User:Tjkirk/Sandbox

The Mentalist is a CBS police drama television series which debuted on September 23, 2008 on CBS.

Flashpoint is a Canadian police drama television series that debuted on July 11, 2008, on CTV in Canada and CBS in the U.S.[1] Sniper[2] and Critical Incident[3] were former working titles. The original 2007 pilot for the series was filmed using the Critical Incident title[3] and Sniper was used when CTV originally announced the series in late December 2007.[4]

Plot
Golden Globe Award nominee Simon Baker stars as Patrick Jane, an independent consultant with the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who has a remarkable track record for solving serious crimes by using his razor sharp skills of observation. He also makes frequent use of his mentalist abilities to lead witnesses or offenders into offering the actual facts of the case, as known only to them. Within the Bureau, Jane is notorious for his blatant lack of protocol and his semi-celebrity past as a psychic medium, whose paranormal abilities he now admits he feigned. Jane's role in cracking a series of tough high-profile cases is greatly valued by his fellow agents. However, no-nonsense Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon openly resists having Jane in her unit and alternates between reluctantly acknowledging Jane's usefulness and blasting him for his theatrics, narcissism and dangerous lack of boundaries. Lisbon's team includes agents Kimball Cho, Wayne Rigsby and rookie member Grace Van Pelt, who all think Jane's a loose cannon but admire his charm and knack for clearing cases. Although the show has had a strong following, it has been criticized by many as a copy of the other psychic related show currently on television, Psych. The pilot episode had an audience of 15.6 million viewers in its first airing, and 7.8 million in a re-airing three days later. It also introduced some of Jane's backstory, indicating that his wife and daughter had been murdered five years before the series began by a serial killer known as "Red John."

On October 15, 2008, CBS ordered a full season of The Mentalist.