And yet, I faithfully stuck with the show, all seven seasons of it. And the reason for it is quite simple. As I watched the show, I realized that Patrick Jane is based on the most celebrated detective on the planet : Sherlock Holmes.
Once you realize this, the similarities become glaringly obvious. Like Holmes, Patrick observes the minutest details, and draws his conclusions based on trivial matters. Holmes had a hobby of memorizing every street of London, Patrick checks the shoes of every person on a wheelchair. After years of doing this, he finally finds one who is faking a disability and solves the crime. Holmes had his arch nemesis in Prof. Moriarty, Patrick’s lifelong enemy goes by the name Red John, a serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter. The whole series is a slow journey towards catching Red John. In some episodes, the writers pay homage to the great detective. The episode Red Hot (Season 3, Episode 7) is clearly based on The Norwood Builder while The Red Ponies (Season 3, Episode 5) reminds one of The Adventure of Silver Blaze.
It has been well over 100 years and the Baker Street detective is still going strong. He is perhaps the most adapted fictional character in countries around the world. Two famous Indian detectives, both from West Bengal, owe their existence to Holmes – Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda. In an age where Marvel is creating a superhero universe because one Superman can no longer pull it off, Holmes still carries the franchise single-handedly. Last two Holmes movies starring Robert Downy Jr. each made over $500 million worldwide. A third one is expected in 2020. Another comedy movie starring Will Farrell as Holmes is being released this week. BBC’s Sherlock starring Justin Cumberbatch is a big hit and so is Elementary. This is some serious investment by big production companies and they are not even worried that everyone is using the same idea. It seems that no matter how many iterations Holmes goes through, people are always hungry for more.
What makes Holmes so popular? Here’s my theory. With Batman or Superman, you admire them but you can do little else. With Holmes, you always have the illusion that the superpowers are well within your reach if you just try hard enough. Indeed, Holmes himself keeps on encouraging Watson, “You know my methods. Apply them.” When Arthur Conan Doyle created the detective, forensic science as we know it today did no exist. Many scientists, investigators, forensic experts admit to being inspired by Sherlock Holmes in childhood.
With so many Holmes adaptations to choose from in the last decade, one should be happy, right? Wrong. I find all these adaptations problematic.
The writers of these movies and TV series are nowhere near the caliber of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Let me start with the worst series, Elementary. This was so bad that I could not even finish the first season. The writers seem to be under the impression that the more they deviate from the original premise, the better. So John Watson becomes Ms. Joan Watson, with Asian ancestry. And our dear Sherlock has a nervous breakdown after Irene Adler is abducted and tortured by Prof. Moriarty. Can someone shoot me in the head, please?
Onto BBC’s Sherlock. Starts out nice and as long as it adheres to the original plot, everything is fine. Almost. I mean, the Hound of Baskerville is a secret govt project? (Yamahama, it’s fright night! #seinfeld) If you think that’s bad, wait till they produce an original story line. Dr. Watson’s wife, Mary Morstan turns out to be a secret spy and she married Watson to get to Sherlock. Or something like that. I could not watch it any further. Maybe Mrs. Hudson is actually a Martian who wants to extract Holmes’ DNA to clone him. Coz, why not?
The movies have a different problem. Robert Downy Jr. is fantastic, it’s the writers again. Sherlock Holmes is the first professional detective, his job is to observe and deduce. He does not need to fight 10 guys in a hand-to-hand combat. Jack Reacher does it much better. It’s like Superman suddenly started shooting spidey webs. The Holmes in movies is doing so many things that he has little time left to be a real detective. And then there’s the plot. Does it have to be at a breakneck speed all the time? Why can’t we have quiet surroundings and normal people with trivial inconsistencies that lead to breathtaking mysteries? Holmes need not save the world from a terrorist plot every time. They have James Bond for that. Remember, the best Holmes stories always started with “trifles”, like an abandoned goose and a hat in The Blue Carbuncle.
Jeremy Brett in Granada Production of The Blue Carbuncle. Best Holmes ever!
But this takes time, patience and creativity. Much easier to just add a bit of James Bond, a pinch of Jack Reacher, combine with a terrorist or supernatural plot, add Irene Adler and Moriarty in any combination and the new reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes is ready. And judging by the huge popularity that these productions are getting, it’s obvious that I am in the minority here. Then again, some people love Paneer Makhani Pizza. Who am I to stop them?
I first watched The Mentalist because my back was out of order and it was the only thing to do while lying down waiting for the muscle spasm to heal. Afterwards, I found myself rewatching the episodes again and again, something that I have not done even with Breaking Bad. Why did I do this? Because Patrick Jane had imbibed the best qualities of Sherlock Holmes. He is always, always, always very observant and his deductions are perfect. He has the reputation of closing every case that comes his way. He has the same love of drama that Holmes has, where he sets a trap and reveals the killer in a flourish. He even says, “The game is afoot,” in one of the episodes. (Conan Doyle borrowed the expression from Shakespeare’s Henry V.) Like the dear old Sherlock, Patrick also smells dead bodies and looks for footprints. Just like Holmes, he goes to the local bar/cafe to hear the gossip that contains valuable leads. The qualities where he differs from Holmes, like he is a people’s person, blend seamlessly in his character. If you want to see the good old fashioned detective solving crimes based on clues, there is nothing better than The Mentalist.
Patrick Jane is the best creative remake of Sherlock Holmes in recent times.
The Mentalist is streaming on Amazon Prime.
