Greetings,
This is meant to be a very lighthearted question - what do you folks think of the television show "The Mentalist"? This is an American television show, so I'm not sure if anyone in other parts of the world get to see it, but the premise is a guy who used to be a 'television psychic' who, after the murder of his wife, 'came clean' and now helps the police solve crimes. When this question was asked over on 'the forum that shall not be named' the conversation quickly turned to a nasty argument about exposure and the like, but I don't want to talk about exposure.
I'd like to know as psychics, mentalists, etc, what do you think about the character portrayed in the show? Has the show helped business and public perception? The stance of the character in the show is that he does what he does by pure powers of observation (he's said many times that he does not believe in psychics) yet whenever I mention the show to someone they always say 'Oh yea, that fellow that can read minds' - an example of how people attribute powers even when they are flatly denied :-)
Although the show is of course Hollywood, they do seem to have a grasp of what goes into a character like this, and I enjoy picking out when he is using cold reading techniques and the like. On the episode I recently watched he was teaching a coworker how to use a 'memory palace' to memorize a lot of information for future use. He also once said "Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor." and I had to laugh at myself.
So ... thoughts?
Subject: Lighthearted ... The Mentalist ?? 
