How A&E’s ‘Bates Motel’ Breaks All the Rules — and Wins

SPOILERS AHEAD, so consider yourself warned, Bate-heads…

To be honest, if I worked at A&E and a pitch for a TV show came across my desk that proposed a prequel to Psycho set in modern day that takes place in a town run by feuding drug families, I would have laughed and thrown it in the trash. Thankfully, I don’t work at A&E and someone actually green-lighted Bates Motel, which ended its second season last Monday night.

Bates Motel proves there really aren’t any rules to making a great TV show other than strong writing and acting. On paper, the idea for this show seems like it would be a disaster, but it has proven itself over two seasons to be surprisingly smart, funny, and out of the box. Basically, it’s broken all the rules about reboots/prequels with fascinating results.

Taking on such well-known and beloved source material like Psycho is pretty dangerous territory. But this prequel works where others have failed because it isn’t trying too hard to connect to that material. The creators and writers have made their own world and actually added a lot of depth to the characters of Norma and Norman Bates. There aren’t hokey wink-wink moments or anything that feels forced. It succeeds because it stands on its own two feet — and these are intriguing feet.

I didn’t jump on the Bates Motel bandwagon quickly. I was rather skeptical and ignored it when it first aired. In fact, it was only about six weeks ago that I decided to give it a try. I quickly consumed season one (via Netflix Instant Watch) and then started to catch up with the new season that was currently airing.

One of the major strengths of the show is the casting. Vera Farmiga is absolute perfection as Norma Bates. She plays the character with this wonderful — and seemingly illogical — manipulative vulnerability. She draws you in and keeps you there, which is vital to the show and the character. Farmiga earned an Emmy nomination for season one, and I’m hoping season two will get her the statue.

Freddie Highmore (best known for his role in Finding Neverland) plays the perfect Norman. One thing the show has done that works so well is they’ve scripted the character into this sweet caring teenager who doesn’t understand this dark side that he has. (He blanks out when he does “bad” things.) Norman has this innocence about him that makes him a compelling character — we root for him even when he’s killed innocent people. Highmore does struggle with his American accent from time to time, but his chemistry with Farmiga makes the show spark.

The show has created a small town with a group of intriguing residents, including the sexy Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell), Norman’s conflicted stepbrother Dylan (Max Thieriot), and well-meaning Emma (Oliva Cooke), who suffers from cystic fibrosis. I actually give the show a lot of credit for having an interesting young female character with this condition and not making her character all about having this condition. It’s a smart, refreshing change-of-pace, and a lot of other shows should take note.

The first season was extremely strong, setting up the complex relationship between Norma and Norman. It also began to uncover the secrets of White Pine Bay, which is run by two major drug families (growing and selling weed). The season ended with the death of Norman’s teacher and pretty clear suspensions that Norman was involved in her death.

Season two continued to uncover more layers of the drug world (particularly with Dylan’s storyline) and saw Norman come face to face with his dark side (a side Norma has kept from him). The central question of the season was how would Norman react when he found out who he really is.

There were many strong moments throughout the ten-episode season, especially between Norma and Norman. One of my favorites was early on when Norma made them try out for the community theater production of South Pacific. This highlights some of the humor and camp in the show — I appreciate that it isn’t afraid to have these moments. It adds to the quirkiness and also makes the show not take itself so seriously. Norma also had a fantastic speech in a city council meeting where she argued kids should read books with terrible things in them so they are better prepared for the terrible world.

The drug storyline, however, got a little out of control during season two, and I did find myself caring less and less. Thankfully, the writers seemed to have similar feelings because the finale wrapped up most of these issues and killed off a good portion of the drug-related characters. This frees Dylan up to do something more interesting next season and hopefully will refocus the show on the motel.

The finale was one of the strongest episodes to date and brought the show to a new point in the story. Norman is now aware of his dark side and aware that he killed his teacher. His reaction to this news was to kill himself. His list of things to do before he did so was pretty great — including a potential catalogue of his taxidermy projects and having Norma make him apple pie.

Of course, we knew he wasn’t going to die. Norma stops him just in time and they end up sharing an uncomfortable embrace and kiss in the woods. The show has really played this relationship to perfection, which made this moment feel very real and believable. They walk a very fine line between normal mother-son touching and abnormal mother-son touching. This was a clear crossing of the line.

The final setup for next season was Norman officially transplanting his dark side onto his mother (or a version of his mother that he has in his head). The final scene saw him able to pass a lie detector test about killing his teacher because his mind has convinced him that he didn’t really do it. (Norma did). We are left with a final shot of Norman that feels a little more creepy and a lot less innocent. The progression of Norman has been slow and steady, which has made it fun to watch.

The show has been renewed for a third season, which I’m sure will bring out more of Norman’s darkness. This time I won’t be late — I’ll be glued to the screen.