You will find no more enjoyable a read here at CHUD than Josh’s entertaining breakdown of the Psycho series (collected here). That said, my Minnesotan brutha from another mutha’s going to have to add another Franchise Me entry some point in the future now that we’re finally getting a look at Bates Motel, a modernized re-interpretation of the events leading up to the 1960 Hitchcock classic.
Vera Farmiga is a fine actress but, admittedly judging from this brief amount of footage, she deserves better than this. I’ll give the show a try but there’s just too many questionable decisions at play. How can the show be both a prequel to Hitchcock’s film and set in the modern day? Why do we need to know about Norman’s life before Psycho? Isn’t that the sort of curtain jerk that makes our most sinister characters less scary? Where are my keys? Gary, are you reading this? Can you stop by the store and pick me up a 12-pack of Mello Yello Zero?