Reviews
[TV Review] “Bates Motel” Episode 3.01: ‘A Death In The Family’
“Bates Motel” had a bit of a rough go in its first two seasons. I like the show a lot, but it’s never hooked me the way I feel a show should. Every scene involving Vera Farmiga is wonderful. Freddie Highmore has done a fantastic job as well keeping up with her, and their scenes together are “Bates Motel” at its absolute best. The show is certainly flawed and has the occasion terrible storyline (the marijuana subplot that plagued the majority of last season comes immediately to mind), but there’s just enough good in the show to keep me interested.
The third season of “Bates Motel” premiered last night, and it was mostly a mixed bag for me. Pretty much everything I mentioned in the previous paragraph holds true for this premiere episode. All of the Norma/Norman (and Norma/Dylan) scenes were spot-on, but all other scenes were lacking in urgency. Let’s recap:
We open to Norman sleeping in bed with his mother (of course) only to have Dylan come in and tell Norma that it’s weird that her 18-year-old son is sleeping in the same bed as her (who’da thought?). Norma gets a call from a lawyer informing her that her mother has died. Since this is the first time (I believe) that we have heard mention of Norma’s mother, it doesn’t really hold a lot of weight for the audience, and it apparently doesn’t with Norma either, as she states she isn’t interested in hearing about the will. Her disinterest is made even more apparent when she breaks the news to Norman (“Oh by the way my mother died.”). Norman goes to school and has ghostly visions of Ms. Watson (whom he murdered in the first season finale) and runs back home to mother, only to run into new motel guest Annika Johnson, a very attractive hooker (I’m not kidding) who is just passing through town. Norman immediately takes a liking to her.
Meanwhile, Dylan has a meeting with Sheriff Romero, letting him know that he will not be selling marijuana illegally anymore. He is going to help people with glaucoma and cancer and sell them the weed (yawn). Romero tells him he is on his own and will not be able to offer him protection anymore. While at his cabin, his dad/uncle drops by to try to bond but Dylan, understandably, isn’t having it. Later, his father/uncle reveals that he knows Dylan is his son, and tries to explain how his bad childhood led to incest. So that’s why he raped Norma.
In the final third of the episode, Norma tells Norman that she will start home-schooling him and that she is going to promote him to manager of the motel (really?). He is thrilled and upon telling Emma, she informs him that her cystic fibrosis has gotten worse. Her lung capacity is decreasing. Naturally, he proposes that they begin dating. Then he spies on Annika showering in her room where Norma catches him. Norma finally breaks down about her mother to Dylan and Norman later finds her crying in her bad and they (literally) sleep together one last time. Finally, Norman drives Annika to a restaurant where (I’m assuming) she is meeting one of her johns. In the final shot of the episode, we see Norman pull up to the motel in her car (he was supposed to walk back), with Annika mysteriously absent.
This episode was essentially just setting up the rest of the season, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, not all of it was particularly compelling. The acting was great across the board, it’s just the script I have an issue with. As I mentioned before, every scene with Farmiga and Highmore is amazing. Those two play off of each other really well and that’s what makes this episode for me. I’m a little puzzled as to why the season mystery seems to be “Did Norman kill Annika?” I don’t know this character and don’t really care (and Norman probably killed her). Plus, “Did Norman Kill Ms. Watson?” was the whole mystery of the second season. My hope is that I’m just underestimating the writers and this will not actually be the season mystery and get resolved in one or two episodes. One can dream.
After the appearance of “Mother” in Norman’s head in the season 2 finale, I was a little disappointed that she didn’t make an appearance in this episode. I realize that she can’t just keep popping up, but it’s a 10-episode season and there isn’t really an excuse for a slow pace (something the series has been guilty of in the past). The entire story with Norma’s mother threw me at first, but it ended up giving us a great moment with her and Dylan (more on his arc below).
Overall I’d say this was a perfectly average episode of “Bates Motel.” It had some great moments and it had moments that dragged. There was a lot of setup, as is expected in season premieres, but it moved a little too slowly for my taste.
Random Notes
- I’m taking a page out of The AV Club’s book (I read their reviews religiously but will not be reading their reviews for “Bates Motel until after these go up so as to avoid any subconscious plagiarism/opinion influence) and adding this section to the end of all my reviews. So in the main body I will recap and review (and try to limit my snarkiness), and in this section I’ll have my more informal thoughts/critiques of the episode.
- Also, I apologize for the length of this review. I’ll try to start doing a better job of condensing future reviews.
- Exactly how much time has passed since the start of the series? I feel like it’s been a long time but maybe I’m wrong?
- Seriously, what is it with older women on this show being so flirty with Norman? I admit that Freddie Highmore is cute, but jeez.
- For the love of God, get Max Thieriot away from the marijuana storyline. Actually, jettison that plot altogether and make him be around his family more (but not his dad/uncle).
- Speaking of Max Thieriot, does anyone else get distracted by his teeth? I feel like it always looks like he’s wearing a mouth guard (he’s still hot though).
- It’s nice to see Keegan Connor Tracy (Final Destination 2, Once Upon a Time) again, albeit as a ghost/corpse. She’s one of those actresses that just pops up out of nowhere sometimes and she always makes me smile.
- Vera Farmiga pleading with Norman to (literally) sleep with her one last time (“Just for a night…because I’m so sad”) made me laugh hysterically. In case you couldn’t tell, I love that woman.
- Olivia Cooke needs to be given more to do. She was great in the first season but completely underused last season. Remedy that now, please.
- Happy to be doing these reviews for you guys for the next 10 weeks! I’ll also be reviewing A&E’s “The Returned,” which airs after “Bates Motel.” Look for my review of that later tonight!
Reviews
“AHS: Delicate” Review – “Little Gold Man” Mixes Oscar Fever & Baby Fever into the Perfect Product
‘AHS: Delicate’ enters early labor with a fun, frenzied episode that finds the perfect tone and goes for broke as its water breaks.
“I’ll figure it out. Women always do.”
American Horror Story is no stranger to remixing real-life history with ludicrous, heightened Murphy-isms, whether it’s AHS: 1984’s incorporation of Richard Ramirez, AHS: Cult’s use of Valerie Solanas, or AHS: Coven’s prominent role for the Axeman of New Orleans. Accordingly, it’s very much par for the course for AHS: Delicate to riff on other pop culture touchstones and infinitely warp them to its wicked whims. That being said, it takes real guts to do a postmodern feminist version of Rosemary’s Baby and then actually put Mia Farrow – while she’s filming Rosemary’s Baby, no less – into the narrative. This is the type of gonzo bullshit that I want out of American Horror Story! Sharon Tate even shows up for a minute because why the hell not? Make no mistake, this is completely absurd, but the right kind of campy absurdity that’s consistently been in American Horror Story’s wheelhouse since its inception. It’s a wild introduction that sets up an Oscar-centric AHS: Delicate episode for success. “Little Gold Man” is a chaotic episode that’s worth its weight in gold and starts to bring this contentious season home.
It’d be one thing if “Little Gold Man” just featured a brief detour to 1967 so that this season of pregnancy horror could cross off Rosemary’s Baby from its checklist. AHS: Delicate gets more ambitious with its revisionist history and goes so far as to say that Mia Farrow and Anna Victoria Alcott are similarly plagued. “Little Gold Man” intentionally gives Frank Sinatra dialogue that’s basically verbatim from Dex Harding Sr., which indicates that this demonic curse has been ruffling Hollywood’s feathers for the better part of a century. Anna Victoria Alcott’s Oscar-nominated feature film, The Auteur, is evidently no different than Rosemary’s Baby. It’s merely Satanic forces’ latest attempt to cultivate the “perfect product.” “Little Gold Man” even implies that the only reason that Mia Farrow didn’t go on to make waves at the 1969 Academy Awards and ends up with her twisted lot in life is because she couldn’t properly commit to Siobhan’s scheme, unlike Anna.
This is easily one of American Horror Story’s more ridiculous cold opens, but there’s a lot of love for the horror genre and Hollywood that pumps through its veins. If Hollywood needs to be a part of AHS: Delicate’s story then this is actually the perfect connective tissue. On that note, Claire DeJean plays Sharon Tate in “Little Gold Man” and does fine work with the brief scene. However, it would have been a nice, subtle nod of continuity if AHS: Delicate brought back Rachel Roberts who previously portrayed Tate in AHS: Cult. “Little Gold Man” still makes its point and to echo a famous line from Jennifer Lynch’s father’s television masterpiece: “It is happening again.”
“Little Gold Man” is rich in sequences where Anna just rides the waves of success and enjoys her blossoming fame. She feels empowered and begins to finally take control of her life, rather than let it push her around and get under her skin like a gestating fetus. Anna’s success coincides with a colossal exposition dump from Tavi Gevinson’s Cora, a character who’s been absent for so long that we were all seemingly meant to forget that she was ever someone who was supposed to be significant. Cora has apparently been the one pulling many of Anna’s strings all along as she goes Single White Female, rather than Anna having a case of Repulsion. It’s an explanation that oddly works and feeds into the episode’s more general message of dreams becoming nightmares. Cora continuing to stay aligned with Dr. Hill because she has student loans is also somehow, tragically the perfect explanation for her abhorrent behavior. It’s not the most outlandish series of events in an episode that also briefly gives Anna alligator legs and makes Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian kiss.
“Little Gold Man” often feels like it hits the fast-forward button as it delivers more answers, much in the same vein as last week’s “Ava Hestia.” These episodes are two sides of the same coin and it’s surely no coincidence that they’re both directed by Jennifer Lynch. This season has benefitted from being entirely written by Halley Feiffer – a first for the series – but it’s unfortunate that Lynch couldn’t direct every episode of AHS: Delicate instead of just four out of nine entries. That’s not to say that a version of this season that was unilaterally directed by Lynch would have been without its issues. However, it’s likely that there’d be a better sense of synergy across the season with fewer redundancies. She’s responsible for the best episodes of AHS: Delicate and it’s a disappointment that she won’t be the one who closes the season out in next week’s finale.
To this point, “Little Gold Man” utilizes immaculate pacing that helps this episode breeze by. Anna’s Oscar nomination and the awards ceremony are in the same episode, whereas it feels like “Part 1” of the season would have spaced these events out over four or five episodes. This frenzied tempo works in “Little Gold Man’s” favor as AHS: Delicate speed-runs to its finish instead of getting lost in laborious plotting and unnecessary storytelling. This is how the entire season should have been. Although it’s also worth pointing out that this is by far the shortest episode of American Horror Story to date at only 34 minutes. It’s a shame that the season’s strongest entries have also been the ones with the least amount of content. There could have been a whole other act to “Little Gold Man,” or at the least, a substantially longer cold open that got more out of its Mia Farrow mayhem.
“Little Gold Man” is an American Horror Story episode that does everything right, but is still forced to contend with three-quarters of a subpar season. “Part 2” of AHS: Delicate actually helps the season’s first five episodes shine brighter in retrospect and this will definitely be a season that benefits from one long binge that doesn’t have a six-month break in the middle. Unfortunately, anyone who’s already watched it once will likely not feel compelled to experience these labor pains a second time over. With one episode to go and Anna’s potential demon offspring ready to greet the world, AHS: Delicate is poised to deliver one hell of a finale.
Although, to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, “How do you expect to be a good conclusion if this is what you’re chasing?”
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