"Bates Motel" is a contemporary prequel to the genre-defining film "Psycho," and gives a portrayal of how Norman Bates' (Freddie Highmore) psyche unravels through his teenage years. Fans discover the dark, twisted backstory of Norman Bates and how deeply
I wasn't very thrilled with Bates Motel's Season 1 finale and the murder of Blair Watson. We had just done all that with Keith Summers in the series premiere, so covering up another murder felt repetitive. Thus, when Season 2 kicked off with Bradley killing Gil, it seemed like the show was doubling down on murder cover-ups that would entangle the Norms, and I was not too optimistic about its prospects in its sophomore season.
That lack of optimism was largely misplaced, and thank goodness! Blair Watson's murder investigation was handled off-screen, and it didn't really return to the narrative until the seventh episode of this season. Bradley was put on a bus (presumably to go fight giant robots)βand again, thank goodness, because I never found Bradley even remotely interesting. Plus, her slaying of Gil was what set off the gang war in White Pine Bay that in part kept Dylan busy and separated him from the Norms for much of the season (Caleb, Norman's brother, was the other thing keeping Dylan away).
So instead of dealing with murders in a direct way, Bates Motel tightened up its stories and tone in Season 2βquite an improvement over Season 1, which often felt too scattered between Norman's teenage development, the sex-trafficking mystery with Emma and Norman, the cover-up of Keith Summers' death, Dylan's career in the drug business of White Pine Bay, and, of course, all the longing looks between Norman and Norma. Bates Motel will always need that last element, but so much of everything else felt grafted-on, like a bunch of different shows and styles cobbled together into a weird Frankenstein's monster of a show.
