More like The Mentalist
Cross-media recommendations across film, TV, games, books & music — picked by taste.
The Mentalist centres on Patrick Jane, a former celebrity fake psychic whose razor-sharp eye for human behaviour lands him a consulting role with the California Bureau of Investigation. The show rewards viewers drawn to observational intelligence over brute force — characters who read rooms, expose deceptions, and outmanoeuvre opponents through perception alone. Fans tend to migrate toward outsider consultants, psychological profilers, and investigators for whom the mind is always the primary crime scene.
About The Mentalist
The Mentalist is an American procedural drama television series that ran from September 23, 2008, until February 18, 2015, broadcasting 151 episodes over seven seasons, on CBS. It was created by Bruno Heller, who was also its executive producer. The show follows former "psychic" Patrick Jane, who is a consultant to the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and his boss, senior agent Teresa Lisbon. Jane uses highly developed observational skills to "read" people's minds and to solve murder cases.
From the Wikipedia article The_Mentalist, available under CC BY-SA.
Films like The Mentalist
Film
Zodiac
A years-long obsession with an unsolved case drives journalists deeper into a baffling investigation that resists easy resolution.
Film
Stephen
A psychiatrist probing a self-confessed killer must navigate psychological manipulation and question whether guilt is ever straightforward.
Film
Mindhunters
FBI profiling trainees apply their psychological training to expose a killer hiding within their own ranks.
Film
The Liquidator
A criminal psychologist hunts a killer who exploits the guilty consciences of those who escaped legal punishment.
Film
Mind Games
An unorthodox criminal profiler investigates ritualistic murders while navigating the trust issues her unconventional methods provoke.
Film
Thoughtcrimes
A woman who can hear others' thoughts uses that involuntary ability under the guidance of a specialist who understands her gift.
Books to read after The Mentalist
Book
Motive
A detective is haunted by unsolved cases and the victims left without justice despite a long record of closed investigations.
Book
Victims
A psychologist applies his understanding of criminal minds to unravelling brutal and baffling homicides.
Book
Compulsion
A forensic psychologist pursues a manhunt through the darkest corners of criminal behaviour in a glittering city.
Book
The Suspect
A San Francisco crime story turns on questions of guilt and innocence that keep readers second-guessing until the end.
Book
Criminal Macabre
A detective navigates a world with two faces — the mundane surface and a darker reality most people can't or won't perceive.
Book
The Last Temptation
A clinical psychologist pursues a serial killer of fellow professionals across borders while tracking a ruthless criminal network.
More series like The Mentalist
Series
Psych
A sharp-eyed civilian with a talent for observation passes himself off as a psychic to work alongside detectives on real crimes.
Series
Perception
A neuroscientist recruited by the federal government uses his deep understanding of human behaviour to crack difficult cases.
Series
Cracked
A specialist unit blends police work with mental health expertise to solve crimes at the boundary of law enforcement and psychology.
Series
Love Me If You Dare
A brilliant criminal psychologist uses his ability to enter the minds of violent offenders to resolve the most baffling cases.
Series
The Madness
A media pundit stumbles upon a dead body and is framed for murder, forced to untangle a conspiracy from the inside.
Series
MINDHUNTER
An FBI agent develops the psychological profiling techniques used to pursue and understand serial killers.
Frequently asked
What should I watch after The Mentalist?
Psych delivers the same sharp-observer-fakes-psychic premise with a lighter comedic touch, while MINDHUNTER scratches the same itch if you want a darker, more methodical look at criminal psychology and FBI profiling.
Are there books like The Mentalist?
The Alex Delaware novels — including Victims and Compulsion — follow a forensic psychologist consulting on baffling L.A. homicides, offering the same blend of psychological insight and detective work that makes Patrick Jane so compelling.
What movies capture the psychological cat-and-mouse feeling of The Mentalist?
Stephen puts a psychiatrist opposite a self-confessed serial killer in a twisting game of manipulation and doubt, and Mindhunters drops FBI profiling trainees into a deadly situation where reading minds becomes a matter of survival.