Director: Various
Running Time: 440 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: February 3rd 2014
As with Hannibal, the moment Bates Motel was announced, you could feel critics getting ready to seethe and denounce the series as a travesty, as well as preparing to set up an underground webcam so we could all watch Hitchcock spinning in his grave. However with both shows they ended up eating their words.
Bates Motel is a prequel to Psycho, but it smartly ensures it can’t be too directly compared to the 1960 classic as it’s set in the modern world, although a slightly heightened world where everyone looks like they could have just fallen out of the 1950s. It also makes sure it pays homage to its source in both its setting (the motel and house are an exact replica of the original) and central characters, while doing enough to strike out on its own so you’re not just wishing years would pass and Marion Crane would to turn up at Norman’s motel. [Read more…]
With all our previous Advent Calendars guy, there’s been a reason to include them, but Mike Vogel is just here because he’s had a good year and he’s very pretty to look at. For a long time Vogel’s been on the edge of breaking into the big time, but he’s never quite made it to the a-list.