I have been a fan of "Bates Motel" ever since I watched the first episode of the first season, and it has not ceased to be a fantastic ride from the very beginning towards the final one of the fifty episodes this series consists of. Even though not everything may always have worked perfectly in "Bates Motel"; even though there are some inconsistencies now and then and even though not all plot lines are resolved perfectly throughout the show, the character work is as perfect as you can imagine, and the final season has been the closest "Bates Motel" ever was to perfection. We have a superb cast leading this show; Vera Farmiga may be good in everything she stars in, but she is absolutely perfect as Norma Bates, and Freddie Highmore actually gives the best performance of an antihero since Bryan Cranston as Walter White, at least in my opinion. We always know that we should be hating Highmore's version of Norman Bates, yet we still find ourselves rooting for him; that's how much empathy Highmore manages to evoke for the character of Norman Bates. Olivia Cooke constantly shines with an underrated performance as Emma Decody, while even Max Thieriot, who may be the weakest of the four leading actors, grows into his role as time passes by and manages to convince with his performance in the fifth season.
As a huge fan of the original "Psycho", I am absolutely in love with this series and couldn't enjoy the exploration of Norman Bates' family story more. This show is what I'd call perfection. If you look at "Bates Motel" objectively, then it will be easy to criticize it for many aspect, but what works so fantastically in this show is the way the characters are developed. Perhaps Emma's character arc may be the most fascinating one, but pretty much every character is drawn out in such an interesting way that there is almost nobody you won't find yourself rooting for. "Bates Motel" is in the Top Five of my favorite TV shows, and I couldn't recommend watching it more. With an amazing final season, "Bates Motel" does not disappoint either. In the end, the show did stray away from Hitchcock's original to some extent, which lead to many people complaining, yet had it not done that, most people probably would have started complaining about the series not being original enough. As a result, it's all a matter of the viewer's preparation to accept the changes made by the writers, and for some it probably works, for some it doesn't. Which is okay. For me, it all worked out as good as I could have hoped it to, leading to an emotional thriller ride with an amazing conclusion. Simply brilliant.
As a huge fan of the original "Psycho", I am absolutely in love with this series and couldn't enjoy the exploration of Norman Bates' family story more. This show is what I'd call perfection. If you look at "Bates Motel" objectively, then it will be easy to criticize it for many aspect, but what works so fantastically in this show is the way the characters are developed. Perhaps Emma's character arc may be the most fascinating one, but pretty much every character is drawn out in such an interesting way that there is almost nobody you won't find yourself rooting for. "Bates Motel" is in the Top Five of my favorite TV shows, and I couldn't recommend watching it more. With an amazing final season, "Bates Motel" does not disappoint either. In the end, the show did stray away from Hitchcock's original to some extent, which lead to many people complaining, yet had it not done that, most people probably would have started complaining about the series not being original enough. As a result, it's all a matter of the viewer's preparation to accept the changes made by the writers, and for some it probably works, for some it doesn't. Which is okay. For me, it all worked out as good as I could have hoped it to, leading to an emotional thriller ride with an amazing conclusion. Simply brilliant.