THE setup for CBS' new crime drama, "The Mental- ist," makes it feel awfully familiar.

Let's see, special police investigating team (California Bureau of Investigations), check.

Succession of strange murder cases, including serial murders that they can never quite solve, check.

One member of the team who manages to use his noggin to deduce things that never occur to anyone but him, check.

None of that would differentiate this new offering from CBS, perhaps its best bet this season, from five or ten other series on television.

Thank goodness then for Simon Baker ("The Guardian"), a Brit who single-handedly manages to lift this series above mediocrity with his portrayal of the character the show is named for.

He's an investigator of sorts, an expert in the art of observation and human nature, who picks up on things that the by-the-book members of the team don't see.

By itself, that wouldn't be enough to make us want to see one more crime drama.

But Baker makes Patrick Jane a joy to watch, mixing equal parts of suave, smart, savvy and unorthodox to make his character interesting in every scene.

In the pilot--which repeats tonight at 8 on CBS-- things rocket to a quick start when Jane solves a crime just seconds after meeting the family of a murdered daughter.

After making himself a sandwich and a cup of tea in their kitchen.

Before asking the father if he killed his daughter.

Based on the way he saw the mother interact with him in a press conference.

I won't give away any more than that, other than to say it's a quick and dramatic demonstration of this different sort of criminal investigator.

Almost a little too much to handle.

Things slow down, and we learn more about Jane, as they plunge into a full case: the murder of a golf pro's wife and her doctor in Palm Springs.

As in many of these shows, the details of the murders they handle take a back seat to the way the team investigates and interacts.