Season finale review: Bates Motel ‘Midnight’ – That’s Tragically Lame

Campy, frustrating, intriguing, laughably ridiculous... all of these words describe the first season of Bates Motel in some form or another, whether you're talking about plot, setting, performances, or characters. Unfortunately, the only word that comes to mind when it comes to the finale is "contrived." At least the show finally put its cards down on …

Review: Bates Motel ‘Underwater’ – People Are Complicated

Everybody's drowning in 'Underwater', most of all Norma Bates. She's drowning in debt from the worthless motel she bought, she's drowning in hippies currently staying at said motel, and she's drowning in crazy people (screaming to Sheriff Romero "why do crazy people keep gravitating towards me?"). She's not the only one: as Norman dreams of …

Review: Bates Motel ‘A Boy And His Dog’ – How About I Don’t

After watching 'A Boy and His Dog', I had to take an hour to think about what I'd watched. Then I watched the episode again, and still couldn't parse out what the point of the whole thing was. There's more mystery that's not really mystery, placeholders for characters like Bradley and Remo - and now …

Review: Bates Motel ‘The Man in Number 9’ – Talking Out Of School

With the snap of Sheriff Romero's fingers, Shelby, Keith, and the Asian girl are no longer a problem for Norman and Norma on Bates Motel, a convenient bit of magic that appeared to put away the more frustrating parts of the show, at least for the time being. Except it really didn't - and although the …

Review: Bates Motel ‘The Truth’ – That’s A Loss

Well, I certainly didn't expect Bates Motel to deal with Shelby and the Asian hookers until the end of the season, so it was a nice surprise to the show not waste any more time and get down to business with him. In that sense, 'The Truth' is one of the more entertaining episodes of the show …

Review: Bates Motel ‘Ocean View’ – Welcome To The Doughouse

There is a very distinct line between what's working and what isn't in Bates Motel, all of which are on display in 'Ocean View ', an episode where Norman and Norma face a number of truths they struggle to contend with.For every strong scene, there are two are three equally ineffective scenes, where character nuance …