Article first posted as BATES MOTEL Review on Seat42F.com
Grade: 96%
Grade: 96%
A&E is not particularly known for
their dramas. They’ve had a few scripted series up to this point, like
The Glades, Breakout Kings, and The Cleaner, but they are formulaic
crime dramas, not a complex, serial show that deserves attention and
praise. With the premiere of BATES MOTEL on March 18th, that changes.
BATES MOTEL, as one might expect, is set
at the same location as the classic Hitchcock film Psycho, and looks
perfectly in sync with the earlier work. This television series is a
prequel to the movie, set many years earlier. As the first episode,
“Fist You Dream, Then You Die” opens, Norman Bates’ (Freddie Highmore,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland) father dies, and
his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air, The Departer), moves
them to a small town where she has purchased a motel and the house
behind it.
The elements one would expect from such a
project are immediately present. Norman is eager to please and mostly
obedient. Norma is controlling and manipulative. The motel itself is
cursed from the beginning, it having been taken away from a family that
has long owned the land by the bank, and a descendant of that family is
not happy to let it go. The tone is creepy and disturbing, but not too
obviously so.
The cast does a superb job. Highmore is
the right mix of good son and budding psychopath. He is trying to be a
normal kid, but that’s not the way his mother has raised him, nor does
she let explore that option. Farmiga captures the portrait of the type
of mother that would name her son after herself. The way she coldly
receives the news of her husband’s death, then later handles Norman, is
compelling to watch, and surely she is making a mark on the television
landscape, owning the role.
Right away, death also comes to the
Bates Motel. There are strong hints that Norma might have offed her own
husband, and (very slight spoiler) there will be a second body by the
end of the first hour. I don’t know if BATES MOTEL is a horror show, per
se, and if there will continue to be serial killings throughout; after
all, no one suspects Norman long after his mother passes on. But the
stage is set for what must be.
Much of the purpose of the series will
be to take Norman from normal child to cold-hearted murderer. We see he
has a possible support system, with girls who want to be his friends and
a teacher offering mentorship. But we also see how the boys don’t take a
shine to him, and how Norma cuts him off from social interaction. And
then, witnessing what Norma involves him in, we see the seeds of things
to come.
Not that Norma is totally obvious in her
machinations. To a viewer at home, sure, we can tell she’s a horrible
mother because we see it all. To a character in the show, outside of the
family, she may seem a little strict, but not someone to worry about.
At least, not yet.
The supporting cast is just as good as
the two leads, which helps with the overall effect. After all, BATES
MOTEL is set in a town, so there must be townspeople. These fellow
residents pleasantly round out the world in a very authentic way without
distracting or mandating plots of their own. They include Nestor
Carbonell (Lost) as the Sheriff, Keegan Connor Tracy (Once Upon a Time)
as Miss Watson, Norman’s teacher, and Olivia Cooke as an odd classmate.
Upcoming guests (according to IMDB and Wikipedia) will include Jere
Burns (Justified), Mike Vogel (Pan Am), Richard Harmon (The Killing),
and even Kate Winslet (Titantic, Mildred Pierce).
“First You Dream, Then You Die” is a lot
of setup, especially the beginning, but manages to not feel too much
like it is. We enter at a critical moment in Norman’s life, one that
will put him on a certain path, and he already begins going down that
path in the premiere. The start of the action is not sudden or jarring,
and yet, this pilot does a good job of actually getting into the meat of
the story. Credit writing, directing, and production, as well as the
performers, because this is an excellent pilot in just about every way
imaginable, with a definite cinematic quality.
My only slight complaint is that there
is a bit of heavy handedness present. “First You Dream, Then You Die”
begins with Norman listening to dialogue on a television talking about a
grown man living with his mother. Norma wears the same dress and
hairstyle to dinner that the corpse at the end of the film is sporting.
But while it may have been better to spread out such references through
multiple episodes, instead of sticking a bunch in the premiere, it does
effectively tie this project to its source material, so it’s not totally
unwarranted.
BATES MOTEL deserves attention, and
Highmore and Farmiga will hopefully get some Emmy credit. Which means
you probably won’t want to miss a show this good. I certainly won’t.
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