The Mentalist ended 10 years ago – Here’s why the finale still feels like a missed opportunity

The Mentalist came to an end with its finale airing on CBS in 2015. A decade later, it still feels as if The Mentalist didn't do full justice to one of its chief characters. On one hand, there is no doubt that The Mentalist was always supposed to pivot around Simon Baker's Patrick Jane and the charisma of the character was immense to say the least.

However, the show could have done better than to portray Robin Tunney's Teresa Lisbon as second fiddle to Patrick Jane. Although the show won't return anytime soon to amend this, a proper recounting seems to be in order.

Here's everything that you need to know.

Lisbon's spotlight was consistently stolen by Jane on The Mentalist

Throughout the seven seasons of The Mentalist, Jane was portrayed as the epicentre of the show, as the psychic ex-con-turned-CBI consultant who had a penchant for cracking the toughest cases and apprehending feared serial killers.

On the other hand, the first time that Lisbon was introduced to the audience, she was described as Jane's superior and also as one who was a sucker for the rules, and wouldn't mind going all the way to ensure that rules are being followed in the bureau.

Apart from this, Lisbon and Jane often engaged in romantically-charged scenes and this led to several instances of 'will they, won't they,' causing the audience to guess if the two would ever consummate their love for each other. The finale of the CBS show finally saw Lisbon and Jane tying the knot, with a teary-eyed Lisbon confessing that she is pregnant. Regardless, the characterization of Lisbon often fell flat and the finale still feels like a missed opportunity, since all of Lisbon's stern disciplinarian attitude evaporated when it came to her feelings for Jane. She remained a secondary character to Jane, and this proved to be one of the main drawbacks of the show.

Simon Baker and Robin Tunney open up about the finale of The Mentalist

Following the airing of the finale episode on CBS, Simon Baker and Robin Tunney appeared on an interview with TVLine alongside show creator Bruno Heller. When asked about Jane's romantic relationship with Lisbon, Baker remarked:

"From the moment I met Robin Tunney. I looked at her and I said, “You will be mine.” No, you know, it’s one of those things where…. It’s the whole Moonlighting theory that comes into play with long-form TV. It goes on, and sometimes on and on, and do you give the audience what they want, or do you keep the flirtation and tease going? Is that really what they want, is that what they like — to want something? Because as soon as you seal any sort of a deal with anything, it’s like, “Well, that’s that, and from there where do we go?” There are plenty of places always to go, but it’s a risk and a challenge."

Tunney added:

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"I also think the show has always been something more than just a straight procedural. And once the Red John storyline cleared up, it was like, “OK, these people are left with each other. So how do you create stakes?” There was a history, but there was this idea of “What’s next?” How do they feel about each other? It created sort of an arc where there was a lot at stake, people’s hearts and all that stuff, without, “Oh, we can throw another serial killer into the mix.” It was something that was fitting to the show and it created drama."

The Mentalist is available for streaming on Hulu.

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