"Bates Motel" Episode 2 "Nice town you picked, Norma" review

"Nice town you picked, Norma" sums up the episode.
A whole can of worms has been opened in ep 2. This town has as many skeletons in its closet as "Twin Peaks". Sorry, that was a crap sentence. The writing in this episode is a LOT better.This is a pretty smart series, so far.
For a start Momma Bates' (Norma.... who knew?) first born appears, Dylan (Max Thieriot). What a charmer, not.  Needless to say the bros don't kick it off. Norman has a new study-buddy (Emma) with cystic fibrosis (terminal, as Norma indelicately enquires on their first meeting). Emma is a great little detective, as well as a William Blake fan. It is hard to run from rifle toting dudes when you have an oxygen bottle strapped to you.
Momma Bates is being seduced by dodgy Deputy Shelby, who hints at the underbelly of his town. Don't f**k with the city fathers. Well for a start, they have some sex slavery ring going on - see sketches of semi-naked Asian girls from last week - Norman found a pad last week in a motel room (No 4?). Two people have been incinerated in a 24 hour period - one in a BMW 7 series, another hanging artistically in the town square. Nice location photography in British Columbia, by the way.
The labyrinthine plot has nods to Psycho.  Check out the Norman's girlfriend's taxidermy store. The whole of the Bates' house and motel is stuck in a 1960 time warp - that decor in the kitchen!  Norman watches a classic black and white movie in his room.
Weird observations:
Is it just me or is Vera Farmiga looking more and more like Felicity Huffman? No relation, the former having Ukrainian parents.
The sheriff resembles Anthony Perkins circa 1960's - that haircut.

Bring on next week, it's gettin' good. Can the scriptwriters maintain this cracking pace? I am wearying of "The Following", it's running out of puff....Ryan better catch some high ranking dudes pretty fast, perhaps in ep 10...but I digress).

60's U.S. Television sitcoms - variations on a theme

U.S. Situation comedies in the late 50's tended to be the W.A.S.P.(White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant) family like Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver (June says to Ward Cleaver in bed, "Dear, I think you were a bit hard on the Beaver last night" .... ooo, er, Nurse! but I digress, it's still a classic joke though, but not mine).

Then some bright spark in the early 60's came up with the idea of the dysfunctional family or the unconventional home situation - 'fish out of water' premise. And all the networks jumped on the bandwagon. Here are the variations on the same theme, in no particular order:

• My Favourite Martian (I think it was a rip off of Gore Vidal's play A Visit to a Small Planet, also a Jerry Lewis movie)
• My Living Doll (I think my first TV crush was Julie Newmar, this over 10 years before Westworld did the robot gimmick)
• The Munsters (not based on a cartoon like next show, Universal had all those 30's horror movies to reference)
• The Addams Family (it is line ball which of the last two shows came first)
• Bewitched (loved Edora, as soon as Tabitha came into it you knew 'jumping the shark' was nigh)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (typical 'fish out of water' premise like: Tarzan in New York, Crocodile Dundee, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, numerous Brendan Fraser movies: Blast from the Past, Encino Man, George of the Jungle - he specialises in looking cute but bemused). Shit, this blog post should have been entitled "How to get off the subject"
• Green Acres (another 'fish out of water' idea like The Beverly Hillbillies but flipped around - urban to rural)
• I Dream of Jeannie (setting it in Cape Canaveral was topical and a winner)
• My Mother, the Car (this was short-lived for good reason, a variation on Mr Ed, the joke was all in the title) 

Then some bright spark in the 70's came up with the 'let's have social commentary' sitcom. So we had: All in the Family (rip-off of UK 'Til Death Do Us Part), The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, The Jeffersons (both Archie Bunker spinoffs).

But that's another story....