u/Jaan-Tung

I don't know if anyone like the white glossy Apple store circa 2010 aesthetic of season 5, I don't, but that's not the point of this post. I want to draw attention to the fact that this is not the first show that went through similar transformation around that time and I wonder why.

I think the original CBI set with open brick and warm light made it feels like this show was Parks and Rec with murder investigation in it. It goes very well with the California country side landscape that this show is known for. Although I am not resisting change, I would have like it if the new FBI office kept the tone.

But the post of this post is, this is not the first time this happens to a TV Show that I watched.

Angel started out in a cramp dirty office, then moved to the iconic hotel, and then last season moved to a very very modern Wolfram and Hart office. Alias, that spy show, starting with season 2 after SD6 was destroyed, became very modern with steel chair and brightly lit office, and the 4th season take it to the max level with fans literally call the new set the Apple store.

Is there like an interior design movement that emerged during 2010 for TV shows or something? I guess that with office design that has larger open space, it's easier for the camera and actors to move around, but sometime you see characters just stand there waiting for their turn to talk because if they sit down, they will look small, because the space is so big.

I remember as a kid, watching Mentalist as the new episodes were coming out and every time the crime has nothing to do with Red John I was slightly disappointed...

Now, I'm rewatching Season 3 and it takes me back, but also make me appreciate all the non-Red-John story. It gets to the point that the serialized stuff made me roll my eyes and was like... "get back to the current case, please." (just to know exactly what I'm talking about, there's LaRoche investigating the CBI and also Hightower going into hiding.

Just the episode: Red Mile (season 3 episode 18) was top tier whodunnit.

There's so much going on, and none of it is Red John related. There's the Van Pelt and Rigby's love story, there's Patrick Jane's teasing Steiner, and then there's the case itself, which has a twist in the middle (don't read the episode description if you haven't watch this one, cuz I was surprised when I saw the description of the episode AFTER watching it and how much it spoiled its secret story)

I just want to write this to show how much I love the standalone story. And this season has some of the best ones, like, I was watching 3 CSIs, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and 3 Law and Order, I still think Mentalist is the smartest show out of all of them. And every episode packs a punch, there's so many things going on.