‘Psycho’ prequel ‘Bates Motel’ to debut in March, producers talk details
Friday A&E confirmed the debut of the highly anticipated “Psycho” prequel called “Bates Motel.”
Executive producers Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Kerry Ehrin (Friday Night Lights) verified the premiere is set for Monday, March 18 at 10 PM.
Bates Motel is a contemporary prequel to Hitchcock’s classic Psycho, chronicling how Norman Bates’ psyche unravels through his teenage years. It tells the dark, twisted backstory of Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and how deeply intricate his relationship with his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), truly is. Max Thieriot, Olivia Cooke, Nicola Peltz, Nestor Carbonell and Mike Vogel co-star.
The TV series is not a clear homage to the Hitchcock classic.
“We don’t really view any of that as canon,” Cuse said.
He called a desire to avoid “homage” a reason why the story has a contemporary setting, rather than being set in the ’60s. He added that the story of how young Bates becomes a murderous adult “will not be what you expect it to be.” (He did confirm that the story would be serialized but “have a beginning, middle and end” and will not focus on a single individual mystery or story point.)
Ehrin says the show explores an “obviously Oedipal, dark landscape” but the series depicts violence against women as something that is “horrible and it shouldn’t happen.”
She said that the story is trying to “explain” violence rather than promote it.