Lets see.. Mentalist had me interested mainly due to the Red John storyline, otherwise also, it too had some level of predictability. Simon Baker's antics, Red john storyline, focus on other characters lives including all the former bosses including my favourite "LaRoche" meant that the show had something different to try every time. They had him having memory loss, flashback to the protagonists meeting the first time, Patrick Jane meeting his conned victims, meeting old rivals etc, they helped keep things be a bit different always..