Crimes, puzzle-like mysteries, unknown murderers and great detectives have been the perfect bait for investigation-loving audiences since God knows when. From traditional series featuring Sherlock Holmes, Belgian mastermind Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, to more up-to-date shows such as “House” and “Psych,” every police scheme revolves around a mystery that only one man can solve.

“The Mentalist” makes no exception and, aside from the appealing crime stories, its foremost advantage is represented by none other than Simon Baker.

The new CBS series, which premieres tonight at 9, focuses on Patrick Jane (Simon Baker), a former phony television psychic who continually astonishes and enrages his cynical coworkers at the California Bureau of Investigation with his ability to accrue the ambiguities of human behavior and subsequently bring them into play so as to reveal longed-for evidence and facts that help discover the criminal. As Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot would say, “Use your little grey cells, mon ami!”

Patrick Jane really is charming (no wonder, he owns Simon Baker’s heart-breaking smile) and enigmatic at the same time. He is aware of the fact that he knows much more that his colleagues and feels no shame to show off. For instance, when a greenhorn of the investigative team explains that some people do have some out-of-this-world talents, referring to her cousin who is in touch with “the other side,” Patrick Jane smiles ironically and says, “There is no other side.”

During the first scenes of the premiere, we can see Simon Baker’s character at his most enthralling and his most negligent as he psychologically works his charms on a woman whose daughter has been killed and makes her admit that she suspects her husband is the murderer.

Predictably or not, Patrick Jane is suspended and cannot take part in the investigation of the seeming most recent murder committed by Red John, a serial killer who does not leave the ex phony psychic cold.

The rest of the CBI team includes boss Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney), Kimball Cho (Tim Kang), Wayne Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti).

The murder is suitably looked into, with Patrick Jane’s bell ringing all the time, but, unlike other fictional detectives, he does not put in plain words the way he got to the particular conclusions.

Simon Baker, who also starred in shows including “The Guardian” and “Smith” and in big-screen productions such as “The Devil Wears Prada,” has what it takes to accomplish his “Mentalist” mission.

Regrettably, like too many crime series that have broken out recently, “The Mentalist” lacks a good old crime plotting. The murder stories are worn-out, their development and solutions are too evident or unfeasible, and the characters are one-trait-based. You can see signs pointing to some of the murderers from the first scenes of the show, which chips away at its own potency.

Nonetheless, it is enjoyable to observe the deductive method in force, but mental surreptitiousness cannot possibly form a series. That is why “The Mentalist” should improve its characters and make them more complex, as well as its storyline, for it tends to become boring. If it succeeds, it won’t fail to be a success.