The Final Countdown. Over the next 17 days we will unveil our rankings for the new TV shows we tried out over the 2008-2009 TV season, starting with the shit sandwiches and working our way up to the filet mignon. (To simplify, we decided to not consider shows that have already been canceled.)
Dr. who cares?
The show: “Mental”
Synopsis: A cocky British doctor (I didn’t bother to learn his name.) arrives at a mental hospital to take the head psychiatrist gig. I bet you can’t guess whether he “plays by the rules” or follows his gut. Let’s just say that when he sits around the house, he rips off the show “House.”
Debuted: May 26, 2009 on Fox
Our take: I only made it about 15 minutes into “Mental.” The scene that pushed me away for good? The arrogant new doctor is at his first meeting with the higher ups at the hospital. He stands in front of the board room table, surrounded by important people in suits. He dives right in with some “Dead Poet’s Society” style pseudo-profound speech about how “the patients are out there” as he points to the hallway. He is also dressed really casual (presumably because he is ridiculously cool) and shuffling a deck of cards throughout the speech. (Holy shit, that’s pretty nonchalant for a big meeting like this!) At this point, I vomited all over the TV screen.
What it would need to do to keep me watching: If the crazy people in the hospital would rise up and murder not only the British doctor but the writers whom conceived the character and the executives that gave it the green light, I would consider giving it another chance.
