"Mental" Review

I watched the pilot episode of a show called, "Mental" that aired on May 26, 2009 on the Fox Network. I had seen the previews and found myself swarming with a mix of feelings regarding the show's content. I was intrigued yet at the same time highly concerned that it would be filled with stigmatizing stereotypes of people with mental illnesses. In the opening scenes viewers are presented with a disheveled man who is in short having a difficult time, he has been brought in by police to a mental health treatment facility and is seen wearing handcuffs. The officers take the cuffs off him and as they do, special effects are used to offer a view of what the man who was once in handcuffs is seeing as he tries to decide what is real and what isn't.

He apparently sees humans with lizard tails, eyes, and a tongue to which he responds as though he were in combat trying to protect himself from the "lizard people" he sees his battle cry is "Human flesh! Human flesh!" as he rips his clothing off and begins swinging fists and chairs and pretty much anything not nailed down at those around him. Out of the crowd comes a man wearing bicycling clothing he spends a few moments observing the scene then begins to strip off his clothing as he approaches the out of control man, he hits himself on the chest and yells "Human Flesh! I'm one too!" he begins to break through the violence and builds a sense of trust with the man once he has calmed the man down by more or less entering into his delusion for a moment, he instructs the staff to clean the man up and place him in seclusion.

The staff who are clueless as to who this second naked guy is questions him and he very professionally states his name, title and that he appears to be the new head honcho they were expecting ... yes he is still naked as he makes this introduction. This opening scene definitely grabbed my attention as I tried to figure out what would happen next or how the staff would respond to such unprofessional behavior (putting it mildly). The rest of the show was quite a ride, but onceI got past the initial horror of a psychiatrist getting naked in an attempt to connect with a patient whose reality was quite altered. I began to see some really neat things within the show.

I was excited as I saw how Dr. Gallagher was working to include the people under his care in their treatment decisions and taking the time to find out what made the man who was out of control in the opening scene tick to figure out what had changed that caused him to relapse and offering the man a chance to do something he had enjoyed and done well at prior to being put on medication to treat his schizophrenia. The man was an artist and because of the meds he had lost the internal connection to the part of him that allowed hi to draw and be creative he had forgotten who he was until he came across some items from his past that made him decide to stop taking his meds in an attempt at reconnecting with something that gave him joy. The transition was great and while the option for medication was there, the option to try alternative ideas was what was implemented.

The theme of recovery flowed through every scene as Dr. Gallagher struggled to encourage recovery while the staff who were now under him struggled to maintain more traditional modalities. The show, "Mental" seemed to demonstrate how there is a place for aspects of both the medical model and the recovery model to be able to coexist. The show definitely mirrored current movements and struggles within the mental health community. Those who feel that there should be an "us and them" division between the staff and patients, while others feel that those divisions need to be blurred and both sides of the canyon need to be connected more with more choices for the people with mental illness while still allowing the professionals to maintain a level of professionalism.

While I haven't made a final decision as to what I think about "Mental" on Fox Network, I can say that it has my attention and I'm at this point feeling optimistic about its portrayal of a mental health facility and the treatment of those in it's care with the added dynamic of staff to patient interaction being tested and redefined.

The close of the show was a scene where Dr. Gallagher is on the phone and seems to be having a one sided conversation with someone who doesn't seem to be responding to him he is compassionate but yet you can see the pain in his eyes as the conversation ends and I found myself asking who counsels the professionals.

Time will tell if this show can maintain the level of quality I saw in the pilot episode or if it will resort to the standard stereotyping so often found in various media formats when it comes to how people with mental illnesses are presented.

"Mental" is on Tuesday night at 8 pm EST 9 pm Central Time ... the official site for the show can be found at ... http://www.fox.com/mental/