CBI or FBI ? Which part you like ? I like FBI episodes more. Canvass is big, cases are no longer just local homicides. However, I miss Van pelt and Rigsby, and Rigsby-Cho conversations. Jane is more bubbly as Red John is dead. Dylan Baker blackmailing Dennis Abbott thread was good.
shareI would probably have to say I enjoyed the CBI more. Although Red John ended in the most disappointing, anti-climatic way possible, that storyline was still probably my favorite part of the show, and there were some great Red John episodes throughout the CBI years. I also really liked the CBI building and the atmosphere, I just never could quite get used to the FBI building, it felt kind of sterile. I didn't miss Van Pelt, or the Van Pelt/Rigsby relationship at all, but I did miss Rigsby and the Cho/Rigsby scenes. I don't think Cho was ever quite the same once Rigsby left, he just didn't have a whole lot of chemistry with any of the other characters, and he became kind of dull without Rigsby. But, I did enjoy the FBI episodes once they cut Fischer's screen time way down, and I really enjoyed season 7 when she was gone completely, to say she was a bad actress would be a huge understatement. I grew to really like both Abbot and Wiley, and I thought there were some very interesting cases.
shareThe thing is, there were 124 CBI episodes and only 27 FBI episodes. So it's hard to say that I liked the FBI episodes better, just because there were so many more CBI episodes. I still wish we could have gotten another season or two, for me 27 episodes with the FBI just wasn't enough. It still seems kind of strange to me that the show did a complete reboot, brought in new characters, built a whole new set, and went to all the work and trouble for only half of season 6, and a shortened season 7. And they knew that the contracts of the cast were all up at the end of season 7, and I'm pretty sure that they knew Simon Baker was ready to be done with the show and wasn't going to renew his contract, so they went to all of that trouble and the best they could have hoped for is 14 FBI episodes at the end of season 6, and a full 22 episode season 7. It just seems to me that a complete show reboot like this should have been done earlier in the show, like maybe after season 3 or 4, but not partway through season 6.
shareI definitely preferred the CBI years to the FBI. It didn't have much to do with FBI vs CBI, Texas vs California, new cast vs years with Rigsby and Van Pelt. For me, a lot of the fun of the show was the dynamic between Jane and Lisbon, relationship or not. The second half of season six seemed to rarely have Lisbon and Jane directly working together. He was off with Fischer a lot, and she was doing her own thing.
Fischer and Jane together were never as fun as he was with Lisbon. It was kind of like they wanted to start him over in a new partnership, showing another agent getting used to and accommodating his style, but it was a pale imitation of when Lisbon went through the same thing. Fischer never could really handle him. He didn't really seem to care if he got her into trouble or left her hanging. It just wasn't good or entertaining.
They wasted a huge opportunity to develop Lisbon and Jane's partnership and subsequent relationship (which they knew they were leading to) now that Red John was gone. Honestly, the relationship suddenly happening seemed stunted and just slapped together since we hardly saw the two of them together through that whole second half of the season.
For me, a lot of the fun of the show was the dynamic between Jane and Lisbon, relationship or not. The second half of season six seemed to rarely have Lisbon and Jane directly working together. He was off with Fischer a lot, and she was doing her own thing.
Fischer and Jane together were never as fun as he was with Lisbon. It was kind of like they wanted to start him over in a new partnership, showing another agent getting used to and accommodating his style, but it was a pale imitation of when Lisbon went through the same thing. Fischer never could really handle him. He didn't really seem to care if he got her into trouble or left her hanging. It just wasn't good or entertaining.
They wasted a huge opportunity to develop Lisbon and Jane's partnership and subsequent relationship (which they knew they were leading to) now that Red John was gone. Honestly, the relationship suddenly happening seemed stunted and just slapped together since we hardly saw the two of them together through that whole second half of the season.
It is not surprising Lisbon and Jane didn't spend much time together in episodes 11-15, as the oft-repeated statements from the show-runners indicated the Fischer character would be introduced as the third member of a 'love triangle' between Jane, Lisbon, and Fischer.
The concept failed miserably, so Fischer's character was eventually written off the show.
Except that other than in My Blue Heaven they really made no attempt to turn Fischer into a love interest. If that was their intention they seem to have forgotten to write it in. It wasn't just a lack of chemistry between to two actors. There weren't any "moments" or anything at all. And they wrote the season finale to be a potential series finale, with Jane and Lisbon essentially getting together. It was just a bust of a half of a season, but because they blew the writing. That's unfortunate since the downhill slide of the back half of season 6 is probably a primary factor for why the series only got a short order season 7 to tie it up.
shareI'm pretty surprised to hear that anyone liked the FBI episodes. The FBI episodes, for me, were unwatchable. I stopped watching the series after 2 episodes of the forgettable FBI episodes.
It just didn't make sense. PJ was supposed be an all-knowing guy but he was genuinely surprised when Fischer turned out to be working for the FBI? And that character was absolutely forgettable. As the poster before me stated, she was written out of the show; she pretty much had 0 personality.
CBI was so dull and when they came to FBI it was so much more fun. I do miss Van Pelt and Rigsby though.
shareI enjoyed both. And I missed Van Pelt and Risgby too, but was glad Cho was there, and I grew to really like Abbott.
sharei liked the cbi More. For me the show Could have ended when Jane find and did that thing to red john
I liked both cbi and fbi episodes.
From the UK, so apologies if I get this wrong, but the FBI police the whole of America.
Are the CBI a real organisation? or just a fictional one?
The version of the CBI you saw on the Mentalist was a fictional version of what used to be called the CBI, but has merged with different agencies and is now referred to as simply the BI (Bureau of Investigation). The BI is the law enforcement agency of the California Attorney General.
So... very similar but not quite the same.
thanks
I liked the Panser episode where the FBI (Darcy) and CBI (Jane) both star.
The 2 serial killers made this a great episode too.
I'm from the UK too. I used to think that CBI was made up like the ZNN channel on NCIS.
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