Review: Bates Motel 2.1 “Gone But Not Forgotten”

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Bates Motel is back!

During its first season, Bates Motel became something of an obsession for me. I started out skeptical that a television series that also doubled as a prequel Psycho was a good or even doable idea. As I watched the wildly uneven first few episodes, I was occasionally intrigued and often frustrated. I always appreciated Vera Farmiga’s wonderful performance as Norma Bates and, as opposed to a lot of critics, I was always aware of the intelligence that lay underneath Freddie Highmore’s blank-faced interpretation of the teenage Norman Bates. As the series progressed, I was happy to see the wonderful Nestor Carbonell show up as the enigmatic Sheriff Romero. Even though his character occasionally seemed like he belonged in a different show, I also loved Max Thieriot as Norman’s bitter but sympathetic older brother, Dylan. I came to realize that Olivia Cooke’s Emma truly deserved a show of her own where she could solve crimes and worry about finding a date for the prom. Even the oddly named Bradley (Nicola Peltz) came to grow on me, even if I never quite bought the idea that she would have been interested in a someone like Norman.

My main complaint during the first season is that Bates Motel often seemed to be struggling to establish an identity. A countless number of plots and subplots were introduced and abandoned over the course of just ten episodes. Was Bates Motel attempting to tell the story of how Norman Bates eventually became a cross-dressing motel keeper and voyeur who murdered women while they showered? Or was it attempting to tell a story about a single mom who, having moved to a strange new town, now had to struggle to keep her family together? How seriously, I wondered, were we supposed to take the show? Occasionally, the show seemed to take itself very seriously. Other times, the show instead seemed to be deliberately over the top, inviting us to laugh along with the melodrama as opposed to at it.

As that first season came to an end, I knew that Bates Motel had a lot of potential but, in order to live up to that potential, it needed to figure out just exactly what it wanted to be.

Well, the second season started last night. It’s hard to say if Bates Motel has truly figured out what it wants to be but, judging from the premiere, it may be on the right track.

When season one ended, Norman was running home in the rain while his teacher, Ms. Watson, lay dead in her bedroom. The implication was that the blood-covered Norman had killed her but, as smart viewers know, it probably wasn’t a coincidence that we didn’t actually see him do it.

Season two begins with Norma learning that Ms. Watson has been murdered. When she asks Norman what happened between him and Ms. Watson, he tells her that he can’t remember anything beyond Ms. Watson offering him a ride back to his house. Norman and Norma attend Watson’s funeral, where Norman sobs hysterically. Meanwhile, Bradley — who last season discovered that her murdered father had a mysterious lover named “B” (who, we discover, was Ms. Blair Watson) — jumps off a bridge.

Suddenly, we jump forward four months later. The motel is thriving, Norma has a new haircut, and her only concern — as usual — appears to be her two sons. Dylan is spending all of his time down at the marijuana farm while Norman is apparently spending all of his free time either in the basement practicing taxidermy or in the cemetery, visiting Ms. Watson’s grave. When Norman spots another man standing at Watson’s grave, he is so disturbed that he goes to Sheriff Romero. Romero then tracks down Norma and tells her that Norman is, essentially, weird. When Norma confronts Norman about this, Norman admits that he’s been lying. He does remember going to back Ms. Watson’s house. He even goes so far as to admit that he watched Ms. Watson undress and that he started feeling “strange.” However, he also denies having killed her.

If that’s not bad enough, Norma also discovers that work has begun on a new highway that will divert business away from her hotel. When she goes to a city council meeting to complain, the mayor talks down to her. That’s his mistake because, as any viewer knows, it’s never a good idea to talk down to Norma Bates. Norma responds by calling out the entire town on their hypocrisy and giving one of those wonderfully over-the-top speeches that have become her specialty. Vera Farmiga was nominated for an Emmy for the first season of Bates Motel and, as far as I’m concerned, she earned a second nomination last night. Seriously, the next time some jerk talks down to you, you just do what Norma Bates does and call him a dick to his face.

The episode’s other major plotline followed Bradley, as she was released from the mental asylum that she was sent to after being rescued from the river. The friendly and somewhat shallow Bradley of last season appears to be gone. Instead, she’s been replaced by vigilante Bradley. This is the Bradley who, after considering using her father’s gun to commit suicide, instead uses it to execute Gil, the man who ordered her father’s death. To be honest, I was initially reluctant about buying the idea that Bradley could so easily become a murderer but then it occurred to me that, out of the main characters, Bradley was one of two who didn’t murder someone last season. (Or did she? Check out my first random note below.)

The second season premiere of Bates Motel wasn’t perfect. I would have preferred to have seen a bit more of Dylan and the show’s most interesting character, Emma, was hardly present at all. But, on the basis of last night’s episode, it does appear that the show’s creators have figured out that Bates Motel is at its best when it follows the lead of a Vera Farmiga’s sincere yet over-the-top lead performance. Bates Motel is at its best when it shows the self-awareness to cheerfully embrace its melodramatic potential.

That’s what it did last night and hopefully, that’s what it will continue to do for the rest of this season.

Random Thoughts and Observations:

So, who do you think killed Ms. Watson? The show wants us to think that it was Norman but, personally, I won’t be surprised if it turns out to be Bradley. Perhaps she killed Ms. Watson and then attempted to kill herself. When Bradley shot Gil, she certainly didn’t act like someone who committing her very first murder.
Rumor has it that Nicola Peltz will be leaving the show before the end of this season. That’s another reason to think that Bradley will ultimately be revealed as Ms. Watson’s murderer.
Hopefully, the show won’t forget about Emma. She’s a great character.
And yes, I will be reviewing each episode of this odd yet intriguing show. It should be fun!

Review: Bates Motel 1.10 “Midnight”

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Have you seen this episode yet? If not, you might not want to read this review. Spoiler warning!)

Well, we all knew that was going to happen, didn’t we?

To recap: During last night’s episode of Bates Motel , Norman (Freddie Highmore) asked Emma (Oliva Cooke) to attend a school dance with him. Emma bought a really pretty dress and was obviously very excited to finally go out on a real date with Norman. However, before Emma showed up for their date, Norman was upset by 1) Bradley (Nicola Peltz) showing up at the motel so that she could talk to Dylan (Max Thieriot) and 2) Norma (Vera Farmiga) telling him that she had been sexually abused as a child. Once they got to the dance, Norman wouldn’t stop staring at Bradley and Emma finally lost her temper, told Norman to get a ride of home from someone else, and then left.

(And allow me to just say, “You go, girl!” Seriously…)

After getting punched out by Bradley’s boyfriend, Norman started to walk home in the pouring rain. As always seems to happen whenever Norman is walking home, someone drove up and offered him a ride. In this case, it was his overly concerned teacher, Miss Watson (Keegan Connor Tracy). Miss Watson took Norman back to her place and, after washing the blood off his face, then said that she’d give Norman a ride home after changing clothes.

It was at this point that Norman started to hallucinate. Norma suddenly appeared, sitting on a couch and demanding to know what type of teacher would actually take a student home with her and then go into her bedroom to change clothes without bothering to close the door first.

“You know what you have to do,” imaginary Norma told Norman.

One jump cut later, Norman was again walking in the rain and, as was revealed in the episode’s final scene, Miss Watson was lying dead in her bedroom with her throat cut.

This, in itself, wasn’t really a shock. Simply by the fact that the show’s main character is Norman Bates, we already knew that he would have to end up killing someone by the end of last night’s season finale and Miss Watson, as an established character who wasn’t really central to any of the show’s storylines, was the obvious victim. As such, what happened on last night’s episode wasn’t exactly surprising but it was still effectively handled. While the show is often thought of as being a showcase for Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore has done such a good job of making Norman into a sympathetic character that it’s still somewhat upsetting to be reminded of just what Norman Bates is destined to end up doing.

Up until Norman and Emma left for their date, last night’s episode was dominated by both Norma and Vera Farmiga’s ferocious performance. If I haven’t said it before, Vera Farmiga deserves (at the very least) an Emmy nomination for bringing Norma to such memorable life. During last night’s episode, Norma enlisted the suddenly rather mysterious Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell) to help her deal with Jake Abernanthy (Jere Burns). In his calmly intimidating way, Romero confronted Abernanthy, told him that nobody did any business in his town without his permission, and then proceeded to gun Abernanthy down. It was a moment that was as surprising as the death of Miss Watson was predictable.

And so concludes the first season of Bates Motel. It’s been a frequently intruiging and occasionally frustrating season but, perhaps most importantly, it ended strong. I’m still not totally convinced that there’s all that many stories available to be mined from a prequel to Psycho but I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what happens when this show returns next season.

Random Observations:

“SCREW OFF, SHITHEAD!” Seriously, if Vera Farmiga didn’t already deserve Emmy consideration, she deserves it for her delivery of this one line.
I wonder if Eric (the guy that Miss Watson was on the phone with) will show up next season.
One of the best scenes last night: Norma and Dylan bonding over target practice.
Everyone online seems to be obsessed with hating on Bradley and hoping that Emma and Norman get together. However, doesn’t Emma have enough to deal with without the addition of a psychotic boyfriend?
Speaking of Emma and Norman, their “fight” at the school dance was handled pretty well by both Olivia Cooke and Freddie Highmore. The contrast between Cooke’s anger and Highmore’s blank expression was a definite highlight of the episode.
How many times, this season, was Norman offered a ride while walking down the street? Seriously, it seems like it happened at least once every episode.
I’ve really enjoyed reviewing the first season of this frustrating but frequently intriguing show and I look forward to continuing to do so during the second season.

Review: Bates Motel 1.9 “Underwater”

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week’s episode of Bates Motel was all about marijuana.

No sooner has Norma (Vera Farmiga) recovered from finding the decaying corpse of Deputy Shelby in her bed then she’s having to deal with the hippies openly smoking weed out on the motel’s porch. Now, I have to admit that some of my best friends are hippies but, for the most, they’re a lot more charming than the Bates Motel hippies. The Bates Motel hippies are all incredibly dirty and rather rude. Even worse, one of them has a guitar and insists on both playing and singing The Goo Goo Dolls’ “Slide” during all hours of the night. Seriously, I thought Dylan (Max Thieriot) ran off the guitar-playing hippie last episode. Maybe he came back.

However, as one of the hippies explains to Norma, the town’s entire economy is pretty much dependent on that huge marijuana farm in the woods. So, the hippies can pretty much do anything they want without having to worry about being strung up in the town square and being set on fire. In one of my favorite moments from last night’s episode, Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell) drives up to the motel, calmly glances at the pot-smoking hippies, and then pretty much ignores them for the rest of his visit.

One of the hippies takes a liking to Emma (Olivia Cooke) and gives her a pot cupcake. To the show’s credit, Emma doesn’t have a melodramatic freak-out or anything else that we’ve come to expect from television whenever a character tries drugs for the first time. Instead, she gets rather realistically spacey and paranoid. Hilariously, Emma’s stoned paranoia isn’t all that different from Norma’s natural paranoia.

Speaking of which, this week’s episode was also dominated by Vera Farmiga and her performance as Norma Bates. Throughout this season, Farmiga has proven that she’s an actress who knows just how much scenery she can chew before losing credibility. One the joys of this show is watching Farmiga continually take Norma to the edge of becoming a caricature and then pulling back at just the right moment. Last night, we got to see Norma confront one of the annoying hippies about “smoking a doobie” on the motel’s front porch and physically attack a sleazy real estate agent for refusing to help her sell the motel. And, of course, we can’t forget about the tres creepy scene where she climbs into bed with Norman (Freddie Highmore).

Norman, as always, is having issues of his own. After having a dream about drowning Bradley (Nicola Peltz), he writes a short story about it. Ms. Watson (Keegan Connor Tracy) is so impressed by the story that she volunteers to help Norman edit it. When Norman tells her that he’s not sure if his mother would approve, Ms. Watson tells Norman that maybe they don’t need to tell his mother. In fact, maybe it can just be their little secret. As Ms. Watson talks to Norman, it becomes apparent that she’s interested in more than just being his teacher.

This leads, of course, to an interesting question. Is there anyone in the town of White Pine Bay who isn’t crazy?

No wonder Jake loves this place! Yes, despite having checked out of the motel, Jake Abernathy (the wonderfully creepy Jere Burns) is still around. First he sends Norma flowers and then, at the end of the episode, he pops up in the back seat of her car and tells her that if she doesn’t pay him $150,000, he’s going to kill both her and her sons, therefore setting us up for next week’s season finale.

If there’s been a reoccurring theme running through my reviews of Bates Motel, it’s that this is a show that has struggled to define itself. This first season has been spent trying to find a consistent theme and tone. Over the past 9 episodes, whenever Bates Motel has attempted to be a straightforward thriller, the show has struggled. However, when the show has accepted the inherent oddness of being a weekly prequel to Psycho, Bates Motel has succeeded. Bates Motel is a show that benefits from going over the top. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed this week’s episode, Underwater, as much as I did. Underwater was Bates Motel at its over the top best.

Random Observations:

I have to admit that I’m not really all the interested in finding out who Bradley’s father’s girlfriend was. However, I do think that Bradley and Dylan make a cute (if doomed) couple.
It’s hard for me to pick an absolute favorite moment from last night’s episode. Certainly, Romero’s nonchalant reaction to the hippies and Emma’s reaction to the cupcake were contenders. However, I think my favorite moment had to be the sleazy real estate guy saying, “Oh shit!” and running for the back of the office when he saw Norma approaching.
Only one more episode to go in this season and nobody’s taken a shower yet…

Review: Bates Motel 1.8 “A Boy and His Dog”

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night’s episode of Bates Motel featured Norma (Vera Farmiga) trying to flirt her way to prosperity and out of trouble, Norman (Freddie Highmore) dealing with a therapist, Emma’s Dad (Ian Hart) waxing poetic about taxidermy, Dylan (Max Thieriot) pulling a gun on a pushy hippie, and Jake (Jere Burns) being brilliantly sleazy. It was a lot of fun and a definite improvement over last week’s dour episode.

For those of us who are still invested in the idea of this show being a prequel to Psycho, last night’s episode was important because it opened with Norman learning about taxidermy from Emma’s dad, Will. Norman is getting his poor dog stuffed and mounted and, no offense to any taxidermists out there, but it’s all a bit creepy. No wonder that, when Norma drops her son off at Will’s shop, she tells him that she’s not sure if Norman should be spending all of his time with dead things. Despite the fact that Will points out that taxidermy makes Norman happy, I can actually see Norma’s point. No mother looking forward to someday being able to play with her grandchildren is going to be happy about seeing her son taking up taxidermy or ventriloquism.

However, that’s the least of Norma’s problems. Despite her attempts to first flirt with and then blackmail Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell), Romero refuses to use his influence to help Norma get a seat on the town’s planning commission. Instead, Romero, in that wonderful way that Nestor Carbonell has of being enigmatically threatening, tells her, “We’re not friends.”

Even worse, Norma can’t get Jake to leave the motel. In one of the best scenes of the entire first season, Norma follows Jake when Jake drives out to Deputy Shelby’s boat. (Or was it Keith’s boat? Sometimes, I have a hard time keeping all the dead perverts of Bates Motel straight.) When Jake discovers Norma watching him, Norma attempts to convince him that she hasn’t been following him. Speaking in a chillingly child-like voice, Jake replies, “Where’d you hide it?” (“It” being that sex slave who was last seen running off into the woods.) Norma finally finds the strength to order Jake out of her motel and, despite the fact that Jake leaves, it’s pretty obvious that he’s not gone.

Meanwhile, at the high school, poor Emma is hiding in the girls room stall and using her inhaler (which brought back a lot of asthmatic memories for me) when she overhears a group of mean girls talking about how weird Norman is and how there’s no way Bradley (Nicola Peltz) would ever sleep with him. This leads to Emma stepping out of the stall and telling them that Bradley did just that. Words get back to Bradley, Bradley gets mad at Norman, and Norman ends up up having a mini-breakdown at school. This leads to two scenes, a hilarious one where Norman and Norma attend a meeting with a therapist and a truly touching one in which Emma apologizes to Norman and tells him that she likes him. Awwwwwwwwwwww! Seriously, Norman and Emma are such a cute couple that it’s really a shame that one of them is destined to grow up to be a cross-dressing voyeuristic serial killer.

Finally, Dylan and Remo go on a road trip to pick up some hippies to work at the marijuana farm. One of the hippies is a really obnoxious guy with a guitar and I spent the last half of the show worried that he was going to be a new regular character. However, fortunately, he got on Dylan’s nerves so Dylan pulled a gun and left the guy and his guitar on the side of the road. Yay, Dylan!

Since it first started two months ago, Bates Motel is a show that has struggled to find an identity. That, in itself, is not surprising. Few succesful TV shows look the same during their final season as they did during their first. I recently rewatched the pilot episode of Lost and I was surprised at how different it felt from the show that Lost eventually became. The fact that Bates Motel is struggling to find itself is not surprising. What is surprising is just how different Bates Motel can feel from week to week. Whereas last week’s episode felt a bit forced and melodramatic, this week’s episode felt a lot more self-aware. This week’s episode was deliberately over-the-top and campy, in a way that acknowledged how ludicrous the series can occasionally be without ever descending to self-parody. Bates Motel has already been renewed for a second season and hopefully, season 2 will look a lot like last night’s episode.

Random Observations:

Tonight’s episode ended with Norma finding Shelby’s mummified body in her bed. I’m assuming that was a message left for her by Jake, since I don’t think Norman has quite reached the grave robbery stage just yet.
The episode started out with clips from last week’s episode so, once again, I had to watch that poor little dog get hit by that car. I wanted to cry all over again.
Was it just me or did Sheriff Romero’s secretary sound like she had a bit of an atittude while she was talking to Norma on the phone? Speaking as an administrative professional, I thought that was a bit unprofessional.
Vera Farmiga’s scene with Nestor Carbonell was definitely Bates Motel at its best.
God, that guitar-strumming hippie was annoying.
“Actually…I’d like my room made up now…” Agck! Jere Burns is soooo creepy!
“Are you supposed to be putting your hands on the students?”
“Not many people write poetry but we still have to have poets, don’t we?”

Review: Bates Motel 1.7 “The Man In Number 9”

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Really, Bates Motel?

After all that build-up and all the dramatic cliffhangers, that’s how you resolve the Deputy Shelby subplot?

Last week’s episode of Bates Motel ended with the evil Deputy Shelby (Mike Vogel) getting shot by Dylan (Max Thieriot) and ending up lying dead at the feet of Norma (Vera Farmiga) and Norman (Freddie Highmore). How, we wondered, would the Bates Family get out of this one? How would they handle the suspicions of Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell)? How could they possibly get anyone to believe what had happened, especially since Shelby’s sex slave had disappeared into the woods?

Well, that was all resolved in the episode’s first five minutes. Romero showed up, believed everything that Norma told him, and agreed to help cover up the truth. Problem solved.

Oh, and the missing sex slave?

Well, who knows?

To be honest, nobody seems to be too concerned about her.

Despite the fact that the rest of the episode was actually pretty well-done, it was all overshadowed by the anti-climatic resolution of the whole Shelby subplot. (Or, as it was referred to in this episode, “The Deputy Shelby scandal.”) So far, Dylan, Norman, and Norma have — individually and together — murdered four people and they’ve managed to rather easily get away with it despite the fact that they live in a town where criminals are burned alive in the town square.

(Are we ever going to hear about that again?)

Anyway, once Romero let the Bates Family off the hook, Bates Motel got back to normal. In preparation for the grand opening of the Bates Motel, Norma attempted to pass out some brochures at a few local businesses but was told that nobody wanted anything to do with the Bates Motel because of the “Deputy Shelby scandal.” I have to say that I laughed out loud when I heard that phrase. I just imagined people driving by the Bates Motel and saying, “Did you hear about the Deputy Shelby scandal?”

However, there is a glimmer of sordid hope on the horizon when a guy named Jake (played by Jere Burns) shows up at the motel. As Jake explains, he had a standing reservation with the motel’s former owner for a block a rooms every few weeks. It’s pretty obvious from the first minute Jake shows up that he’s evil and creepy but Norma needs the money…

Meanwhile, Norman has perhaps the worst week of his life. He discovers a stray dog and starts feeding it. He even names it Juno. (At first, I assumed that he had named it after the Ellen Page movie but I doubt Norma would have allowed him to see that film.) Then, Bradley (Nicola Paltz) rejects him, explaining that their sexual encounter was a one time thing. An upset Norman walks back to the motel and arrives just in time to see Juno get run over by a passing car!

Picking up his dead dog, Norman announces that he’s going to see Emma’s father the taxidermist and that’s where this episode ends.

There was a lot to like in last night’s episode. Jere Burns gave an appropriately creepy performance as Jake and Vera Farmiga continues to find the perfect balance between melodrama and camp. However, the rather convenient resolution of the “Deputy Shelby scandal” overshadowed the entire episode. Normally, I enjoy the melodramatic shifts on tone that have come to define Bates Motel but, during last night’s episode, it was all just a bit too much.

Random Observations:

Jere Burns certainly is a creepy looking guy, isn’t he? He looks and occasionally sounds like he could be Christopher Walken’s younger brother.
I say this nearly every week but Olivia Cooke really does deserve her own show where she plays a high school student who solves crimes in her spare time. Her scenes with Vera Farmiga were a lot of fun.
Norma’s sex talk with Norman was performed to squirm-inducing perfection by Farmiga and Freddie Highmore.
It looks like Bradley might like Dylan and who can blame her when Dylan’s played by Max Thieriot?
When Norman was imagining being in bed with Bradley early in this episode, I briefly thought the show was acknowledging what I initially suspected — that Norman and Bradley’s earlier encounter took place solely in Norman’s mind. However, it turns out I was wrong on both counts.
I wanted to cry when Norman’s dog got run over.

Review: Bates Motel 1.6 “The Truth”

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Warning: Spoilers Ahead)

Ever since Bates Motel began, one of the central questions has been just who was responsible for the death of Norman’s father. The implication from the start was that Norma (Vera Farmiga) was responsible. After all, the series began with Norman (Freddie Highmore) finding his father’s body and Norma responding rather calmly to the whole situation. It was Norma who insisted on leaving town, buying a motel, and starting a new life. For the past five episodes, it’s Norma who has been the dramatic and manipulative one while Norman has apparently been the one struggling to live a normal life while dealing with his overbearing mother.

In short, it was easy to assume that Norma was responsible.

That said, there has always been a number of viewers who have suspected that Norman would turn out to be the actual murderer. When the show started, I was one of them. However, I have to admit that, as Bates Motel progressed, I found myself so caught up in all the other subplots — like the return of Dylan (Max Thieriot) and the creepy Deputy Shelby (Mike Vogel) with his sex slave — that I forgot that there actually was any mystery about the death of Mr. Bates. I figured it would be one of those plot points that would forever be left open to interpretation.

It turns out I was wrong because last night, the mystery was solved. As Norma explained to Dylan, Mr. Bates was murdered by Norman.

And, with that explanation, Bates Motel suddenly made a lot more sense.

In the past, Bates Motel has often struggled to define itself. Last night, however, Bates Motel finally had an identity. Bates Motel is now a show about a mother trying to protect the world from her son and her son from himself. With that one revelation, Norma went from villain to sympathetic character and Norman became a lot more creepier.

It’ll be interesting to see how this development will play out over the rest of the series. Should we be worried about Emma (Olivia Cooke) or the oddly-named Bradley (Nicola Peltz)?

While last night’s episode was dominated by the truth about the death of Mr. Bates, it was also memorable for the fate of Deputy Shelby (Mike Vogel). After discovering that his sex slave was at the motel, Shelby went on a rampage before finally being shot and killed by Dylan. Last night’s episode ended with the Bates family staring down at Shelby’s dead body.

How much you want to bet that next week’s episode will feature Shelby being dumped in a nearby swamp?

Random Observations:

The Truth is the best episode of Bates Motel so far. It was certainly the first episode to have a true and definite idea of what the show is trying to be.
I loved Norma’s awkward conversation with Emma (Olivia Cooke) at the beginning of the episode. Emma desperately wants a mom and Norma is frightened of letting anyone get too close to her or Norman. It created an interesting dynamic.
Judging from the previews, next week sees the return of Nestor Carbonell! YAY!

Review: Bates Motel 1.5 “Ocean View”

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Norma Bates has got some issues, doesn’t she?

Last week’s episode ended with Norma (Vera Farmiga) being arrested for murdering Keith. Tonight’s episode begins with her sitting in jail and telling both Dylan (Max Thierot) and Norman (Freddie Highmore) that they’re not acting properly upset over her situation. “Just leave me here,” she tells them, “I don’t need your help.”

Of course, Norma has a bit of a point. Dylan, after all, waits to eat breakfast before going to see her and, in a nicely subtle moment, Norman briefly smiles at the sight of his mother imprisoned.

Anyway, Norman, with the help of Emma (Oliva Cooke), manages to find the money to pay the bail bondsman and get Norma out of jail. Once freed, Norma proceeds to insult her attorney and yell at Norman for “getting laid” while she was getting arrested. Norma should be careful because it seems like that’s the sort of thing that could lead to Norman becoming a cross-dressing voyeur.

Fortunately, evil Deputy Shelby (Mike Vogel) purposefully misplaces some evidence which leads to the charges against Norma being dropped. While Norma’s understandably grateful, Norman still feels that Shelby is dangerous.

Meanwhile, Dylan is still planning on moving out of the hotel. His co-worker Ethan loans Max the money to get a place of his own but a few minutes later, some random guy shows up and shoots Ethan in the neck. Dylan takes Ethan to the hospital and quickly leaves before anyone can ask him any questions. Then, as he’s driving back home, Dylan happens to spot the shooter wandering down a conveniently deserted alley. Dylan reacts by running the man down with his pickup truck.

Finally, Emma and Norman team up to search for and, eventually, discover Shelby’s sex slave. They take her back to the hotel where Norma discovers them and demands to know what Norman’s doing with not one but two girls. Norman explains who the girl is. Norma, at first, refuses to believe him but then the girl herself identifies Shelby as being the man who was holding her captive.

Yes, it’s just another episode of Bates Motel…

I’ve been struggling for the past few weeks to explain just what exactly it is that intrigues me about Bates Motel.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy the show. Vera Farmiga kicks ass. Max Thierot is hot. Freddie Highmore is creepy yet sympathetic and Olivia Cooke deserves her own Veronica Mars-like show where she solves crimes.

However, there’s also no denying that Bates Motel is a frequently uneven show. Scenes that work are often followed by scenes that fall flat. Intriguing plot points (like the fact that the citizens in the town apparently burned a man alive at the end of the second episode) have been brought up just to never be discussed again.

And yet, I still find myself looking forward to seeing where each episode of Bates Motel is going to go. As I watched last night’s episode, I finally realize why I’m still watching this show.

Bates Motel is seriously weird.

Some of that’s intentional, of course. However, a lot of the weirdness of Bates Motel comes from the fact that the show is still struggling to define just what exactly it is. Is it a psychological thriller? Is it horror? Is it a mystery? Is it an adaptation of young adult fan fiction with Emma serving as a Mary Sue for the unseen author? Or is it a show about a single mother and her two sons trying to make a new life for themselves in a quirky small town? Is it Lost or is it Gilmore Girls?

After watching last night’s episode, I’m convinced that the people behind the show have absolutely no idea.

But you know what?

That’s okay because it’s actually a lot of fun watching them trying to figure it out. Since Bates Motel isn’t sure which genre it belongs to, it’s also free to ignore the rules and conventions that come with having a definite identity. As a result, Bates Motel is a show where anything truly can happen.

Eventually, the constant tonal shifts are going to get exhausting. Regardless of how well-acted the show may be, it’s difficult to remain emotionally invested in characters who are free of consistency.

Hopefully, Bates Motel will have found its identity by the time its second season rolls around.

For now, however, I’m just having fun discovering what’s going to happen next.

Random Observations:

Ethan turned out to be a pretty good guy. Too bad he got shot in the neck.
This episode’s best Vera Farmiga moment: her defensive meeting with her attorney. “How old are you?”
“Ur mom’s bail has been posted.” That’s got to be one of the saddest texts ever.
Dylan is in danger of becoming one big deus ex machina. Last week, he happened to show up in time to help Norman escape from Shelby’s basement. This week, he just happened to show up on his motorcycle when Norman needed a ride home.
That said, I absolutely love Max Thierot and, episode-per-episode, his scenes with Freddie Highmore have always been a highlight.
Just in case you had forgotten this show is a prequel to Psycho, last night’s episode featured Emma getting Norman’s attention by ringing the bell at the front desk, a la Janet Leigh.
“I love you, you idiot!” Yes, those are words that every girl hopes to hear.
The Bates Motel has its own web site?

Also, you can download the show’s “manga” notebook from the A&E website? I guess that’s the difference between A&E and CBS.

Review: Bates Motel 1.2 “Nice Town You Picked, Norma.”

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Norman Bates has a brother?

Wow, who would have guessed?

That was the main addition that last night’s episode of Bates Motel provided to the Psycho mythology. Played by Max Thierot (who was so good in last year’s underrated The House At The End of the Street), Dylan is Norman’s half-brother. He was born when Norma was 17 years old and, as this episode quickly establishes, he’s a little bitter that Norma abandoned him and his father so that she could marry Sam Bates.

Actually, he’s more than a little bitter. Bitterness appears to be Dylan’s only emotion. From the minute that Dylan shows up at the Bates Motel, he’s angry. Though he greets Norma with “Hello, mother,” (presumably so the slower members of the audience won’t be confused as to who he is), he spends the rest of the episode loudly refusing to call her anything other than “Norma” or “the whore.”

Dylan’s relationship with his half-brother isn’t much better. About halfway through the episode, Norman reacts to Dylan’s taunting by attacking him with a meat cleaver and gets beaten up for his trouble. “I told you not to do that!” Dylan shouts after he tosses Norman down to the kitchen floor.

To be honest, Dylan would pretty much be insufferable if not for the fact that he’s played by Max Thierot. Much as he did in The House At The End Of The Street, Thierot is able to generate sympathy for a fairly unsympathetic character. It helps, of course, that when compared to Norman and Norma, Dylan almost seems to be sensible.

Norma, meanwhile, has bigger problems than just her oldest son deciding to move back in with her. She’s still trying to cover up the fact that she killed the previous owner of the motel. It doesn’t help that Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell) has discovered the dead man’s pickup truck parked near the motel.

Norma handles the situation by flirting with Deputy Shelby (Mike Vogel). While Norman and Dylan are busy fighting in the kitchen, Norma and Shelby are at the town’s logging festival. Judging from some of the feedback on twitter, I may be in a minority on this but I actually enjoyed the scenes between Shelby and Norma. Vogel and Vera Farmiga had a very likable chemistry and I thought the scenes did a good job of establishing the town itself as a character. Much as Lost had to leave the island, Bates Motel has to be able to tell stories outside of the motel and I think that tonight’s episode showed that it can.

Speaking of things happening outside of the motel, that’s probably where Norman (Freddie Highmore) should try to spend as much time as possible. When he’s inside the motel, he spends all of his time looking at his little BDSM sketchbook and watching his mother while she undresses in front of him. However, outside of the motel, he’s got a rather sweet relationship with a girl named Emma (Olivia Cooke). Together, he and Emma research the origins of the sketchbook (“Don’t worry,” Emma says, “I’ve read lots of manga.”) and they even stumble across a local marijuana farm.

Norman ends up spending a lot of time with Emma because his other female friend, the oddly named Bradley (Nicola Peltz), spends most of the episode at the hospital. Apparently, somebody set her father on fire. However, as Deputy Shelby explains to Norma, the town has a way of taking care of trouble makers. That’s made pretty obvious at the end of tonight’s episode when Norma drives by another man who, in an apparent act of retribution, has been set on fire in the middle of the town square.

I enjoyed the second episode of Bates Motel. It was full of atmosphere and Vera Farmiga’s performance continues to maintain the perfect balance between reality and camp. Narratively, the story is still unfolding at a very deliberate pace but this episode provided enough intriguing clues to make me excited about seeing what happens next Monday.

That said, I still can’t help but feel that this show’s main weakness is the fact that , as opposed to being a stand alone series, it has to exist as part of the mythology of Psycho. In many ways, Bates Motel reminds me of The Carrie Diaries, a prequel to Sex In The City that airs on CW. It’s a well-acted show that’s full of a nicely observed moments but it’s still impossible for me to watch without thinking, “It doesn’t matter what happens because we already know Carrie’s going to eventually end up meeting and marrying Mr. Big.”

By the same token, I still find it next to impossible to watch Bates Motel without thinking to myself, “Eventually, regardless of what happens wit Dylan, Emma, or the pot farmers, Norman’s going to end up wearing Norma’s clothes, peeping on women in the shower, and killing them.”

Divorced from the Psycho mythology, Bates Motel is an entertaining and intriguing little show. However, without the Psycho mythology, would a show called Bates Motel have ever made it to the air in the first place?

Random Observations:

The best scene, by far, was Norma’s alternatively friendly and creepy conversation with Emma. “And what’s your life expectancy?”
How much do you want to bet that Dylan’s going to end up working with the pot farmers?
Speaking of the pot farm, am I the only one who was reminded of that episode of Lost where John Locke’s flashback dealt with the period of time he spent living on a commune?
I know I said this last week but seriously, how can you not love Nestor Carbonell?