“She thinks there’s something wrong with me.” –Norman Bates

Psycho. Psycho II. Psycho III. Psycho IV. Bates Motel (the failed pilot starring Bud Cort). And now Bates Motel, the re-booted story of Norman Bates, created by LOST‘s Carlton Cruse, Kerry Ehrin, and Anthony Cipriano.

Did we really need another retelling of this story? I’ve got to admit, when I first heard about this new series, I was not convinced. I thought the baggage (both good and bad) of the previous movies might be too much for this show to carry.

I was wrong. This show is very very good.

Norman is not himself.

Norman is not himself.

 

The creators wisely chose to root Norman in the present with cell phones and internet, but the aesthetic of the show (costumes, cars, interior designs) is still very much of the 1950s and 60s.  It’s an interesting dichotomy that, while not unnerving or anything like that, is still sometimes jarring and just…odd. I like it.

Norman (Freddie Highmore) and his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), have just moved to White Pine Bay, Oregon, to refurbish and run an old motel purchased at a foreclosure sale.  Norman is a socially awkward young man, who is susceptible to fugue state episodes, almost like daytime sleepwalking, during which he may or may not be doing…stuff…that he doesn’t remember later on. And he loves his mother.

A boy's best friend.

A boy’s best friend.

Norman is befriended (and crushed-upon) by Emma Decody (Olivia Cooke), a classmate with cystic fibrosis and a portable oxygen tank who starts working at the motel. The addition of Norman’s half-brother Dylan Massett (Max Thieriot) at first seemed like a very unwelcome addition to the original Bates duo, but as his character got fleshed-out, and more family secrets were revealed (including his–yuck–real relationship to Norma and Norman), I thought this new vision of the Bates’ made sense, both thematically and plot-wise.

White Pine Bay is not the charming small town it appears at first glance; it seems like the Bates family isn’t the only one harboring deep, dark, demented secrets. Reminding me a bit of Blue Velvet‘s setting Lumberton, the seedy elements quickly seep and creep into the daily lives of our main characters, making for some suspenseful moments and drastic decisions.

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Not all of this works. The half-brother Dylan gets involved in the local drug trade, and that digression just made me roll my eyes a bit. Other events over the course of three seasons so far (murders, cover-ups, incest, corruption, abuse) made me sit up, take notice, and move to the edge of my seat.  Albeit with a few missteps, Bates Motel is becoming terrific  and surprisingly fresh television, considering how familiar the story already is.

Freddie Highmore is a complete revelation as Norman. It’s hard to get out from under the shadow of Anthony Perkins’ near-definitive portrayal, but Highmore has really made it his own. Familiar and intriguing, nervous and intense, Highmore inhabits the skin of Norman like nothing I could have anticipated. It would have been easy to make Norman an evil killer, but Highmore makes him genuinely sympathetic. His Norman is someone you really really are pulling for, someone you hope will get some mental health and successfully deal with his demons. Alas and alack.

Vera Farmiga as mother Norma is also amazing, and is more than equal to Highmore’s Norman. She really (really really) loves Norman, and tries very hard to provide a better life for him.  And if that means she has to do a few…distasteful things to keep up appearances, well. A mother’s work is never done.

Out, damned spot.

Out, damned spot.

A&E’s Bates Motel has been renewed for a fourth season, but no premiere date has been announced yet.

Uncle Mike sez: Check in. You won’t check out.

About the Author

Mike Hansen has worked as a teacher, a writer, an actor, and a haunt monster, and has been a horror fan ever since he was a young child. Sinister Seymour is his personal savior, and he swears by the undulating tentacles of Lord Cthulhu that he will reach the end of his Netflix list. Someday.