"Bates Motel" Season 4 Review

Things are finally getting interesting in White Pine Bay. After a dull, hackneyed second season and a promising third, Season 4 could be a corker. Episode 1 had a terrific first scene with the scuttling of the fishing boat and a haunting aerial shot. The final scene with Norman/Mother (in mom's dressing gown) graciously serving Emma's mother coffee before strangling her knocked my socks off.

Lots to like in Episode 2:

• The fact that Norman is convinced Norma is a killer. Terrific acting between the two leads. Highmore is pulling out all the stops in this season. (Child star done good)
• The power/love play between mother and son. 
• The contrast between nightmarishly lit county hospital and plush, shiny Portland private hospital. 
• The use of Hope and Crosby's "Road to Bali" in a key scene. 
• Seeing Norman as the charming motel manager checking guests in at reception. Anthony Perkins would approve.
• Norman's use of the lamp in the cellar (precursor to the swinging lamp in key scene in "Psycho").

Episode 3 was fairly pedestrian. Highlight was the return of Dylan's creepy old hippy neighbour.
Episode 4 saw Norma smile a lot (for a change, rather than looking strained). Julian (Pineview's Andy Hardy meets Robert Morse) leads Norman to don a fetching black ostrich number.
Episode 5 notable only for the machinations of psycho-hippy "Chick" and a couple of intense sessions between Norman/Norma and the affable shrink. The rest was pure soap. Scars and Dylan's torso - yawn.
Episode 6: two things of note - Chick's blindfolded doll's head walking stick and a disturbing rape scene flashback to Norman's past.
Freddie Highmore has an impressive scene with Dr Edwards about two-thirds into Episode 7. Nestor Carbonell (Sheriff) directs this episode with flair, particularly the final scene.
Freddie Highmore wrote Episode 8. Lots of tension in the second half, starting with the Christmas tree market scene. The highlight was Norman boring into the motel wall to make his spyhole (to feature in the 1960 movie).
The creators wrote Episode 9 and it shows. Not a dud scene. The earring confrontation ( about a third of the way in) with Dylan and Norma was their strongest piece since the show started. The concluding "Mr Sandman" scene was chilling. The writers are playing with the audience here....so how does Mrs Bates die in the original movie?
Episode 10 was a tremendous return to form. Certainly the funniest in the series. The funeral home scenes with nonplussed mortician (Harvey Fierstein lookalike), goth daughter on the organ and Norman and stepdad slugging it out in the empty church. Then we get a dose of "Weekend at Bernie's", Norman wrestling with Norma out of the grave and out of the Mercedes. The glued eyelids was disturbing, though. In all, a most satisfying season final.

Observations:

• How long before I tire of the Emma/Dylan subplot? Please God, let's not have another S2 teeny soap opera.
• Those disturbing paintings in Dr Edwards' rooms are not helping the patients.

"Ray Donovan" Season 2 Better than ever? F**k yeah.

You think you had a bad day?
Spare a thought for our hero (anti-hero):
In the first episode: a buried-alive nightmare, angry early morning sex with the wife, followed by marriage guidance/psychologist meeting, his son is suspended from school, hounded by the Feds/daughter arrested for possession, tricky shooting cover-up for a client followed by a quick night drive to Mexico for his boozed, sociopath daddy. At least he had a clean shirt for the Parent-Teacher meeting (which he changed out of before brandishing his baseball bat in Baja).
Cracking season opening. Bonus: Hank Azaria as FBI officer and scrabble/wife swapping fiend. Bit weird seeing Agador Spartacus from "The Birdcage" in this part.
Tequila-soaked Mickey swimming with talking Flipper (Rosanna Arquette) was the cherry on the Showtime cake.
By Episode 3 you realise that family is the core of this show, not sex and violence.  The resemblance between mother and daughter is uncanny. Elliott Gould is a trick in this show, stealing ever scene that he is in.
Nice to see Ann-Margret as the former Hollywood goddess.
Episode 7: possibly the worst 14th birthday party ever, saved by Ray and birthday boy dancing to "Walk this way".
Episode 8 guest appearances by /60's/70's star Richard Benjamin (weird hearing him say "couldn't find a clit in a forest of clits) and Paul Michael Glasser (Starky) as the sleazy producer. Knockout final scenes: bedroom fireworks at Chez Donovan and brutal street slaying. No wonder David Hollander (script writer) has been 'promoted' in Season 3, booting out producer, Ann Biderman.
Episode 12 season finale: series creator, Ann Biderman, wrote this one, lots of loose ends tied up, a classy swansong.

"Penny Dreadful" Season 1, Episode 8, "Grand Guignol", Season 2, Episode 1, "Fresh Hell"

"Do you really want to be normal?" the man of God asks Vanessa in the final scene. She then thinks long and hard about it. Roll credits.
This series has promised a lot in its 8 episodes and it delivered in the series final.

• We had the welcome return of "Madame Kali" (Helen McCrory). Expect more of her scene-stealing in Season 2. 
• A touching farewell from theatre producer, Vincent: "Remember us better than we are," he tells The Creature, Caliban
• The show has never been afraid of filming in half dark, e.g. the vampire-hunting scene in the Grand Guignol. 
• Frankenstein's throwaway line after he has smothered Billie Piper (future mate for The Creature): "Don't worry, I'll take care of the body."
• In the riverside pub, the long awaited wolfman transformation scene.

Let's hope in the second series we get some full moon action, a look at Dorian's hidden portrait and loads more of Eva Green, dishevelled hair and smoky voice, acting either horny or possessed (or both).

Update:
Season 2, Episode 1 has a nifty solution to The Creature's employment worries - working in a cut price waxworks featuring grisly tableaux of recent murders. Writer John Logan has added a coven of witches into this already meaty stew. There's a thrilling attack on a Hansom cab and a creepy scene with Frankenstein fondling Billie Piper's breasts (Caliban's soon to be reanimated mate).

"Bates Motel" Season 2, Episode 10, Episode 3, A&E, spoilers Episode 4, Episode 5

I swore I wasn't going to watch this soapy stuff anymore... but the Faye Dunaway-style "Chinatown" revelation was a ripper (he's your uncle/father, Norman).
No "South Pacific" for Norma. Shame, I would have loved to hear Norma sing, "I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair" (in the style of Janet Leigh, of course).
Norman got hit on by a gay dude and Norma got hit on by a wealthy divorcee. Oxy-girl (Olivia Cooke, surprisingly from Manchester, England, great US accent, girl) got hit on also, before chucking her cookies.
Dylan (part-time gravedigger) got royally screwed in Caleb's Costa Rica scam (I'm assuming).
I like Norman new feisty girlfriend, though. Norman might be a psycho, but he's a straight psycho (with a Mother Complex).
Episode 4 was deadly dull, then redeemed itself in the final minutes with Norman finally 'becoming' his mother in front of  incestuous Uncle Caleb, brandishing a knife a la Tony Perkins. Will this  how get its mojo back?
Episode 5 - the season stalls again - White Pine Bay is becoming more like a teenage Banshee. The drug subplot is a yawn. This show is supposed to be creepy, isn't it? Too much teen bonking, not enough weird stuff.
Episode 10 - best bit was the final look at demented Norman. This second season has been a dud. Too much padding, not enough gothic/creepy business. Season 3, big ask....