'The Mentalist,' which returns tonight at 10PM ET on CBS, is the type of show that is constantly in danger of falling into the tedium of formula. Actually, it really is a formula show -- the set-ups are often similar, the way Jane interacts with the suspects/victims is often the same, the solution revealed at the same time in the same way -- but it happens to be a well-done formula show.

So the question as we head towards the second half of the third season is this: is it becoming too formulaic?

'The Mentalist' is a drama, like a lot of dramas in the past several years, that have weeks where they focus on a new murder case (the "case-of-the-week") and the weeks where they focus on the Red John case. There are usually a good handful of those episodes spread out throughout the season and includes the season finale.

This season there have been episodes that had both a new murder and the Red John case.

But the show needs to focus more on Red John. Either have more stories about him (assuming it's a man, though it could be a woman), or actually solve the case soon and move on to the next chapter in Jane's life. It has always seemed strange that Red John can kill Jane's wife and child, murder other people and taunt Jane and the entire CBI team for months and years, but everyone can just shrug it off and move on to the case-of-the-week.

It's like when Mulder and Scully would battle aliens and a massive secret conspiracy to enslave everyone on Earth ... and then the following week just kinda put that trivial thing aside and go investigate a murder in New Jersey.

It was especially weird in last season's finale, when Jane's friend/nemesis/possible girlfriend Kristina Frye was kidnapped by Red John. Or seemingly kidnapped, if you're in the camp that believes Frye could herself be Red John. This should have been played with more emotion -- Jane about to lose yet another person he likes to the serial killer who has taunted him for years -- but it just wasn't as intense as it should have been.

If I remember correctly, last year's season finale ended with Jane smiling and singing a tune, seemingly knowing something that viewers don't.

This season, in the episode 'Blood on His Hands,' we saw that Frye was alive. She was in a rather calm, dazed state though and couldn't really remember what happened. While this was a rather different take on this type of plot development -- on a lot of other shows, she would either been killed immediately or kept out of the picture to create another long mystery -- it was still an odd development. Perhaps she'll be back at some point to get involved in another case, and maybe even arouse the suspicions of some viewers that she's either Red John or is working with him in some way (which may be why she's still alive).

Or maybe you think that Bret Stiles is Red John. In any other show, Malcolm McDowell would be the weird killer. He's weird here too, the leader of some odd self-help group, but he could just be a red (ha) herring. put here to make us think he could be Red John because McDowell is just so Red John-ish. But he's involved, giving Jane clues and hints about Red John. He knows more than he has said.

If Jane was a Jack Bauer or Mike Hammer, he would have beaten it out of him weeks ago.

Perhaps Red John is someone at CBI (or has been at CBI). While it would be ridiculous, of course, to have Lisbon or Cho or Van Pelt turn out to be Red John, it could be Minelli. The timing of his resignation was rather odd and could have been done to trick viewers that he was off the show for good and couldn't possibly be Red John.

He did pop up in the Christmas episode a few weeks ago, 'Jolly Red Elf,' and seemed to find love with someone involved in Jane's case. But it's a good bet that we'll see Gregory Itzin again before the season is over.

His replacement, Madeleine Hightower (Aunjanue Ellis) is an interesting character. Sure, she has some of that "Jane, you better play by the rules or else!" in her like a lot of chiefs we see on police shows, but there's also a side of her that genuinely likes Jane and let's him get away with things others wouldn't let him get away with. She is becoming not just the boss but someone he can trust.

Or maybe she's Red John. Who the heck knows at this point?

So this season has been a pretty good mix of the big case and the individual case. I'll predict that the CBI team will encounter Red John a couple of more times before the season finale, when something big will happen, they'll almost catch Red John but he'll escape, and we'll have to wait and see what happens.

But let's at least hope that Rigsby and Van Pelt can work things out.





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