Mental (TV series) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mental is a television series produced by Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

's subsidiary Fox Telecolombia

Fox Telecolombia

Fox Telecolombia S.A. is a major Colombian television production company in Spanish, founded in 1995 as Producciones Bernardo Romero Pereiro. Its president is managed by Samuel Duque Rozo. It changed its name to Telecolombia in 1999...

, which aired in the summer and fall of 2009 on FOX international channels for Latin America, Europe and Asia, starring Chris Vance

Chris Vance (actor)

Chris Vance is a British actor. Vance is known for his role as Jack Gallagher in the Fox series Mental and James Whistler in Prison Break, and has guest-starred on Burn Notice and Dexter-Early life:...

and Annabella Sciorra

Annabella Sciorra

Annabella Sciorra is an American film, television, and stage actress. Sciorra received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead for the 1989 film True Love, and came to widespread attention in her co-lead role in Spike Lee's 1991 film Jungle Fever...

. Mental was executive-produced by Deborah Joy LeVine

Deborah Joy LeVine

Deborah Joy LeVine is an American television writer and producer. She is most notable for her title "The Woman who Revived Superman", as she wrote the TV Series, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which ran from 1993 to 1997.-Credits:...

– creator of the successful drama series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was a live-action American television series based on the Superman comic books...

and the Lifetime

Lifetime Television

Lifetime Television, often referred to as Lifetime TV, or most commonly, Lifetime, is an American cable television specialty channel devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The cable network is owned by A&E Television Networks...

series The Division
The Division
The Division is an American Lifetime Television original series about a team of women police officers in the San Francisco Police Department. The series premiered on January 7, 2001 and ended on June 28, 2004 after 88 episodes.-Synopsis:...

, and executive producer of Any Day Now, Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB Television Network and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. The show is set in the fictional seaside town of Capeside, Massachusetts, and in Boston, Massachusetts, during the later seasons...

and the CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

series Early Edition
Early Edition
Early Edition is an American television series that aired on CBS from September 28, 1996 to May 27, 2000. Set in the city of Chicago, Illinois, it follows the adventures of a man who mysteriously receives each Chicago Sun-Times newspaper the day before it is actually published, and who uses this...

– and her brother and writing/producing partner, Dan LeVine. Following its U.S. debut, it aired in 35 additional countries. Fox Latin America aired the first episode as a "Worldwide Premiere" on June 2, 2009. Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

aired the pilot episode on May 26, 2009 for the American market. Fox TV Studios ordered 13 episodes. It began production on June 2, 2008 at the Fox Telecolombia production facilities in Bogotá.

Although the series was filmed in the city of Bogotá in Colombia representing Los Angeles (USA), no Colombian actor was cast as a regular character and very few were cast for occasional roles, because of the strict American nature of the series. According to TVWeek

TVWeek

TVWeek is a weekly local television entertainment news and listings magazine owned by Canada Wide Media Limited. The magazine is generally sold in the Metro Vancouver area, and is generally slanted towards television and entertainment news and listings for the region.TVWeek once competed with the...

, Jacqueline McKenzie

Jacqueline McKenzie

Jacqueline Susan McKenzie is an Australian actress.McKenzie made her film debut in the 1987 film Wordplay and on stage in Child Dancing for Griffin Theatre Company. She made a strong impression in Romper Stomper , and over the next couple of years came to be regarded as one of Australia's most...

, Derek Webster

Derek Webster

Derek Webster can refer to:* Derek Webster .* the publisher and editor of Maisonneuve magazine....

, Nicholas Gonzalez

Nicholas Gonzalez

Nicholas Edward Gonzalez is an Mexican-American actor, best known for playing Alex Santiago in the TV series Resurrection Blvd..-Early life:...

, and Marisa Ramirez

Marisa Ramirez

Marisa Carolina Ramirez is an American actress.-Early life:Ramirez attended an all-girls' school in Alhambra, California at the Ramona Convent Secondary School. Her career began at age 13 when she was brought to the attention of a major L.A...

were added to the cast of Mental, "probably as recurrent characters."

A DVD of the complete series was announced on September 2, 2009. The DVD was released on December 1, 2009. The DVD includes all 13 episodes, plus an unrated

Uncensored

Uncensored was an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view from World Championship Wrestling held in the month of March from 1995 through 2000. It was replaced in 2001 by Greed....

alternate pilot.

Due to declining ratings, FOX cancelled the show following its first season.

Characters

Dr. Jack Gallagher (Chris Vance

Chris Vance (actor)

)

The protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

of the show. Jack is a Australian man living in America, for what seems like much of his life as his step-father of many years is American. He uses rather unorthodox methods to get inside the patient's head to help cure them; however, this usually gains him spite from his fellow doctors. He enjoys riding his bike and has a mentally unstable sister whom he is trying to find, and has been for four years. At the end of the episode entitled, Do Over, he finds Becky and she is put into the hospital with schizophrenia. Jack's mother and step-father come and try to convince him to let them take Becky to Florida for treatment. Jack is skeptical, but Becky decides to leave with her parents. In the season finale, Jack is seen talking to an anonymous therapist (who turns out to be himself), and admits that he has an irrational fear of becoming schizophrenic, which is why he is afraid of commitment. It is also revealed that he, most likely, is dealing with clinical depression at this point. In the final scene, he punches Carl, and is subsequently fired. Jack then leaves and the season, as well as the series, ends. The last shot of the series shows us Dr. Gallagher now "vagrant" and without direction, in opposition to his recently vagrant sister, who has chosen to return home with her family. The season ends in direct opposition to the season opening - an extremely ironic ending.

Nora Skoff (Annabella Sciorra

Annabella Sciorra

)

She is a hospital administrator who shares a romantic past with Dr. Gallagher. Nora has a distinctive and conservative style. She successfully battled cancer and is divorced with two daughters.

Dr. Carl Belle (Derek Webster)

Dr. Belle is a master politician who is dedicated to Jack's downfall, even secretly black-mailing Arturo to spy on Jack.

Dr. Veronica Hayden-Jones (Jacqueline McKenzie

Jacqueline McKenzie

)

Dr. Hayden-Jones is a dedicated psychiatrist who is upset that she wasn't given Jack's job. She is married to a musician, but was cheating on him with one of the doctors in the hospital. This doctor has subsequently resigned.

Dr. Chloë Artis (Marisa Ramirez

Marisa Ramirez

)

Dr. Artis is a gorgeous doctor who is passing the time in a residency she feels is beneath her until Jack opens her mind to the inspirational benefits of psychiatry. She is frequently pursued by Arturo before she reveals to him that she is a lesbian.

Dr. Arturo Suarez (Nicholas Gonzalez

Nicholas Gonzalez

Nicholas Edward Gonzalez is an Mexican-American actor, best known for playing Alex Santiago in the TV series Resurrection Blvd..-Early life:...

)

Dr. Suarez is a first-year resident. He is young and cocky, constantly looking for love (or sex), and won't seem to give up on Chloe, even knowing her sexual orientation. Arturo falsified his transcripts so that he could become a doctor and that information is being held against him by Carl, who is blackmailing Arturo into spying on Jack.

Margo Stroud (Samantha Eggar

Samantha Eggar

Samantha Eggar is an English film, television and voice actress.-Early life:She was born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar in Hampstead, London to an Anglo-Irish father and a mother of Dutch and Portuguese descent...

)

Jack and Becky's mother, whose first husband and the father of her children, died. She is now living in Florida and is married to James.

James Stroud (Madison Mason)

Jack and Becky's step-father and Margo's second husband. James is a retired Navy Vice Admiral - Jack even bitterly states that James raised them as though they were soldiers. Jack holds a grudge on James for sticking Becky in the first institution he could find, twenty years ago, when Becky was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He is American.

Becky Gallagher (Amanda Douge

Amanda Douge

Amanda Douge is an Australian actress, best known from a range of television and feature film roles.Douge studied law at Melbourne University and has been with theMelbourne Theatre Company....

)

Becky is Jack's twin sister, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia twenty years ago. She has been missing for four years, and showed up on Jack's doorstep near the end of the first season. Jack is very protective over her and they both share a strong loving bond. She is frequently haunted by hallucinations of a young man named Gabe.

Critical response

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

gave season 1 a score of 40% based on reviews by 18 critics.

Ratings

The series premiere of Mental on FOX improved on its lead-in and averaged a 3.6/6, to go with just under 5.8 million viewers.

External links

Mental Official Site at FOX.com
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

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