151-Episode Detective Thriller Masterpiece Deserves Its 2026 Comeback
Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel.
A 151-episode detective thriller is back in the spotlight in 2026, and deservedly so. The era of streaming has completely warped our viewing habits. The TV and film landscape looks so much different in the 2020s than it did in the 2010s, and the 2000s may as well be a century away.
It's created whole new ecosystems of viewership. One problem with the streaming era that has been frequently noted is the loss of residuals; that is, when networks used to show reruns, the actors would receive money for those reruns. There really aren't reruns in today's TV-watching world.
However, older shows have been able to find space in streaming. It's no longer uncommon to hear that a show from the '90s, 2000s, or early 2010s is finding a new audience on streaming. Suits was a massive hit once it appeared on Netflix. Gilmore Girls got so popular, Netflix released a miniseries follow-up in 2016.
In 2026, Netflix has seemingly done it again with The Mentalist, a series that is surging in popularity online. The CBS procedural ran from 2008 to 2015 and stars Simon Baker as Patrick Jane, a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation, helping them solve murders and other crimes.
Patrick previously worked as a psychic, though now admits he was a fraud, instead using highly developed observational skills to "read people's minds". As a consultant, he's able to put his skills to actual good use. His former life holds a lot of tragedy, including the deaths of his wife and daughter, deaths which he inadvertently caused.
The Mentalist Is Going Through An Online Resurgence
The Mentalist arrived on Netflix Canada and other regions in early 2026, and received a warm welcome. It didn't take long for viewers to check out the series, and it quickly rose to the top of the viewing lists for several countries. In America, the series is still only available on Hulu.
Still, the worldwide popularity of The Mentalist has resulted in some minor internet fame. You don't have to look too long on Instagram or Reddit before you see screen grabs of the show, or memes pertaining to the series. As more and more people catch the show, expect to see an even greater groundswell of attention paid to it.
The Mentalist Is One Of The 2000s Best Procedurals
Don't take the show's resurgence as a suggestion that The Mentalist was unpopular at one point. The series ran for seven seasons after all and frequently earned significant shares of the viewing audience. It also received a nomination at the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.
The Mentalist, admittedly, is not all that different from the other many successful detective procedurals of the 2000s. The psychic angle is cute, but not all that different from the conceits in Lie to Me, Castle, and Monk. What the show does have that other series' don't is Simon Baker in the lead role.
Baker's charisma and dramatic chops provide a strong central point for the series to spin around. The criminal cases aren't the most complex, but Patrick Jane is an interesting character to view them through. The Mentalist was a strong series when it premiered, and clearly, it's aged pretty well.
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