Old movies gave us plenty of mad scientists, but these were generally guys working in castles by themselves or with a couple of hunchback villagers. But today we get a nearly nearly stream of science AND scientists as villains. But unlike the old movies, these mad scientists are all legitimate and working in labs where they are sponsored by commercial or government villains. The X-Files, Fringe, and Eleventh Hour are more outlandish example. But even shows like 24 support this terrible stereotype.Heck, you could even include House!

I love these show, in a way, but I also hate these shows. All they do is slowly, but surely, make people ignorant of what real science is, and scared of what they think it is.

The Mentalist is good. He is a good sceptic. So far.

But the one thing that I think is really bad about this show is that it perpetuates the myth that things like “telekinesis” is a fringe topic in science. Meaning it’s a real scientifically studied thing that most scientists just don’t bother with because they’re too focused on boring mainstream stuff. The opening conflates mysterious things like “dark matter” with utter nonsense, and that seems to be the starting point for much of the science in the plot.

“The first tip-off in any show comes before any character so much as speaks one word – everybody onscreen has glowingly white teeth and is Hollywood beautiful.”

That’s why I love the “Jonathan Creek” series from BBC. It’s not exactly “science”, but it’s pretty skeptical and the lead characters are not at all “Hollywood beautiful” – to the contrary, they look very ordinary.