(Momma's boy: Highmore is too close to Farmiga for comfort.)
As a huge fan of Psycho, I’ve watched A&E’s Bates Motel from the beginning. While initially skeptical that the storyline would translate into a weekly series, I was impressed with the dark universe the show set up and especially by the riveting performances of Vera Farmiga as Norma Bates and Freddie Highmore as her troubled son Norman. Now Bates is back for a new season.
The previous season finale set Norman up for a full on transition to the psychopath we know and love, after it was revealed he killed his teacher Miss Watson under the influence of the Norma in his mind. Though this alternate personality allowed him to pass a lie detector test exonerating him for the crime, the turmoil left Norma and her other son, Norman’s half-brother Dylan (Max Thierot) with lingering doubts.
Those doubts have quickly bubbled to the surface this year. Dylan was taken aback by his eighteen-year-old brother’s sleeping in the same bed as his mom, and told Norma so; while she took his commentary to heart, circumstances quickly pushed her even further into dysfunctional codependency with her kid. But Norma can’t quiet her nagging doubts about Norman, especially after she catches him peeping the motel’s newest guest, Annika (Revolution’s Tracy Spiridakos), a sweet and seductive call girl with whom Norman quickly strikes up a friendship. (The peeping scene is a clear homage to the famous peep hole sequence in Psycho.) Her worries only intensify when Annika goes missing… after taking Norman on a ride into town.
Mother and son are, of course, the heart of the show, and their portrayers’ exemplary performances make that heart beat. (If you’ll forgive the extended metaphor.) Farmiga is a master at embodying Norma’s contradictions, flaws, and anxieties; watching the second episode, I thought about how much I enjoy her impulsive gutsiness, her sometimes irrational drive to pursue her ends no matter what the risks. That verve leads her to crash a mysterious men’s club—and sneak a peek at a decadent orgy—in search of clues to Annika’s disappearance. She also shares a beautifully played scene with Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell), who’s always been one of Bates Motel’s most intriguing supporting characters and who shares a complicated, emotionally fraught history with her. I’m looking forward to finding out more about him this season, and to see how his friendship with Norma evolves, too.
Farmiga's gotten the lion's share of the praise, but Highmore is nearly as outstanding, and has found new and deeper levels of Norman's troubled psyche to oh so subtly convey this year. Besides his intense bond with Norma, he's also decided to date his pal Emma (Olivia Cooke) after two seasons of tension, and it's already obvious that they're path to coupledom won't be an easy one.
I’m not sure exactly where Dylan’s storyline is going; he’s starting a legal marijuana farm with Norma’s brother Caleb, who was revealed as Dylan’s dad in last year’s biggest OMG moment, and they’ve already tangled with a foreboding looking dude (Sons of Anarchy’s Ryan Hurst) living in the property next door. I’m most excited for Caleb’s inevitable run-ins with Norma and Norman, though clearly the tensions among the town’s many pot growers, many of whom have now been shut down by the DEA, will be a key plot point this year.
Whatever. I’m way more interested in that sinister orgy club, one of whose members will likely emerge as this season’s Big Bad. (Bates Motelalways delivers truly creepy men to torment Norma and co.) I want to know more about Annika, too, of course, though if she’s dead, I hope Spiridakos still returns in some big flashbacks; she’s got a real vibrant quality, and her chemistry with Norman is crackling. I also hope this mystery isn’t extended all season long, which would be too reminiscent of last years did he or didn’t he? conundrum over Norman and Miss Watson. If Norman is truly down-sliding into a capital “P” Psycho—and the marketing hype, not to mention Highmore’s less innocent and more diabolical portrayal, suggests that he is—things need to kick up a notch from one victim a year. Either way, I’ll be watching as always to see where the madness leads.
