Sorry about the last hemorrhoid post; that couldn't have been any fun to read or visualize.
What I wanted the last post to be about was how much I'm liking A&E's Bates Motel, the revisionist drama about teenage Norman Bates and his mother Norma.
Why do I like it?
1) I like how it's set in the present day. The film wisely stays away from re-making the story, and instead chooses to plop Norman down in the present day, making his strange, unsettling madness and neurosis something for our generation. He's just a teenage kid, full of insecurity.
2) I like some of the self-aware shots, like that terrifically framed one early one with Norma sitting on the car, telling Norman to open his eyes. He does and behind Norma, who is sitting on the car, we see the motel and, looming above it, the house. And, of course, all those framed pictures of birds.
3) The storylines flesh out the characters of mother and son - and pesky brother Dylan from Norma's first marriage - in intriguing, cheeky ways. The filmmakers play on our imaginations. We start thinking back on the events in Psycho and all the questions that we had but which were never answered. And, maybe, just maybe, in some alternate universe, this was how it all started or could have happened...
4) Freddie Highmore is an astute, eerie choice to play young Norman. He has the tall, gangly, shy, half-smiling, furtive thing down pat.
5) Vera Farmiga rocks as Norma, a terrific characterization: sexy, protective, eager, vulnerable, inappropriate, steely.
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