Been (re)watching Bates Motel with my roommate at night while we pack for the move (she’s never seen it). We’re on the final season.
The original film is one of my all-time favorites, but I was open to a reimagining of Norman’s story, and I quite enjoyed most of this series. Some of the side plot tangents seemed irrelevant, but they achieved their purpose in establishing the supporting cast & their relationships to the Bates family, so I have no complaints there.
My one major complaint:
The entire show was beautifully cast. Glaring exception being Marion Crane. Rihanna was a terrible choice. She has all the emotional range of a dusty old rock, in this role. Every line was delivered with nearly the same inflection as the last, regardless of content. She didn’t seem present. Her enunciation is atrocious. Compared to the skilled actors she worked with, she sounded like she was mumbling all the time. I haven’t heard of her doing much work outside the music industry, so I grant that she’s probably new at this. That being said, novices who clearly need some formal training (in diction, among other things) shouldn’t be given focal roles where emotional stakes are high. It just dilutes every scene they’re in, and becomes distracting.
Perhaps they selected her as a ratings-grab, which seems unnecessary given the quality of the series, but “celebrity†guest stars do attract viewers. It’s possible they were trying to compete with Lady Gaga’s casting in American Horror Story around the time this aired.
Regardless of reason, her performance made me cringe.
Still an enjoyable series, providing you can ignore that poor casting choice, and don’t mind some deviation from the source material, which should be expected since it’s frequently described as a “reimagining.â€