TV is the New Reading

‘Mental’ doesn’t conclude so much as it … stops

So ... Carl Belle wins?

In the recent finale of “Mental,” whether it ends the season or the series, free-spirit program director and mental health enthusiast Jack Gallagher was at his wacky best, analyzing himself as dark forces conspired against him.

As head of Mental Health Services for a Los Angeles hospital, Gallagher was a bit annoying. He burst onto the scene just as a patient was going bananas, hallucinating reptilian features on everyone he saw. In a situation assessment that took the length of a heartbeat, Gallagher pulled off all his clothes to gain the man’s trust, and for some reason, despite the fact that hospital staffers with cameraphones uploaded the stunt all over the Internet, he maintained his position of respect and authority.

He was not without detractors. Gallagher’s primary approach was talk therapy, gaining trust and understanding -- a “loon whisperer,” as it were -- where Dr. Belle was proudly in the pocket of every pharmaceutical company that breezed through.

Belle was also passed over for the directorship, along with everyone else in the department. In the course of the show, Belle and Gallagher locked horns on course of treatment all the time, and Gallagher had no patience for drug reps stalking his halls.

Gallagher challenged his interns and set the status quo on its ear in his approach to mental health. His instinct was that tried-and-true cookie-cutter approaches didn’t take the individual psychoses into account, and that treatment could be better tailored to the patient.

One glaring example was one of Belle’s patients, a man who thought he was a werewolf. Belle had him on anti-anxiety medication. In talking to him, Gallagher realized he was wracked with guilt over having killed a mugger in self-defense. He was only talking to him at all because the patient tracked Belle to a department retreat at Gallagher’s loft and pulled a gun on everyone. Belle refused to admit his palliative, stop-gap solution was a bad long-term treatment for him. Gallagher allowed the “werewolf” to bite him and thereby share his experience.

Belle’s resentment of Gallagher was palpable. But his approach was to give Gallagher enough rope to hang himself with, compile a report and hand it off during a weekly tee-time with hospital administrators with a sad tut-tut -- something like "oh dear, your flashy young director’s muddle-minded approach to psychiatric medicine has certainly made a mess of things. I shared such high hopes for his innovative style. What a shame he’s caused so much loss of revenue from our friends in pharmacology and such chaos among the crazies."

In fact, Gallagher was distracted somewhat by his ongoing search for his schizophrenic twin sister, Rebecca, who turned up over the course of the season but ultimately had to go home with their parents because he couldn’t cure her. Because that ended so badly, he tried to resign, but his embattled department administrator refused to accept his resignation.

So he punched Belle in the face -- right in front of the board of directors. Gallagher ultimately had to be let go for cause, for making an unprovoked attack on a fellow doctor.

But I think in this case he had cause. Belle was constantly undermining his every move with the kind of arrogant narcissism you usually only see in a Bond villain. Belle had the interns informing on Gallagher, had secret high-level meetings with drug company executives and hospital administrators. It was so obvious he wanted to be in charge and given his rapport with the board, one wonders why he wasn’t. With all his secret evil scheming to turn the mental health ward into some kind of Ken Kesey-style Pharmacopia, it was all he could do from laughing “mu-WHA-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha” every time he found another chink in Gallagher’s armor.

So as the screen fades to black in FOX’s series “Mental,” the cartoonish villain Carl Belle is riding high while the personable young innovator Jack Gallagher wanders into the sunset like Bruce Banner, leaving nothing behind but a couple of desolate staffers and a racy YouTube video.

It wasn’t a great show. It painted the travails of the mentally ill and the intricate operations of a mental health ward with a broad brush and bright primary colors. But as summer shows go it wasn’t the worst. I won’t be terribly surprised if that was the end of it, but if it returns I’ll probably give it another shot.

I’d personally like to see Belle get some comeuppance.

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