So, what did the first episode show us? The whole Bates family, as you can probably guess, is pretty weird. It is interesting that it seems to be set in a somewhat modern setting, as Norman has a MP3 player and a cell phone. Yet there are some aspects that make it seem like things are a bit dated, but that's just a small little detail. The meat and potatoes of the show is the relationship between Norman and his mom, and you can already see a little bit of how their relationship parallels the known facts. Norma is already keeping her son away from social activities such as trying out for track and going to "study" with some school skanks girls. Plus, we get introduced to the strained relationship between Norma and her other son, Dylan. However, for the most part of the first half of the episode, everything seems pretty normal. That is, until the angry ex-proprietor comes a-knocking and proceeds to cut, handcuff, and rape Norma. Yeah, the show got dark real quick. And, to make matters worse for the Bates, Norma kills the loon in cold blood. Of course, because there was a blood stain from the body, the family must tear up the carpet, only to have the cops show up and question them. There is a lovely little scene where one officer Nestor (aka the Mayor of Gotham City. Seriously, that's the actor, look it up, I'll wait) is taking a pee with the body literally inches from him in the bathtub. While tearing up the carpet, Normie comes across a book, but we really don't know what it's purpose is yet. Then, Norma and Norman spend a little quality mother/son time as they head out on a rowboat to dump the body. Isn't that sweet? The ending of the episode is weird too, as we see some girl tied to a chair being injected with something.
Overall, this was a pretty good pilot episode. It's creepy but not overly creepy. They are planting seeds for the future; not only of the show, but for Psycho as well. It was nice to see Norman interact with girls his age, and I think this will be a big factor in the show. We already saw him interacting with two girls, both of which to seem to be interested in him, but we also saw him peeping on his mom changing, which is disturbingly creepy. However, there was a line in the promo for the rest of the season that stuck with me. Norma tells Norman that she is going to protect him. That just rubbed me the wrong way, and I think it will be a huge plot for the show going forward. However, the main plotline for these first couple episodes seems to be the explanation of the book Norman found and how it impacts his character. We've seen snippets of the pages, but what does it mean? How involved is it with the tied up girl? Who is he going to show the book to? Plus, you see how Norman deals with the murder and how he reacts to it. Overall, this pilot set up a lot of interesting stories for the future of the show.
I didn't expect to enjoy this show as much as I did. I just watched it on a whim, even though I thought it looked interesting when I saw commercials for it. I'm definitely interested in seeing more of this show. Overall, for the first episode of "Bates Motel", First You Dream, Then You Die, I give it an 8 out of 10.
More blog posts to come in the next few days. I had actually planned on finishing my movie review, but I got sidetracked by this TV review. So, that should be up most likely tomorrow. There is a good possibility I'll have some comic reviews coming down the pipeline as well, depends on how my week goes.
Thanks for reading!
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