Bates Motel

Network: A&E
Episodes: 50 (hour)
Seasons: Five

TV show dates: March 18, 2013 — April 24, 2017
Series status: Ended

Performers include: Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore, Olivia Cooke, Nicola Peltz, Keegan Connor Tracy, Max Thieriot, Nestor Carbonell, Mike Vogel, and Richard Harmon.

TV show description:      
This TV series is a contemporary prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s most well-known film, Psycho. It provides an intimate portrait of how Norman Bates’ psyche unraveled through his teenage years — including his intricate relationship with his mother and how she helped forge the most famous serial killer of them all.

Norma Louise Bates (Vera Farmiga) is a resilient, intelligent, beautiful, and complicated woman. A contemporary single mother, she is emotionally complex and utterly devoted to her Norman. She’s constantly juggling her own needs and some hardcore baggage, all while trying to create a new home in a new town for herself and her son.

Smart, quietly funny, handsome and sometimes shy, Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) is a 17 year old boy who has an intensely close bond with his mother. He’s resistant to starting over in White Pine Bay, but begins to change his mind as he starts to spread his wings. His mother isn’t the only woman in his life.

Emma Decody (Olivia Cooke) is a quirky, pretty, intelligent 17 year old girl who has cystic fibrosis and is also an “old soul.” She gets an almost immediate crush on Norman and always finds her way to his doorstep.

Meanwhile, Bradley Martin (Nicola Peltz) is a beautiful, popular, and affluent, 17 year old who befriends Norman out of kindness. She’s soon surprised to find herself drawn to him in other, deeper ways.

At school, Miss Watson (Keegan Connor Tracy) is Norman’s compassionate and beautiful Language Arts teacher. She’s taken with Norman as a student but senses he may have some deep emotional issues that are going unchecked.

Things get more complicated at home for Norman when his half-brother from Norma’s first marriage shows up. Dylan Massett (Max Thieriot) is an edgy outsider in the family dynamic. He’s a lost soul and a drifter who finds himself, by necessity, drifting back into their troubled lives.

Sheriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell) is the “moral” center of the town, although morality is often a shifting line here. Imposing and discerning, he gets involved in Norma Bates’ life after an unfortunate incident at the motel.

Deputy Zack Shelby (Mike Vogel) is young, handsome, and clear-eyed. He has an immediate attraction to Norma and finds himself drawn into her life and wanting to take care of her.

What do you think? Do you like the Bates Motel TV series? Do you think it should be ending with season five? Would you have watched a sixth season or if this the right time?