Can a good-looking, suave and charming character succeed in the defective-detective genre popularized by “Monk” and “Psych”? CBS is hoping Simon Baker (“The Guardian”) will draw viewers to “The Mentalist” (8 p.m., CBS) who won’t mind that its central figure looks like a dashing leading man.

Patrick Jane (Baker) notices things that ordinary detectives miss. He’s observant, intuitive and not above playing head games with his prey. For years, he passed as a TV psychic (seemingly modeled on John Edward of “Crossing Over”). And like Adrian Monk, a traumatic act of violence changed the trajectory of his life and sent him into freelance police work that allows him to dazzle and annoy his uniformed colleagues.

“Mentalist” goes a little deeper than its cable brethren. Jane’s abandonment of his sham work as a medium appears to have coincided with his renunciation of all things spiritual. This gets him into occasional squabbles with his overtly religious peers. Jane just may become prime time’s sexiest atheist. Not that there’s much competition for that spot.

Baker has fun playing a character who always seems to know more than his boss (Robin Tunney), as well the audience. He appears almost as intent on frustrating and annoying us as he is on solving the case. He’s a damaged Columbo who doesn’t play well with others. It’s not that he doesn’t want to; he doesn’t seem to know how.

¢ “American Masters” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents the five-hour, three-night movie history “You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story.”

Narrated by Clint Eastwood, one of the studio’s favorite sons, “Remember” presents clips of hundreds of movies from “The Jazz Singer” to “The Dark Knight” and archival and original interviews with actors from James Cagney to George Clooney and directors from Howard Hawks to Martin Scorsese.

Tonight’s two hours concentrate on the Warner Bros. of the 1930s and 1940s, a time when the studio was known for its strident pro-New Deal politics and its championing of the downtrodden working stiff. In addition to many clips of Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, “Remember” shows how Depression-era politics entered the early gangster movies and even Busby Berkeley’s elaborate fantasies.

¢ Contestants find the right answers are all in the family on the new game show “Opportunity Knocks” (7 p.m., ABC).

Tonight’s season premieres

¢ Vance rethinks his decision on “NCIS” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ The father of a missing daughter vanishes on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).

¢ Sara Gilbert (“Roseanne”) guest stars on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ As the hospital scrambles to solve a mystery involving multiple deaths from a single organ donor, House continues to obsess about Wilson on “House” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ A couple falls by the wayside on “Dancing with the Stars” (8 p.m., ABC).

¢ A special subject detects dangerous patters on “Fringe” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ Vic’s gang scheme gets out of control on “The Shield” (9 p.m., FX).

¢ “Secret Life of Women” (9 p.m., WE) concludes with a look at sex addicts.