# Bates Motel (2013)

> A contemporary prequel following Norma and Norman Bates as they run a coastal Oregon motel while a dark destiny slowly takes shape.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/42376

## Facts

- Seasons: 5
- Episodes: 50
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, crime, mystery
- Created by: Carlton Cuse, Kerry Ehrin, Anthony Cipriano
- Network: A&E
- Cast: Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore, Max Thieriot, Olivia Cooke, Nestor Carbonell, Nicola Peltz, Kenny Johnson, Tracy Spiridakos
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2188671/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: brooding, dread-filled, unsettling, melancholic

## What critics say

Critics broadly praise the lead performances and dark family drama, with the series growing stronger in later seasons as the Norman and Norma story deepens.

## Synopsis

Bates Motel (2013-2017) is a United States prequel drama series created by Carlton Cuse, Kerry Ehrin and Anthony Cipriano for A&E. Vera Farmiga plays Norma Bates and Freddie Highmore plays her son Norman, who relocate to a coastal Oregon town after the death of Norma's husband and buy a struggling motel to start over. Max Thieriot, Olivia Cooke and Nestor Carbonell round out the principal cast as figures tangled in the town's secrets and crimes. The engine of the series is a mother and son bound by fierce devotion and a fracturing household, while the motel's guests, local police and rival families generate a steady stream of mysteries and conflicts. Across five seasons of ten episodes each, it moves as one serialized story with a case-of-the-week undercurrent. Set in a modern small town, it is a contemporary reimagining of the world of Hitchcock's Psycho, with a brooding, unsettling atmosphere, dread-filled tension, and dark family drama. Fans of Twin Peaks, Hannibal and the original Psycho will find resonance in its portrait of a troubled family slowly drawn toward a monstrous fate.

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