Previewing Bates Motel

In a measure of full disclosure, I should mention it has been a very long time since I have watched Psycho. It has been so long that I may have just assumed I saw it but really all I have seen was the famous shower scene which over the year morphed into me thinking I have seen the entire movie. I definitely never watched Psycho II (or Psych III or Psycho IV: The Beginning or the shot for shot Gus Van Sant remake of the original or the recent Hitchcock film starring Anthony Hopkins that focused on the filming of the original). So I really had had no expectations going into Bates Motel, a series focusing on a teenage Norman Bates whose mother just bought a motel.

The show stars Freddie Highmore as the future psycho. I actually thought Highmore was one of the interchange guys who all look the same on Pretty Little Liars, but apparently he was never on the show but was the titular character in the Tim Burton Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reboot which I avoided out of respect for Gene Wilder. The big name in the cast is Vera Farmiga (The Departed) as Norma Bates who is much more interesting in the new series that the creepy boy she raises. The show also boasts a few familiar faces, some that ma stick around while others definitely will not be seen again including Nestor Carbonell (The Tick) and Max Thieriot (House at the End of the Street) play local cops. Keegan Connor Tracy (Once Upon a Time’s blue fairy) is Bates teacher who tries to him more involved at school. W. Earl Brown (Deadwood’s Dan Dority) shows up as the former heir to the Bates Motel. The show also stars a couple of Norman’s classmates in newcomers Nicola Peltz as one of the popular girls and Olivia Cooke (who should be cast as Rachael Leigh Cook’s younger sister in something) as the school’s outsider.

Weirdly, Bates Motel starts out in the fifties, or least it looked very much like the fifties in what the Bates were wearing, watching, and driving, when the twosome move from Arizona to the Bates Motel. Then unexplained, after what I assume will be a commercial break, Norman is listening to Cults on his iPod and inexplicably in modern times. And a warning to horror movies purist, there is a scene in the first episode which depicts the young Norman Bates riding around in a convertible with a couple cheerleader types listening to Taylor Swift. I wish I were joking.

But Bates Motel really does not seem like it is the story of Norman Bates which may be a good thing because the high school stuff is very run of the mill: teenagers sneaking out or pretending to study so they can go drink and drug out at a house party (and I think Rosie Larsen’s douchebag boyfriend plays a douchebag on this show too). If there is a reason to watch Bates Motel it is because of Vera Farmiga portal of Norma. Even though he seems relatively normal now, you can tell even after one episode how Norma will drive Norman to grow up to be a psycho. But Vera is not over the top and the subtlety in her performance is really captivating and may have racked up her some awards if the show was better written and acted around her. But if you are to only watch one famous serial killer prequel over the next, I have a feeling Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal will probably be a better bet (at least in terms of quality, Bates Motel may end up airing more episodes since the young Lecter's series airs in NBC's death slot).

Bates Motel airs Mondays at 10:00 on A&E. You will be able to download Bates Motel on iTunes.