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Not every psychiatrist will get naked to help a patient – much less in full view of colleagues he hasn’t met.
That’s the introductory scene of “Mental,” a Fox drama series that premieres Tuesday but will air regularly on Fridays. British actor Chris Vance stars as the dynamic, clearly well-toned doctor in question, Jack Gallagher, who fights his own demons while using relatively radical treatments on those seeking help in a Los Angeles hospital’s mental-health unit.
Annabella Sciorra is cast as Nora Skoff, the more conservative administrator casting a skeptical eye toward her new hire, with whom she once had a love connection. Jacqueline McKenzie, Nicholas Gonzalez, Marisa Ramirez (“General Hospital”) and Edwin Hodge play staff members, with Derek Webster as an ambitious peer likely to become Gallagher’s professional foe.
“I didn’t eat for a while,” Vance says with a laugh about the “Mental” opening that puts him on display in every sense ... within broadcast network standards, of course. “It was very well-written and well-conceived, and it sort of sums up what the series, which a teaser and a pilot episode are supposed to do. It was one of the first things we shot, and it sort of sets the tone.
“A great conceit of the concept,” Vance adds, “is that we don’t pick this up six months after Jack’s gotten there. We’re not exploring existing relationships. Everything here is new, so you just hit the ground running. There’s a freedom in that for an actor, and also for the whole style of the show. It kind of all meshed.”
Indeed, the tone of “Mental” differs from most other dramas about psychiatrists. In the early 1970s, Vince Edwards’ “Matt Lincoln” and Roy Thinnes’ “The Psychiatrist” took conventional approaches, and even Gabriel Byrne’s current HBO series “In Treatment” relies on the traditional office-session premise. “Mental” often sends its regular characters outside on cases, prompting one of them to gripe, “I’m a doctor, not a detective.”
Sciorra’s “Mental” alter ego toes the line more, but the actress was determined not to play a stereotypical boss.
“I decided to use the fact that she’s not the administrator of the ICU or the cancer ward but of the psych ward,” she explains. “I wanted to give her some issues of her own. I made her have a little loopiness or quirkiness, and why not?
“I think it was originally written with that sort of crustiness where she just says, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ To me, that would have been really boring, so I talked with the writers and producers early on and told them I wanted to have some fun with it. (Nora) needed to be not so sure of herself. If she was going to be bold enough to hire this person, there had to be some sort of attraction that maybe wasn’t the healthiest thing for her personally.”
An intriguing aspect of “Mental” is one most viewers won’t detect: the filming location, which is quite removed from L.A. The maiden season of the show was made last year in Bogota, Colombia, where the international creative team also included veteran series producer Deborah Joy LeVine and her brother and writing-producing partner Dan.
“The business model for this was kind of unique,” Vance confirms. “The fun of the whole thing was different cultures coming together on a new project, when none of us knew how it would turn out. The first month down there, it was a matter of gaining trust, seeing how it worked and just going for it by trying to meet in the middle somewhere. It was a hoot.”
