Bates Motel: Primer and Homebase

[eevilalice]

Welcome to the homebase for the A&E series, Bates Motel. Each week you'll find a thread for the newest episode, so we can discuss its twists and horrors together.

First, a primer.


Bates Motel is a modern day prequel to Hitchcock's Psycho, centering on Norman and his mother, Norma, as they move to the titular motel in a coastal Oregon town. Norma is hoping for a new start for herself and Norman after her husband's death, and buying and running the run-down motel is her plan. Of course, there are plenty of unforeseen complications, especially since the town has a touch of Twin Peaks strangeness and corruption to it.

I know what you're thinking. A Psycho prequel? Really? Two things should convince you to give the show a shot: its pedigree and its cast. Among others, the series is (executive) produced by Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Kerry Ehrin (Friday Night Lights). It both builds intrigue and mysteries while creating complex characters. And then it scares the crap out of you.

Cast/Characters (As of Season 2)

Vera Farmiga plays Norma Bates.



She's high-strung, cloying, yet honestly put-upon and sincerely caring. She's smart but vulnerable at times. You may not be able to stand her at all, and you may deeply sympathize with her, all within one episode.

Freddie Highmore plays Norman Bates.



Like Norma, you might feel sorry for Norman or be terrified or horribly creeped out by him in the space of a breath. Often he's simply a normal teenage boy by all appearances, crushing on girls, wanting his own space, sneaking out late at night. Buuut then there's the blackouts and weird stuff he keeps under his bed...

Max Thieriot plays Dylan Massett.



Dylan is Norma's other, older son, and Norman's half-brother. He's more of an outsider, and drifts into town and into their lives against Norma's wishes. He clashes with the family, especially when he urges Norman to live his own life, but he proves indispensable, too.

Olivia Cooke plays Emma Decody.



Emma is a smart, inquisitive girl in Norman's class who quickly develops an interest in him. She has cystic fibrosis and sees Norman's own strange health issues and outsider-y status as something akin to hers.

Nestor Carbonell plays Sheriff Alex Romero.



As sheriff, Romero and Norma butt heads as she struggles to accomplish what she wants with the motel and deals with, er, other complications. Given the town's penchant for ongoing shady activities, Romero is someone who is tough to read.


You can stream Season 1 episodes on Netflix, Amazon, and at the A&E site.

The second season begins Monday, March 3rd! Episodes air at 9/8c 10/9c.

Comments

3.03. Persusion

[selenak]

In Norma and Norman are heartbreaking. Especially since the show gives us both of their povs. From Norma's pov, she's facing the great likelihood that her son has killed again and that something is so wrong with him that it can't explained away anymore, and it tears her apart. She tries her best to come up with alternate explanations, and clings to straw helms when she gets them. (I.e. the girl in the morgue isn't Annika after all, therefore, Norman hasn't killed her.) Meanwhile, her son treats her with a mixture of passive agressiveness that soon ditches the "passive" part, humilates her in front of the Sheriff and tells her she's the one who is wrong and sick in a downright gaslighting manner.

Whereas from Norman's pov, the mother for whose sake he decided to live last season instead of killing himself keeps demonstrating she doesn't trust him, when he's innocent, tells the Sheriff who already suspected him of murder once that he, Norman, is the last person to see the likely murdered Annika alive and seems to have mysterious meetings with said Sheriff anyway. And because Norman by all indications can't tell the difference between real Norma and Mother (i.e. the Norma he hallucinates, who is really a part of his own psyche), his mother also tells him to simulate his most terrible experience so he can find out he's guilty after all, in a downright gaslighting manner.

It's a rapidly escalating tragedy with incredibly compelling acting (Freddie Highmore takes it up another level in this episode, and Vera Farmiga is sublime as always, from the funny - her disbelieving expression at the morgue when she realises the girl isn't Annika after all - to the heartrendering, starting to cry once she's outside the house culminating in falling on her knees in the motel office because at this point it looks like she can't avoid the truth, that her son is turning into a monster, anymore, just before fate gives her another gruesome break by delivering a living yet dying by gunshot and hence not Norman Annika. Oh, and she's awesome as Mother, because she plays her differently from regular Norma (not so much that the two are unrelated, of course, but Mother is calmer, more commanding, and despite her more conservative dressing and hairstyle - not Mother wears her hair in the old fashioned knot Norma's corpse will have in Psycho, which real Norma doesn't - cooly seductive, which Norma is not). For the audience, there's never a question who is who, which is important.

Meanwhile, Emma puts on the sexy and finally does get a reaction out of Norman, which is worrying because Norman. Even more worryingly for Emma, she finds out Dylan is currently hanging out with Caleb the rapist uncle/father. Emma promises not to tell, but let's face it, secret keeping isn't Emma's strong suit. Especially from Norma, whom she's told someting she promised not to tell twice already. For me as an audience member, the day she tells Norma or Norman can't come soon enough because I want Dylan to interact with either of them again, damm it! Enough with the Caleb bonding in preparation for conflict already.

Oh, and our favourite morally ambigous Sheriff, in addition to two dead girls to investigate and the Bates family to worry about, also seems to be facing election problems this year. I'm already more invested in Sheriff Romero's reelection than I ever was in Alicia Florrick's campaign over at The Good Wife, not least because with Romero I know why he wants to stay Sheriff and that he does want it, strongly. (Not just to have continued UST with Norma.)

Lastly: making Annika NOT Norman's next victim was a smart choice, I think, because if Norman's killing rate would accelerate this quickly with him as a suspect it really would defy belief he remains undiscovered until he's in his mid 20s. As to what's on the USB stick: since the only problem Norma and Norman both have that he told Annika about is the by pass, I assume this must be someting related to said by pass?