A Boy and His Dog

Bates Motel: 'A Boy and His Dog' (2013)

Rating: B-

A&E's "Bates Motel" mini-series is basically going to be re-working PSYCHO IV. If you've seen that film then you know it shows what was going on with Mrs. Bates and Norman before the events in the original Alfred Hitchcock film. While that prequel wasn't perfect, it at least put a nice wrap-around story to the original film.

Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) continues to try and uncover what her new hotel guest is trying to do to her while at the same time trying to handle Norman (Freddie Highmore) who is started to get in trouble at school after word gets out that he and Bradley slept together. While all of this is going on Dylan (Max Thieriot) goes on a road trip to get some drugs for his boss.

The eighth episode isn't quite as good as the previous one but it's still very much worth watching. I think this episode was the most laid back to date and it really does seem like the series has slowed down and I say this as a good thing. I thought some of the weaker episodes simply had too much happening and at too fast of a pace. This episode really doesn't have much going on but it introduces a few new aspects of the story, which might lead to interesting things going forward. This includes Norman's slow breakdown as he begins to crack at school and others start to see it. Another new thing here is the way that Norma gets called out for being too controlling. I think the best thing offered here is the mystery of what the hotel guest is hiding. As you'd expect by now, the performances by the three leads are terrific and I really like some of the comic tones that Farmiga is giving and especially during some of her line deliveries. Highmore also continues to impress as his character slowly becomes more deranged. Again, this episode doesn't feature anything fantastic but it's interesting enough and makes one want to see where it goes next.