Getting Into the Mind of a Killer: The Mentalist Review By Chris Wilkinson Beeline Staff In the 1890s, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned the famous novel A Study In Scarlet starring the world renowned detective Sherlock Holmes. Based on a real life doctor by the name of Joseph Bell, who could deduce a patient’s disorder just by looking at them. Holmes became a huge success, appearing in 56 short stories and four novels. Since those early days, the detective has appeared in numerous more books, movies, and TV shows, not only by the name of Sherlock Holmes in 1890 London, but also Lt. Colombo , Dr. House , and Shawn Spencer . The tradition continues with The Mentalist. The Mentalist tells the story of former “psychic” Patrick Jane, who’s exposed as a fraud after his wife and daughter are murdered by the infamous serial killer Red John. The show has just entered it’s sixth and final season that promises to shed light on the mystery that has plagued the mind of millions of households for six years. Who is Red John? The Red John mystery has been well kept for 6 seasons, throwing red herrings and head scratching questions at the viewers that leave them wanting more, and now it all must come to an end. The students at MCC have many opinions on this thrilling series. “I think that The
Mentalist is an amazing show,” says Freshman Emonie Smith. “Although I have only seen bits and pieces, I think it’s quite interesting,” said Freshman Photo by Chris Wilkinson Zanavia Baldwin. Emonie Smith (left), Pavis Gray (middle), “It seems to be and Zanavia Baldwin (right) enjoy anothquite a prim er episode of The Mentalist. show,” said Freshman Pavis Gray. Whether it is grasping interesting concepts such as the psychology of a criminal and deductive reasoning or asking questions like “Are psychics real?” The Mentalist’s constant themes, deep complex characters, and continuous story lines keep the show interesting through out it’s long run. For watching the show, I would recommend watching the Red John and character based episode of the first five seasons either on the TNT reruns, DVD, or CBS On Demand, and then watch CBS every Sunday at 10pm for new episodes. I give the overall series a 7.5 out of 10.
One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Film By Steven Van Gaasbeck Beeline Staff On October 3, 2013 the film Gravity, staring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, was unleashed to the public. The hype surrounding this film has been out of this world, and the critics have exclaimed their love for it. Does this down to earth take on the struggles of space stick the landing, or does it burn up on reentry? The film follows two astronauts in space partaking in a routine maintenance mission for the Hubble Telescope when something goes horribly wrong. I won’t spoil any major plot elements, but the film boils down to a wild goose chase to escape space. The film’s settings bounce from vast emptiness of space to the enclosures of the International Space Station. The sets and backgrounds are amazingly done and are spectacular in 3D. This is the only film I’ve seen that 3D enhances the experience, strictly for the beautiful use of depth of field in the backgrounds. The film’s soundtrack is almost non-existent, which actually enhances the film. Rather than having a triumphant Williams esc score, the film features a quiet and very rare instances of music. The sound design is amazingly well done, all the sounds are very realistic, from the quiet depths of space to the violent struggles of a woman trying her best to breathe in a low air environment. PAGE 10
Unfortunately great sound and effects alone don’t make a great movie. The plot was realistic in premise, but executed unrealistically. The characters weren’t all that interesting and there aren’t that many in the film. Sandra Bullock did an okay job flailing around in “space” and George Photo by Steven Van Clooney was very good in it, Gaasbeck easily stealing the show. The Michael Rigsby raving about writing was pretty poor, and Gravity. there aren’t very many interesting conversations between the two characters. Plot wise the film really lags, which is very disappointing since the effects were so good. In the end Gravity was a solid space flick; it lagged in the writing department, but excelled in the effects department. While the plot was wildly unrealistic, a lot of the movements were accurate compared o actual zero-g movements. Strangely there wasn’t much gravity in the film. My score for Gravity is 7 out of 10. T H E B E E L I NE