We’re living in a world where streaming online and binge-watching your favorite TV shows have become central elements of college life. There’s no better way to beat the stress of the new semester than with a new series on Netflix! This year, television network A&E released the fourth season of the popular series “Bates Motel” on Netflix for your viewing pleasure.
For lovers of all things passionate, dark and macabre, “Bates Motel” hits the mark deliciously, emulating the themes we’ve enjoyed in award-winning series such as AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and FX’s “American Horror Story.” With classic tropes ranging everywhere from budding love, high school angst and the less than perfect family life, viewers can’t help but divulge their senses and allow themselves to become engulfed by all the action that unfolds within the show’s setting of watery White Pine Bay, Oregon.
The well-received modern prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film “Psycho” centers around the life of the strange Bates family. Norma Louise Bates (Vera Farmiga) is a mother struggling to conceal the deadly consequences of her son Norman’s (Freddie Highmore) unexplainable black-outs. As murder after murder unfolds, Norma must find a way to keep the deaths of town folk under wraps in order to uphold the life of love and happiness for her beloved son she has fought vehemently to maintain.
It’s not until he is checked into the Pineview Institute, a mental health facility, in Season 3 that the true impact of Norman’s unknown condition begins to consume his personality and cause him to retaliate against his doctors and family in an incredibly dangerous display of manipulation. Norma allows herself to be surrounded by the haven she finds within the arms of her new husband, Sherriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell) – a relationship dedicated viewers of the series have been anticipating since the pair’s introduction in Season 1. The series unfolds as Norman’s older brother Dylan (Max Thieriot) and close friend Emma (Olivia Cooke) strive to aid Norma in her attempt to keep the grisly murders at bay and save her son.
“Bates Motel” has been a mainstay in my own “continue watching” section of Netflix throughout the years, as it has been for many loyal fans. With the appearance of thousands of fan-based Tumblr blogs and Vine accounts (before the site’s removal), we’re looking at a series that resonates with the inner darkness in all of us. Watch out for the fifth and final season of “Bates Motel,” set to air on A&E on Feb. 20.