Things I liked about "Bates Motel" Season 3

• Norma's mugging of the camera - extended reaction times/frozen expressions (usually after one of Norman's revelations/confessions).
• Norman's facial expressions are getting creepier (Highmore is metamorphosing into Tony Perkins episode by episode).
• It ALWAYS rains in White Pine Bay - adds to its gothic charm 
• The nutty/evil hippy/psycho (Dylan's dad's neighbour in Episode 2)
• It's much better (and funnier) than Season 2 (e.g. the wifi password at the motel is MOTHER)
• The moody Bernard Herrmann-inspired musical score (particularly effective during Norman's interview with the sheriff in Episode 3).
• Emma in her VW/ganja-mobile to the strains of The Specials' "A Message to you, Rudy".
• Norman in another creepy bathroom scene (towards the end of Episode 3).
• The family dynamics are deeper in this season (e.g. Norman's resentment/jealousy of Dylan in Episode 4).
• The script writers have beefed up Olivia Cooke's character, Emma. She  is sexier and gutsier in Season 3. It's funny that both Cooke and Highmore are English.
• Episode 5 was the strongest ep since early in Season 1. Norman sniffing mom's dress, Norma's rant about White Pine Bay about 2/3 into the episode. More please.
• Norman being mom making French toast for Dylan in Episode 6 (the best eps so far seem to be written by series co-creator, Kerry Ehrin)
• A tender scene with Dylan and Emma: "Sorry I got phlegm on the floor."
• Episode 7: Norman's chat with the psychologist in the basement. Probably not a great idea to conclude the session by strangling the therapist.
• The way Norman (Freddie Highmore) breathes heavier as he gets more unhinged.
• The view from Dylan's shack, across the water to mist-shrouded mountains - reminiscent of New Zealand's "Top of the Lake".
• The season finale was disappointing except for the inspired final few minutes: Bradley's murder, "Mother, what have you done!", the slowly submerging car (a nod to "Psycho" where Norman pushes Marion Crane's car into the swamp).

"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).

50 movies that shaped the baby boomer generation - from "A Summer Place" to "Summer of '42"

I was born in 1956. Baby boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964 according to U.S. Census definition. Most of the films listed are Hollywood produced. During this period, movies reflected changing mores and social change.

This film listing is from 1959 to 1972

My coding is as follows:

B = Big Box Office popularity
G = Ground breaking movies, taboos broken - sex/violence/language on the screen
A = Art house, new trends, political/social comments


1959 "A Summer Place" G
"Some Like It Hot" B, G
"Pillow Talk" B
"Imitation of Life" B
"North By Northwest" B

1960 "Psycho" G
"The Magnificent Seven" B
"The Apartment" G
"Spartacus" B

1961 "West Side Story" G, B
"La Dolce Vita" A, G

1962 "The Manchurian Candidate" G
"Lolita" G
 "To Kill A Mockingbird" G
"Lawrence of Arabia" B

1963"The Great Escape" B
"Tom Jones" G
"Dr No" B
"8 1/2" A

1964 "Dr Strangelove, Or: How I learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb" A
"A Hard Day's Night" G, B
"Goldfinger" B

1965 "For a Few Dollars More" G
1966 "A Man and a Woman" A

1967 "Bonnie and Clyde" G, A
"The Graduate" G, B
"Blow Up" G, A
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" G
"In the Heat of the Night" G

1968 "Bullitt" G
"Rosemary's Baby" G
"Planet of the Apes" G
"2001: A Space Odyssey" G, A
"Midnight Cowboy" G
"The Producers" G
"Night of the Living Dead" G

1969 "The Wild Bunch" G
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" B
"Easy Rider" G
"Alice's Restaurant" A, G

1970 "Woodstock" G
"M*A*S*H"  G, B
"Five Easy Pieces" A

1971 "Dirty Harry" G
"The French Connection" G, B
"Shaft" G
"A Clockwork Orange" G, A
"The Last Picture Show" G
"Summer of '42"  B

1972 "The Godfather" B, G

Films that scared the shit out of me as a kid

• Darby O'Gill and the Little People  (probably saw it in 1960, made in 1959) the wonderful special effects like the Banshees and the Death Coach were a bit of a worry for a four year old.
• I only saw the trailer of Psycho (1960) when I was four and a half. I refused to go back to the same cinema the following week, regardless of what was playing.
• Journey to the Centre of the Earth (the giant reptiles wedged in the caverns spooked me, the Bernard Herrmann music didn't help.  Scared shitless at the old Rosebud Cinema in 1960.)
• The chase through the woods, Scout wearing the Thanksgiving costume in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
• Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear (1962). My parents took me to the drive-in. Were they mad?
• The Haunting (1963) also at the drive-in. Is there a theme developing here?
• The Innocents (1963)  the scene with the gamekeeper at the window, Peter Wyngarde?
• Zulu (1964) - nasty spearing scene caused me to dash off to the toilet and vomit on the shiny floor - a disgruntled cleaner gave me a mop - mother and usherette were royally pissed when they saw me white faced and mop in hand. I may have had the mumps. Memory hazy.
• The baboon scene in Sands of the Kalahari (1965).    
• A Man Called Horse (1970) I could not watch the complete Indian 'Vow to the Sun' ritual sequence when Richard Harris (Morgan) is suspended by his chest skin.  Grossed out rather than scared.     

 LATER....Two Dan Curtis TV movies:  The Norliss Tapes (1973) and Karen Black's African fetish doll in Trilogy of Terror (1975), see top right.


Image Copyright 1975 Dan Curtis Productions/ABC.