#i made the mistake of making an anti j*isbon post several years ago

[hyperesthesias]

even after so many years i still really love the mentalist. i used to watch it every night it came on and i still think about it. i loved that it shared the plot line of a guy seeking revenge for the murder of his family with a book i was writing at the time. i’ve seen it more than once now but every time i see it or think about it i just can’t get over its fatal flaws. 

i havent rewatched it in several years but i recently started to bounce around a bit and i just cant let it go. so i’m just gonna say it --

j*isbon should have never been a thing tbh. they’re terrible for each other and their romantic chemistry is forced and unhealthy. honestly when i saw jane in the first or second episode -- second episode i think -- reserve the room for the hotel and tell lisbon not to worry about him seducing her, that it was the first thought that would pop into her mind, i thought she was going to tell him she was gay. ngl. i’m being flat out. it works so much better tbh and it would have made their relationship much more intimate and interesting -- it would have been something he couldn’t predict, and he would have felt important for her to tell him after the time they’d known each other. plus it would have added nice diversity and also added a lgbtq character whose primary focus isnt their sexuality but their duty and passion for their job. in short, it would have humanized her. i mean, c’mon it was california 2008, it would have been a prime opportunity to write that. i know. i live here. 

they should never have been together romantically. he lies to her and misleads her constantly, and she is perpetually tired of it. her irritation with him is palpable and forcing her with him seemed uncharacteristic. especially since he manipulates her on a regular basis. it would have made so much more sense if they kept their relationship as sibling vibes. so much more realistic to the pranking and the ‘sick of this shit’ back and forth thing they had. i have no doubts they loved each other and cared about one another, but romantic love and romantic intimacy was so unnecessary and weird between them. 

i also know they wanted jane to progress as a character and move on from angela and charlotte but it would have been so much more fulfilling if he had taken a kid under his wing. a pseudo-daughter for him to nurture and raise because he was robbed of being a father. (i’m also confused why they didn’t hire simon baker’s daughter to play charlotte in his hallucinations because honestly she’s also an actress, she would’ve been the right age, and she looks like her father but ----- that’s not really relevant to the point). it would’ve been creative!! it would’ve been different and something we haven’t seen ten billion times already!! him and his adopted kid go and live their life peacefully after red john bites it. can you imagine how much cooler than would’ve been??

ALSO -- the red john wrap up was horrible. it was so awful. the sheriff? really?? BELIEVE ME -- i have a book where the bad guy sheriff is involved in a multi-government agency criminal ring. i get it. i know how to write it. but that was not it dude. did not pass the vibe check. it would have made so much more sense -- it would’ve been so much more personal if they’d made it someone jane had worked with at the cbi for years. maybe not a main character, but someone in the background every so often. someone he might’ve even thought he’d bonded with or had gotten to know on the surface. someone who came out of left field for him because he was his equal match. i mean, jane is supposed to be sherlock -- he needed a moriarty not a red herring chase and a throwaway. honestly, who pulled that out of a hat? in like...two episodes? what??

alright, alright -- i’ll stop. but the last thing that bothered me was the one latina character they had they almost immediately killed. and it pissed me off because i loved her and she was a cinnamon roll and there was no need for her to die. 

alright. i’m done. 

for now.