Mental Season 1 DVD Chris Vance

An odd duck himself, Dr. Jack Gallagher (Chris Vance, a dead ringer for the young Harvey Keitel) directs the psychiatric services at Wharton Memorial in Los Angeles. In the pilot episode alone, he invites a patient to a staff meeting, breaks into another's home, and disrobes to put a delusional man at ease. Throughout the season, Jack continues to broach protocol in ways that particularly irk his nemesis, senior staffer Carl Belle (Derek Webster). As Gallagher tells residents Arturo (Nicholas Gonzalez) and Chloe (Marisa Ramirez), "We treat the patient, not just the disease." Because he gets results, departmental administrator Nora (Annabella Sciorra) supports his methods. Some of the more interesting cases revolve around pseudocyesis (hysterical pregnancy), folie à deux (shared psychosis), autism in a murder witness, and narcissistic personality disorder in an actor who recalls Christian Bale--and a few other A-listers. To add a little pizzazz to the scenario, delusions come to life through special effects (some better than others). End result: viewers not already acquainted with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) will get a crash course.