'A boys best friend is his mother' - A special review of Bates Motel, Series 1

This is the first and maybe only time we'll do a review of a TV series on our blog, mainly because we usually don't watch any. But back in September, we both agreed we'd give 'Bates Motel' a go, especially since it was a modern day prequel to one of my favourite films and a film Rosie enjoyed, Psycho, and it had a promising cast. So, yeah, we decided to review it after finishing the last episode on Thursday!

Was it an enjoyable series? Yes. Was it anything groundbreaking? No. Could it have been better? Yes. Will I watch the second series? Probably, if anything just out of curiosity. While Bates Motel was mostly honest to the original plot of Psycho, it did stray slightly from the original story in places and the modern yet old setting sometimes came across as confusing. At times it was predictable, at times it was slow moving and at times there were gaping plot holes and unresolved storylines. Credit to the cast, especially Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates and Vera Farmiga as his mother, who performed very well and the main storyline of the series did keep you guessing right to the very quite unsatisfying end. 

Overall its an enjoyable story that doesn't take itself too seriously. The Norman-Norma relationship is unsettling but only in subtle ways in this series. For the second series I would like to see more development between Norman and his mother and more focus on Normans relationships with others rather than other storylines such as the major human trafficking ring story of this series. Series two is currently filming and is scheduled to be broadcast in 2014. I think that the show will improve as the series go on and the characters grow older. Watching this series has made me slightly more inclined to watch Psycho II, III and IV, but, we'll see.

Overall rating: 7/10

Ollie