This was first attempted back in 1987 as a pilot was shown and it did not have Norman in it because Anthony Perkins did not want anything to do with it. The show was more along the lines of the Twilight Zone with a new story about one of the Bates Motel guests. A&E decided to go the prequel route with Norman and his Mom Norma moving and buying the motel. This sounds interesting and promos for the show started at the beginning of the year. It was not revealed that the show was set in the present time until a couple of weeks before its premiere and this had some fans a bit angry. I was cautiously optimistic because I do not care about the timeline and besides it is really expensive to do a time period piece. Having to secure old cars, build sets or make locations look like they are in the 60s, and making wardrobes that fit the time would be really costly.
Anyway, I was easily able to get over the time setting and I was really surprised by how good the show was. There was some really good writing here as Norman, his mom, and a stepbrother are intertwined into a story with many subplots about a young Norman slowly becoming who he really is. Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, Orphan) is absolutely awesome as Mother Bates. She will do anything for Norman and can go from a 1 to a 10 on the crazy scale in about a half second. Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) did a good job as Norman and really grew on me and got stronger as the season went on. I swear and confirmed with other viewers you could hear his British accent quite a bit in the first few episodes but it became non-existent later on.
This was a really good TV series and I applaud A&E for great production values and they really paid attention to details on this show. I look forward to season 2 next year as it appears Norman went a little "Mommy" on someone at the end of the season finale. Or did he?
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