Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore, Max Thieriot, Olivia Cooke, Nestor Carbonell, Kenny Johnson, Ryan Hirst, Brooke Smith, Isabelle McNally, Austin Nichols, Jillian Fargey, Damon Gupton, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, Rihanna, Carlton Cuse, Raphael Sbarge, Jhn Hainsworth, Antonio Cayonne.
The subversion of art and the human condition is not just an amusing way to pass the time or to create controversy, it is there to expand our scope and vision, to embrace that the expected moment of reveal can be overthrown and replaced by a single moment of surprise and altered narrative.
Glorious subversion is at the heart of the fifth and final season of the epic reimagining and precursor to the Alfred Hitchcock’s1960 film noir classic Psycho. A series which already broke the handcuffs of conformity by showing the mental degradation of the young Norman, Bates Motel went one step further by leading the audience in the expected turn of events in which the film is set, and by-passes the 1980s colour sequels completely, and as the residents of White Pine Bay reel from the shocking exposure of the dark secrets hidden inside the mind of the murderer.
It is to subversion that the fifth series truly delivers its coup de grace for the viewer, the near symbiotic relationship between the mother and the son is captured incredibly by Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore, the stunning photography that allows them to coexist in the same mind is mind blowing, and the fight scenes staged between them are shocking, brutal, but are unquestionably necessary to pinpoint the unfolding madness and insanity tearing at Norman’s psyche.
It is a testament to the quality of the actors featured, or used convincingly as props in Norman’s mind, that the fifth series is the finest of the lot, and one that really asks the audience on how they divide their sympathies, to the murderer, or to the fragile state of the broken human psyche.
There is no sense denying that such a series is not for all to sit down in front of and glean an introspection on the nature of Dissociative Identity Disorder, but like the unforgettable 2003 James Mangold directed film of Identity, the acknowledgement, when you understand how fragile the human mind is, then you can open yourself up to empathy, if not forgiveness.
A television series that is sure to be seen as timeless, Bates Motel is where the secrets come to be exposed.
Ian D. Hall