‘The Mentalist’ season 7 premiere review: Jane, Lisbon start their future together

Sunday night marked the premiere of “The Mentalist,” and it was an opportunity to see a little bit of everything that we’ve come to love about the show and then some.

Tonight’s episode obviously brought us the beginnings of the Jane / Lisbon relationship, which we know has been years in the making. For the most part, though, it felt like the same show with an extra layer of romance atop it. The show still focused mostly on a case, and also getting to see if Patrick and Teresa’s dynamic professionally was altered much by their personal relationship. Here’s an update: It wasn’t. These two still got the job done.

We also had the introduction of Agent Michelle Vega, who we almost want to coin right now as the serious version of Amy Santiago from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” She’s interesting, but it is too early to tell if we like her.

One other thing that we really liked about this episode? The discussion between Jane and Agent Pike, where it was somewhat clear just how much Lisbon gave up to make her decision. He had hoped to give her a life, a family, and everything else. Jane is not thinking that far ahead. The reason we like Pike as a character is that he is a rival in some ways, but he’s not a jerk. Everything that he asked Jane was justifiable. Even the best guy would be bitter in his situation.

Ultimately, this was a very entertaining premiere. We wouldn’t say that anything completely shocked us, but it was nice to have a little mixture in here of something familiar, but also the added layer of the Jisbon relationship. Grade: B+.

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