Previewing Bates Motel: Season Two

Bates Motel had the unfortunate luck of being the lesser of two serial killer prequel that premiered last spring because the better in almost every single way Hannibal (granted the other serial killer themed show The Following, which I did not bother to watch but hear mostly bad things, doubled their combined ratings). It also did not help that the show was created by Carlton Cuse in his first project after helming quite possibly the most divisive series finale in the history of television with Lost. So Vera Farmiga’s tour de force performance as Norma Bates went mostly unmentioned as the rest of the show failed to live up to her intensity.

Last season ended with Norman getting some sweet loving from the token hot chick at school and then killing his hot teacher in a blind rage. Alrighty. Bates Motel returns tonight (three days after the superb second season premiere of Hannibal) on the next day before quickly forwarding four months after the cold open. Business is surprisingly booming at the Bates Motel (and of course the surrounding pot economy around the city). But much like last season, there is still a dark underbelly to the town and someone is just getting out of a mental facility after what transpired four months ago.

I had some issues with the first season. Most it was boring and all of the characters not named Norma were fairly useless. But the show returns with a bang tonight. More specifically it ends with a bang, setting up a season that should easily surpass the underwhelming first. They even give the most useless of all the useless characters something very interesting to by the end of the first episode. Just based on what happened, the second season premier is a vast improvement over the first but still pails in comparison to Hannibal.

Bates Motel airs Mondays at 9:00 on A&E followed by Bates Motel After Hours at 10:00. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Bates Motel on iTunes.