Bates Motel Pilot Episode Review

It strikes me that I have seen a lot of prequels lately. While some may argue that Hollywood is running out of ideas, the quality of TV shows is at an all-time high. Cable series like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and Homeland offer entertainment that far exceeds the vast majority of movies being put out nowadays. The new A&E drama series, Bates Motel, is a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho set in the modern day and chronicling the teenage years of Norman Bates.

Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors of all time. Films like Rear Window and Psycho were some of the first movies I saw that really made me appreciate the art of filmmaking. At a fairly young age, I was gripped with suspense as I watched these films and was captivated by the stories Hitchcock told. Rear Window is my personal favorite Hitchcock movie, but more on that film another time. I hold Psycho in high regard as well, so I groaned after a prequel series to Hitchcock's classic was announced.

Similar to my experience with Oz: The Great and Powerful, I went into the pilot of Bates Motel with low expectations. Judging the pilot on its own terms, this is another case of a prequel that works. There are two main reasons why the first episode worked well for me. They are the lead actors, Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore, and the arresting cinematography. The script itself is better than most, but suffers from being a bit too similar to the original film at times. Also, some of the dialogue can be a little clunky.

What the show does very well is create an uncomfortable mood in a nuanced and subtle way. Clearly, the showrunners do not want to hit viewers over the head quite yet with full blown horror and bloodshed. The relationship between Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his mother (Vera Farmiga) at this point in the series is not explicitly inappropriate, but something is definitely askew. Mrs. Bates is a mother who controls Norman's behavior by making him feel bad about not helping her.

A few moments in the pilot episode that particularly made me squirm happen early on. As 17-year-old Norman is carrying bags into the newly bought motel, he stops for a moment and sees his mother in her underwear through a window. His stare lingers on just a few seconds too long for this not to be uncomfortable. Yet at the same time, the scene is played very quietly and does not feel forced. Scenes like this are full of uneasy sexual tension that remind me of the original film.

It's amazing how controversial Hitchcock's original was upon its release, especially when compared to what is shown on the pilot episode alone of Bates Motel. One of Psycho's numerous taboo breaking scenes showed a toilet being flushed, a first for American cinema. In the first episode of Bates Motel, we see a man urinating into a toilet at one point, which seems to me to be too specific to be anything other than an homage to the original. Without going too much into detail about the events of the first episode, I will say the violence in Bates Motel is far more graphic than anything shown in Psycho.

One gripe I had with the first episode was that some of the supporting characters were weak, particularly a violent town drunk. The script seems to be focused on the character journeys of Norman and his mother, which is fine, but that doesn't mean all of the other characters should be unrealistic or exaggerated. For example, on Norman Bates's first day at his new high school, he is approached by four incredibly attractive young girls who take him to a party later. For a show that seems so grounded in reality in the scenes with Norman and his mother, moments like this come off as cliche and underwritten.

On the plus side, Freddie Highmore is fascinating as a young Norman Bates. Highmore's movements at points remind me of Anthony Perkins, but he never seems to be stealing from that performance. Highmore makes this role totally his own and I applaud a young actor for taking on a role as iconic as Norman Bates and pulling it off. Vera Farmiga should also be praised for not turning Norma Bates into a cartoon character. Her performance suggests Norma is a woman who is scared and exhausted, yet controlling. Together, Highmore and Varmiga make Bates Motel worth watching.

I was impressed by the pilot episode overall and I am intrigued to see where the writers will take this over the course of the first season. I am worried that the writers will not be able to continue making consistently entertaining hours of television with such a relatively simple story. Hopefully, Bates Motel will continue to be a show that relies on subtle chills and interesting character relationships, rather than dull "shock" violence you might see on Fox's The Following.