The Mentalist: Cast & Creators Live at the Paley Center

Definetely worth it!
I was a bit skeptical at first, because usually those interview things are often pretty boring and technical. And at first glance, the product description of only about an hour's worth of video seemed a bit offputting as well. But boy was I proved wrong.

This is a very nice video of a very rare thing: An interview session with a cast that was FUN to watch and not only gave great insight into the background of the show, but also showed the awesome chemistry between the cast members. First you get about half an hour of questions by the host, which are clever and not just the usual run of the mill (particularly watch out for Simon defending himself by saying "Mate, it was the early 90s....!", it's a riot!!LOL). Then the audience gets to ask questions for another roughly 20 minutes, and there are some sweet moments as well.

This is one interview session I will be watching more than once, in fact I've already seen it five times now and it doesn't become boring at...

Worth Watching But Wish There Was More Depth
Here's my suggestion if you're a fan but a bit cheap. Watch it instantly ($1.99) as opposed to buying the disk.

The conversation is enjoyable and well worth watching but hard-core fans will leave unsatisfied. First, the program appears to have been taped after the first season but before the second, so there are a number of sub-plots (Rigsby and Van Pelt's relationship and Lisbon's one-night stand) that had been filmed but very consciously not referred to. There's no discussion of the subtleties of character development, the balance between Patrick's Jane's charm and (sometimes) annoying arrogance nor most of the other story telling features that make the show pretty sophisticated and standing above what it might have been if the writing and character development weren't so advanced. This would have been much better if taped after the second season and even more so after the third. There would be far more to discuss.

The cast, particularly Tunney and Yeoman,...

Expected more
As a big fan of 'The Mentalist' I expected a little more for my money. Listening to the writer and producer talking about the creation of the show and the different characters is interesting, but I felt a lack of in-depth questions, the same old questions that come up in every interview with the actors about the show. In fact the best questions were the ones asked by the audience at the very end (should of had more of them...).

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