"Mentalist" mind-melds with viewers

In a ho-hum TV season in which most new shows have been greeted with a collective shrug and a click of the remote control, CBS' "The Mentalist" has managed to deduce what viewers want.

It offers tousle-haired charmer Simon Baker ("The Guardian," "The Devil Wears Prada") as Patrick Jane, a faux psychic jolted by tragedy into newfound ethics and a job helping California crime fighters.

There's the appeal of a mystery wrapped up within each episode, joined with Patrick's quest to catch the serial killer who took the lives of his wife and child.

And there's creator and executive producer Bruno Heller, fresh off the triumph of HBO's miniseries "Rome" and looking for a new challenge, who's deftly mixed a traditional whodunit with the journey of an emotionally wounded hero.

Robin Tunney, Tim Kang, Owain Yeoman and Amanda Righetti co-star in the drama, airing at 9 p.m. Tuesdays.

Heller is glad to heap praise on Baker for the show's out-of-the-gate top 10 ratings performance, with weekly audiences of about 16 million.

"He's a genuine TV star, and we were very lucky to get him. Especially in tough times, he has the kind of positive spirit and sense of life that appeals to people," Heller said.

Other shows incorporate supernatural elements, whether framed as real or fraudulent ("The Ghost Whisperer," "Medium" or "Psychic"). But "The Mentalist" is cut from different cloth, say Baker and Heller.

"This show probably draws more parallels to 'Columbo' " than to series with an otherworldly tinge, Baker said. "My character just has a different way of looking at things. He looks at things outside of the box."

Heller drew his inspiration for the drama from the streets of Los Angeles, where "every block has a storefront" with a psychic.

"There's an interesting moral ambivalence in people who do that job, who say they can get in touch with the spirit world or say they can read your mind," he said. "In one way, I think it's rubbish. ... But on the other, they're performing a genuine therapeutic function in people's lives."