Mental

please tell me this wasn't the series finale.... .We watched as he walked away last night wondering if the entire cast was going to continue, or would just he pick up somewhere else.....We were waiting to see if the one doctor, Carl Bell. was going to be found out as the jerk and manipulator he was portraying, and if the pharmaceutical representatives would be seen as forcing favors on individuals and hospitals for the opportunity to use them as guinea pig farms. Would the department head Nora Skoff find enough funding to be able to toss them (Bell and the drug representatives) out on their whatever. There were so many unanswered questions hanging at the end of this episode, we're hoping that it will return with some slowly released answers as the regular stories emerge.

There seems to be two camps on here - those that, like me, think 'Mental' is good entertainment and hope it continues; and those pseudo intellectuals, who believe they can be sofa psychiatrists and ridicule what is basically TV entertainment for not being 'realistic' enough.

The second camp completely ignore the fact that this is a drama and NOT a documentary; stating that Mental' is a joke when it comes to representing mental health professionals and their patients. Well, as someone who has had mental health problems for the last five years and has had to deal with said 'professionals' I tend to disagree.

The back stabbing amongst these 'professionals' I've witnessed has been the same as the show. As for the patients that are missing from the show, those for whom there is no long lasting 'help', well this is ENTERTAINMENT; a show about the futility of a 'cure' for mental health problems wouldn't be very entertaining would it?

Far better to have the show end on a positive note, than one where the patient kills themselves or ends up in a drug induced stupor as the only way to survive. But hey, I'm just a patient and not a sofa psychiatrist, so what do I know?

Certainly as someone 'in the loop' I do actually find a certain amount of realism in this programme; except for the bone jarring feeling of talking to a wall I experience every time I have an appointment, which is missing from the show itself. After all, in the show the doctors actually LISTEN. I mean what other doctor sits with a timer on their desk, apart from a psychiatrist? This is also absent from the programme; Doctor Gallagher never says "sorry, but can we end it there?" when a patient is in floods of tears and pouring their heart out, just because the timer's gone off.

Oh and let's not forget that 'House' isn't real either....do we honestly believe that Hugh Laurie's character would really hold down a job in ANY hospital? A drug addicted, pain addled, rude and nasty man whose only enjoyment in life is to put others down and torture those he's supposed be to teaching, along with his 'ME, ME, ME!' attitude and callous disregard for his patients? I doubt it, but that hasn't stopped the show winning a myriad of awards. So to hold this show up as some kind of 'realistic' benchmark for 'Mental' is ridiculous to the extreme. It's like saying 'ER' and 'Gray's Anatomy' are real too. (inserts eye roll here).

Like I said all these shows are for entertainment ONLY - and I for one enjoy 'Mental' immensely. If all you're looking for is realistic torture of mental health patients just watch 'Big Brother'; that should give you some *real* nut jobs to sink your teeth into, and certainly some without any hope of a cure.

However for those who say they *are* some of these mental health professionals, I would need to question why they would want a TV programme to show all the suffering they work with daily for them to watch all over again -very odd.

But remember, patients like me watch this show too - and I don't think it's that unrealistic. I just like the ENTERTAINMENT, and of course Chris Vance is lovely too!! He certainly carries the show....

It just wants to impress, amaze and woo us from the start. It fails, since this approach is so last century. I want character development, colors, emotions. I don't want to rush into stereotypes: "cool boss" + "powerful female colleague"; two sexy interns, fresh from actors school in LA; hospital director that looks like a captain from some hardboiled cop show, but not someone with a medical background. Mental cases are interesting stuff to explore, but it fails here also, since it emphasizes on human relations, rather than subject of psychiatry itself.

Camera work is so bad it pains me to look at those Mexican soap opera style close-ups. Sound falls even shorter.

And yes, where are the writers of this show? My bet is, that it will end with this one pilot.

Think House meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. But change cranky, gimp-legged diagnostician Dr Gregory House with an impish, boy toy shrink and Nurse Ratched for a comely cougar chief administrator and Voila! . . . a FOX prime time TV series targeted at soccer moms on meds. But why stop there with the similarities to House? Why mess with success when you can plagiarize the play book of "Maverick White Hero Triumphs Over 'Diversity' and Teaches Uppity Women and Nervous Nelly Minorities a Lesson in How to Terrorize Your Patients Using Rogue Medical Techniques". Start by hiring a British actor, place him in a cold, sterile institution that frowns upon "genius" and staff it with earnest, well meaning staff who prefer to "play it safe and by the book" while our unconventional hero uses his rakish charm to enlist the support of his former lover who just so happens to run the hospital. Former lover should be an aging albeit hot brunette on the wrong side of forty conflicted by her burgeoning sexual attraction to recently hired doctor/ex-boyfriend, and her desire to avoid the inevitable lawsuits resulting from his "inspired" treatments. Replace Dr House's acutely observed misanthropy with cutely observed musings on the "mysteries of the human mind" and you have 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo House . . . and Dropped a Great Steaming Load' aka 'Mental'.

I saw this for the first time end of 2011. I loved it. I just love the way this guy actually cares about his patients - which is really the only way to heal people (engage with them). I love the way he is outside of the box and isn't a tame psychiatrist who belongs to the health authority, but uses his expertise and humanity to do what needs to be done. He takes one person at a time and enters into their take on the world & holds them steady while they do what they need to do. It comes at a cost to him of course. He doubts himself & gets hurt, and can make choices that don't turn out well - welcome to the real world. But no decision is really wrong, and it's only from engaging that you learn anything at all. I loved this. All trainee psychiatrists should have to watch it.