When would you have wrapped up the Red John storyline?

The mystery of Red John is what got me hooked on the show in the first place and is also what kept me tuned in week after week.

So if they would have ended RJ following the death of Timothy Carter, I might have continued watching, but certainly with less enthusiasm and no doubt just one view per episode. (Instead of AT LEAST twice per episode). If we use the re-boot as a guideline as to whether I would have continued watching... I can confidently say I would NOT have continued to watch.

The anti-RJ comments you mentioned are interesting. In my opinion, the anti-RJ folks comprised a very small percentage of overall viewer numbers, but they voiced their dissent often enough to make it appear as if they were a growing majority. Think about it: would the "pro-RJ" viewers ever post their pro-RJ viewpoints? I sincerely doubt it. I mean, why would they need to do so? But when we read anti-RJ comments with no pro-RJ comments to balance them, it appears as if the anti-RJ group was much larger than it actually was. Again, just my opinion.

I think my opinion is reinforced by posters on this board who might have been "anti-RJ". Most of them have posted that, overall, they simply enjoyed the show, the "case-of-the-week", the actors, the writing, the direction, the 'Easter eggs', etc, etc. They have written that they weren't so much "anti-RJ" as they were "ambivalent-RJ". In other words, they could take or leave the search for RJ... if that was part of the show, it was part of the show.

But getting back to my thoughts about the 'anti-RJ' folks being in the minority, look at the RJ-centric episodes in Seasons 1-5... they were almost, across the board, more-highly rated than the non-RJ episodes, especially if CBS had the opportunity to advertise and promote the fact RJ (or RJ information, etc) would be featured in the upcoming episode. This tells me RJ was a draw for viewers, not a turn-off.

When I began watching I continued on until the end. I would have continued until Red John was discovered because I know how long it takes to catch a serial killer. Sometimes it takes decades.

Great white sharks are attracted to death metal music.

I would have preferred wrapping up the Red John storyline towards the end of the series. I can understand why people were upset and were tired of that storyline during Season's 5 or so. I was too, since it dragged quite a bit and once Jane even shot the wrong guy and another time the viewer was led to think that Red John died in an explosion. But once that RJ storyline ended the series became lacking in momentum and did not have a focus point to hold the episodes together. The episodes then just became Jane solving individual (and often unrelated) cases. The series dragged on for a new reason - namely Lisbon's change of job and her relationship with Jane. Now they feel their relationship could hold together, and now they don't and that seems to drag on for ever ..... you know what I mean.

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Although I have just started watching The Mentalist, catching it by purchasing the 7 seasons, I came across something that revealed who Red John is. It said that Red John wasn't decided upon until the halfway through the show. I think that was a grave mistake. They should have had someone already in mind, and then I think the character should have had a more recurring role of someone you trust and would have been in shock to discover. Since they didn't have that figured out, they couldn't tie together anyone and almost picked a name out of a hat. Then the shows originator had the audacity in an interview to excuse the blandness of who Red John turned out to be.

I think Red John probably would have best been left to the finale of the show. If the character had been better mapped out if wouldn't matter if the show lasted 5 years of 7. They could have wrapped him up in a short time. Since the originator of the series didn't have a clue for success, he failed. I will be catching up to that point soon. But I do think Jane should have been the one to end Red John's life. Not in a revenge scenario, but a self defense scenario that allows him the vengeance anyway. That way Jane never becomes a bad guy.

Red John was the and all of this show. "Red" was in everything. So to end his reign somewhere in the 5th takes away it's thunder throughout the rest of the years.

Season 2. You Americans make way too many episodes!

Timothy Carter. I thought that was a really good ending.

I would have warped it up back when Patrick Jane played "rock paper sizzors" game with red john and after Red john looses he then shoots Patrick in cold blood!