I am getting that old buzz back for the mentalist! Not because of the episodes of the new beginning though,they have been very normal, very average episodes. But the fact that nothing has been explained regarding the Red John saga and the fact that Red John hasn't been mentioned once in the new episodes, leads me to believe that RJ is not dead and will return. I would be really happy if that happened, because it really gives the series a meaning. At the very least I hope the series finds a new main storyline pronto, (even if it is not RJ) in the next episode, because this crime of the week stuff is pretty standard and old. 
By the way, I didn't hate the fact McAllister was Red John ( at the moment at least) ,I hated the episode and the way they went about the reveal. It was bullshit as we all know. But I liked the fact that they chose a guy who was different from the other suspects: He was the only one who was relatively friendly with Patrick. I thought their scenes together were very entertaining and had good chemistry,apart from the terrible 6x08 episode. Bertram was a boring byrocrat and Patrick never liked him. Jane almost got Haffner fired. He thought Stiles and Visualize were a brainwashing cult. Smith was almost a stranger to him. He didn't know Kirkland very well. Patrick was very rude to Partridge. He never joked around with Partridge. But of course none of this mattered really in the end because the episode was crap.

I hope Heller makes up for it. I am still rooting for Haffner to be Red John and I would like the visualize connection explained.