I watched this series at the time. I absolutely loved it, specially the characters. I have a great admiration for what Vera did for this character, so complex, so real. Also I loved Olivia since I discovered her on this, I watched a movie she did while the series was still happening that was phenomenal (not the Ouija one, the “Me and Earl and the dying girl” film, that she’s excellent in it). The whole cast is very talented and Olivia in particular is the one artist that stuck with me because she was very new and is now finally a rising a star at a big stage. But I was very young when I watched it, one episode per week. So since I just finished House of the Dragon and I was so glad seeing Olivia playing Alicent (brilliantly, and putting so much of herself into the character), I thought I’d see how this experience would go watching one episode after the other as a grown man. I have the Blu-ray for the first to seasons and it’s been streaming for a while here in Brazil (at the time it was just on cable). I have to say, I’m happy to rediscover this universe and it’s story. The first season is not the best piece of television that I ever saw, fair, but in my memory the best of this show in terms of writing, building up and characters is yet to come. I think the bypass storyline is very week and I didn’t remember a thing about this arch with Norma being envolver with that police officer. So that was a surprise. The fact that I know the best is yet to come and that I love these characters so much and feel for them (specially Norma) makes me enjoy more and ignore some aspects that would ended up bothering me and surely did bother me at the time (I really don’t like the actress that plays Bradley and her arch, especially in season 2 that I already started). For me, it’s a beloved show that holds up quite well in its first season. It would definitely be a big hit if it came out nowadays on Netflix, or some other popular streaming service. Glad to have rewatched it!
Comparable to "Gotham" in terms of character development. Norma and Norman as depicted in the series make sense of Norman Bates' personality traits and disorder in the movie. It also gives us a fairly reasonable depiction of how Oedipus Complex develops & happens. That's every prequel's objective, to explain how characters became what they are. This series has achieved that, which should be expected because of all the scientific & medical knowledge & technology that we have acquired since the time when the original movie was filmed.
I would give it a 6 out of 10. I really liked most of the characters, the setting, the very minimal cgi and the timeless sort of tone but the Bradley sub plot seemed a bit out of place, a lot of it was quite far fetched and it dragged a little so that after the first four episodes i was never in a rush to watch the next one. The season finale was a bit of a let down as well. The menacing villain they'd built up so well was just tossed aside like bag of rubbish.
I had a completely different sensation when watching it. For me I just got completely caught up with the relationship between Norman and Norma and, quite frankly, I could just watch Vera Farmiga do what she does all day long.
Totally agree. Just felt some of the scenarios were a little over the top which may have affected how believable i found the story overall. I know it's fictional but in some cases there needs to be some amount of reality. Then perhaps there wouldn't have been enough for a show? Who knows?
Yeah, you definitely have to suspend disbelief to a great degree, that's for sure! I think the more you can do that the more you will enjoy this series.
Bradley annoyed me the entirety of her time in the show. She just uses Norman's crush on her to manipulate him like when she and her friends take him to the bar and she lets her boyfriend see her talking to Norman purely to make the boyfriend jealous. Emma actually cared about him but he only had eyes for Bradley. Bradley was the worst character in the show IMO.
8:51 Bryan as bad a character as Bradley is she can't compare to the sheer horror of Lana. That Mary Sue got on my nerves every scene she was in in Smallville. She should have left the show for good in Season 3 but instead stayed until Season 8. The only reason she was portrayed as a saint who could do no wrong was because the show's original producers had a crush on her actress to the point where they cast Kristin Kreuk as Lana before casting Tom Welling as Clark.
Yeah, she was a thorn in the side of that show for far too long! I still love Smallville though. But it's definitely in spite of her rather than because of her.
@@BryanLomax With your keen eye, I am DYING to hear your thoughts..... That entire series was so tragic and so darkly beautiful. One of my favorite shows ever. Just perfect.
I watched this series at the time. I absolutely loved it, specially the characters. I have a great admiration for what Vera did for this character, so complex, so real. Also I loved Olivia since I discovered her on this, I watched a movie she did while the series was still happening that was phenomenal (not the Ouija one, the “Me and Earl and the dying girl” film, that she’s excellent in it).
The whole cast is very talented and Olivia in particular is the one artist that stuck with me because she was very new and is now finally a rising a star at a big stage.
But I was very young when I watched it, one episode per week. So since I just finished House of the Dragon and I was so glad seeing Olivia playing Alicent (brilliantly, and putting so much of herself into the character), I thought I’d see how this experience would go watching one episode after the other as a grown man. I have the Blu-ray for the first to seasons and it’s been streaming for a while here in Brazil (at the time it was just on cable).
I have to say, I’m happy to rediscover this universe and it’s story. The first season is not the best piece of television that I ever saw, fair, but in my memory the best of this show in terms of writing, building up and characters is yet to come. I think the bypass storyline is very week and I didn’t remember a thing about this arch with Norma being envolver with that police officer. So that was a surprise.
The fact that I know the best is yet to come and that I love these characters so much and feel for them (specially Norma) makes me enjoy more and ignore some aspects that would ended up bothering me and surely did bother me at the time (I really don’t like the actress that plays Bradley and her arch, especially in season 2 that I already started).
For me, it’s a beloved show that holds up quite well in its first season. It would definitely be a big hit if it came out nowadays on Netflix, or some other popular streaming service. Glad to have rewatched it!
I never really liked the pot farming subplot and I'm glad they dropped it in Season 3.
This is probably the best bates motel review I’ve seen 👏🏽
Thanks! I did another one after this where I reviewed the entire 5 season run. Great show!
Great review Bryan. I just reviewed Psycho which i will post in October around Halloween.
+The Lawn Gnome Crackin! Psycho is my favourite Hitchcock film.
Comparable to "Gotham" in terms of character development. Norma and Norman as depicted in the series make sense of Norman Bates' personality traits and disorder in the movie. It also gives us a fairly reasonable depiction of how Oedipus Complex develops & happens. That's every prequel's objective, to explain how characters became what they are. This series has achieved that, which should be expected because of all the scientific & medical knowledge & technology that we have acquired since the time when the original movie was filmed.
I would give it a 6 out of 10. I really liked most of the characters, the setting, the very minimal cgi and the timeless sort of tone but the Bradley sub plot seemed a bit out of place, a lot of it was quite far fetched and it dragged a little so that after the first four episodes i was never in a rush to watch the next one. The season finale was a bit of a let down as well. The menacing villain they'd built up so well was just tossed aside like bag of rubbish.
I had a completely different sensation when watching it. For me I just got completely caught up with the relationship between Norman and Norma and, quite frankly, I could just watch Vera Farmiga do what she does all day long.
Totally agree. Just felt some of the scenarios were a little over the top which may have affected how believable i found the story overall. I know it's fictional but in some cases there needs to be some amount of reality. Then perhaps there wouldn't have been enough for a show? Who knows?
Yeah, you definitely have to suspend disbelief to a great degree, that's for sure! I think the more you can do that the more you will enjoy this series.
Bradley annoyed me the entirety of her time in the show. She just uses Norman's crush on her to manipulate him like when she and her friends take him to the bar and she lets her boyfriend see her talking to Norman purely to make the boyfriend jealous. Emma actually cared about him but he only had eyes for Bradley. Bradley was the worst character in the show IMO.
8:51 Bryan as bad a character as Bradley is she can't compare to the sheer horror of Lana. That Mary Sue got on my nerves every scene she was in in Smallville. She should have left the show for good in Season 3 but instead stayed until Season 8. The only reason she was portrayed as a saint who could do no wrong was because the show's original producers had a crush on her actress to the point where they cast Kristin Kreuk as Lana before casting Tom Welling as Clark.
Yeah, she was a thorn in the side of that show for far too long! I still love Smallville though. But it's definitely in spite of her rather than because of her.
The best characters in it are Lex and Lionel IMO. Lex's journey from good person and friend of Clark to villain was great.
Cannot wait to hear your thoughts on the complete series... I think I'm looking forward to that even more than 31 on 31!!! (Shocking, I know!)
I finished it just last night. Soooooo good! Maybe one of the best endings to a series ever!
@@BryanLomax With your keen eye, I am DYING to hear your thoughts..... That entire series was so tragic and so darkly beautiful. One of my favorite shows ever. Just perfect.
How'd you get Lance Henriksen to do your intro?
I asked him 😉
4 YEARS LATE SQUAD WHERE YOU AT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
What ARE you talking about. I posted this video 4 years ago. Your the one who's late pal 🤣
@@BryanLomax 😂😂😂😂 I just found this video, and I was looking for reviews of the show and this one is great!
@@deslardesslok I did post a review of the entire series just last week though, so that one was pretty late 🤣🤣🤣
I have seen the hole series. ...fantastic show...but my only point negativ is that cell phones and lap tops did exist at that time...1950/ 1960 ??
The series isn't set in the 60's. It's set in present day.
OMG please write a script for your videos