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CHICAGO – In anticipation of the scariest week of the year, HollywoodChicago.com launches its 2024 Movie Gifts series, which will suggest DVDs and collections for holiday giving.
TV Review: Misguided ‘Mental’ Misses the Mark
Submitted by BrianTT on May 26, 2009 - 2:26pm
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MENTAL: Everything changes at Wharton Memorial Psychiatric Hospital when radically unorthodox psychiatrist Dr. Jack Gallagher (Chris Vance, C) arrives as the Director of Mental Health Services. As Gallagher takes on new cases, he is confronted with patients battling unknown, misunderstood and often misdiagnosed conditions in MENTAL premiering Tuesday, May 26 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Pictured L-R: Edwin Hodge, Marisa Ramirez, Nicholas Gonzalez, Chris Vance, Annabella Sciorra, Derek Webster and Jacqueline McKenzie.
Photo credit: ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Andrew Southam/FOX
“Mental” premieres on FOX on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 8pm CST. It stars Chris Vance, Annabella Sciorra, House, Jacqueline McKenzie, Derek Webster, Nicholas Gonzalez, and Marisa Ramirez. It was created by Deborah Joy Levine and Dan Levine.
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CHICAGO – Hugh Laurie deserves the heaps of praise he gets for his spectacular work on “House”. If you’re wondering what that show would be like without the same believable medical issues, interesting characters or whip-smart dialogue provided by the show’s underrated writers, though, check out the new “Mental”. It’s another series about a rebellious doctor and it pales in comparison.
 Television Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
Dr. Jack Gallagher (Chris Vance) is the new unorthodox psychiatrist named Director of Mental Health Services at a Los Angeles hospital. He battles his conservative administrator named Nora Skoff (Annabella Sciorra), a woman with whom he happens to share a romantic past.
MENTAL: Everything changes at Wharton Memorial Psychiatric Hospital when radically unorthodox psychiatrist Dr. Jack Gallagher (Chris Vance, C) arrives as the Director of Mental Health Services. As Gallagher takes on new cases, he is confronted with patients battling unknown, misunderstood and often misdiagnosed conditions in MENTAL premiering Tuesday, May 26 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Pictured L-R: Edwin Hodge, Marisa Ramirez, Nicholas Gonzalez, Chris Vance, Annabella Sciorra, Derek Webster and Jacqueline McKenzie.
Photo credit: ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Andrew Southam/FOX
Solving each week’s medical mystery with Dr. Gallagher will be Dr. Veronica Hayden-Jones (Jacqueline McKenzie) and the combative Dr. Carl Belle (Derek Webster) on the administrative level and residents Dr. Arturo Suarez (Nicholas Gonzalez) and Dr. Chloe Artis (Marisa Ramirez) by the doctor’s side.
The new doctor first invites patients to sit in on staff meetings - “It’s really more their hospital than ours” - and then does card tricks. I’m sure it’s not the intention of the writers of “Mental,” but the show pushes the boundaries of the “maverick doctor” to the point that I kind of wanted him fired.
 MENTAL: Dr. Jack Gallagher (Chris Vance, L) and Dr. Veronica Hayden-Jones (Jacqueline McKenzie, R) discuss their plans for treating a patient in the series premiere of MENTAL airing Tuesday, May 26 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Photo credit: FOX |
Whoever thought it was a good idea to visualize the hallucinations of the patients definitely needs to spend some time in a padded cell. Moments seen through the eyes of the patient include a man who sees lizard eyes on people, another who visualizes stabbing a pen in his jugular, and even the graphic visions of the elderly sex addict. All of them are embarrassing from a dramatic viewpoint and demeaning from a medical one.
The mental health tragedy in this country - most homeless people are mentally handicapped and people are misdiagnosed on a regular basis - seems like an interesting foundation for drama. The problem is that “Mental” reduces everything to a device. All the mentally ill need is a rambunctious new doctor!
As for what works about “Mental,” Chris Vance is certainly not bad. He actually does what he can to rein in the melodrama around him and doesn’t overplay his character’s maverick side, even if the script keeps pressing him to do so. Annabella Sciorra isn’t bad either but she can’t find the cure for the eye-rolling dialogue. (A woman actually says to the doctor coming to her home, “visiting hours are over, doctor” to get him to leave. I couldn’t make that kind of writing up.)
“Mental” is merely more proof that TV has always been and will always be about the writing. The generic “House”-esque structure of “Mental” is problematic enough, but with more interesting characters and believable medical drama, the show might have worked. That was not meant to be.
FOX is burning off “Mental” in the summer months for a reason. It doesn’t have a sweet post-“American Idol” premiere and has barely been promoted. There’s a reason for both of those things. It would be crazy to expect “Mental” to be anything but a memory by the time the fall schedule premieres.
 | By BRIAN TALLERICO |
Its called a review you
Its called a review you slack jawed retard. He formed an opinion of the show and wrote about it. Whether or not your delicate sensibilities were offended when he flamed your terribly written little piece of melodrama does not change the fact THAT YOUR DOING THE SAME THING IN ISSUING A COUNTER REVIEW. For the good of humanity kill yourself post-haste
Thanks for showing yourself
Thanks to this post, we now are all clear that YOU have no credibility in reviewing anything related to mental health. Only a “slack jawed retard” would even USE the term “retard,” let alone tell someone they disagree with to “kill yourself.”
For the good of humanity, GET YOURSELF SOME THERAPY!
Great Summer Show
I hope people take some time to watch this show so they can stop the comparisons with House. Mental has nothing to do with House. It’s totally different plots and characters.
The show has potencial. I think Chris Vance does a great job playing Dr. Gallagher and the rest of the cast has chemistry and that is comfortable to see. The writing needs to improve but I have to say that the last episode was better than the first.
So what on TV is realistic? Not even reality shows. So just sit back and enjoy a good show. And stop comparing.
Mental as anything!
I have just sat through three episodes of Mental, that’s about enough for me.
The writing is OK even the direction is not bad, Chris Vance does what he can given the extraordinary situations and fellow actors’ lack of enthusiasm for their own roles. Given all that, I could still watch the show again…if it wasn’t for the truly awful lighting and picture quality. It’s like watching Days of Our Lives, 30 years ago. “Get with the picture” as they say. Improve it or lose it.
What's so wrong with it?
I love the show. Not every show out there is going to be 100% accurate. You want to get realistic? Dr. House would have been fired one hell of a long time ago, if the show had been realistic. They wouldn’t let him do all of the illegal things that he gets away with!
So lay off the unrealistic crap. It’s meant to be entertaining.
And come on. There have only been, what, 5 or so episodes so far? You can’t expect a show to be better than a 5 or so season-running series like House. If I remember correctly, House wasn’t “all that” when it first started, either! Personally, I love both shows, and if you REALLY want to compare them, Gallagher is like the better version of House. He’s hotter, more innovative, and nicer (sort of) to certain people, but he still has that rebel attitude that we all love.
It’s called potential, and Mental has it. It’s a lot better than most of the crap on T.V. now.
WTF???????
Mental is one of my top 3 favorite tv shows.
It is a fairly good representation of what happens when
going into a hospital for help. I happen to know because
I am one of “them”.
You people obviously have no experience in anything including
life!!! Only one or two of you are sincere and the rest are
totally narcissistic. (go look it up)
Then KEEP YOUR NASTY OPINI0NS OF WHAT OTHERS THINK TO YOURSELF!!!
Srsly?
You seem to be of the opinion that this show should be more like real life. I don’t know about you, but if I wanted to watch things happen as they did in real life, I wouldn’t be watching t.v. And, hello, how true to life do you really think House is?
As for comparing this show to House, in all of the articles I have read it has seemed pretty clear that this show was not meant to compete with House and Gallagher was not meant to be his equal. If you actually take the show for what it is and quit trying to make it into a competition between the two, the show isn’t half bad.
Now, if you want to talk about how much I like this show VS how much I love House, on a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being the best) I would have to give House an 11 and this show a 6.5.