BATES MOTEL, SEASONS 1-5 (2013-17)

PHENOMENALITY: *naturalistic*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *irony*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*

I know you think I'm a monster, and I do believe there are people in this world who are fighting for good. But honey, there is no good. There's just life, which is hard and cruel and undeserving of your kind soul. I know you tried, I know you did. You tried so hard for such a long time. Honey, you are in a big pickle, Norman, you are. I'm not mad at you, but I can't let you do any more damage. It's time for me to fix this.

The above lines, from one of the last episodes of season five, are spoken not by Norman Bates' actual mother, whom he's killed by that season, but the Norma in Norman's head (though still played by Vera Farmiga). While the writing of BATES MOTEL isn't as sharp as the best of the PSYCHO films, these lines cause me to alter my verdict on the literary mythos which best exemplifies the series. In this review, I opined that the first season of BATES seemed more in line with the mythos of the drama than that of the irony, which I had applied to the classic 1960 movie. However, even though the series, as conceived by producers Carlton Cuse and two others, suffers from some rather blah side-plots, both producers and writers make a sincere effort to exemplify the original view of both the Hitchcock work and the book it was based on: that life is fundamentally warped and devoid of real "goodness."

I didn't care for most of the side-characters introduced to flesh out the suggested background of Norman and his mother in the Bloch book and its adaptation. Still, the episodes, even those relating to a tiresome drug-running operation in Norman's city, were never less than diverting. Still, there's never any doubt that Norman and Norma are the real stars of the story, with Norma proving a character substantial enough to stand alongside her psychotic son. In all previous iterations-- even PSYCHO IV, which provided the longest such flashback prior to the TV-show-- it's always been Norman alone who was the star. Norma Bates was for the most part just the excuse for Norman's mother-fixation and for his murderous rampage against women who tempted the young madman.

Though I changed my opinion on the mythos of BATES MOTEL, nothing in the other four seasons has altered my verdict that Norman's "perilous psycho" is entirely naturalistic in nature. There's never any sense that his "disassociative identity disorder" (as his lawyer terms it) has any special mystery to it, so the vibe of the uncanny never manifests. I should note that whereas in early seasons Cuse and his cohorts simply stretched the boundaries of the original scenario to allow for new characters-- not least a new half-brother for Norman, and a new take on the incestuous leanings of the Bates family-- the final season substantially rewrites the history of the original 1960 film. It's not an amazingly fresh take on the subject matter, but it's certainly makes better fare than Gus Van Sant's tedious shot-for-shot remake of Hitchcock's classic.