Review: Bates Motel ‘Ocean View’ – Welcome To The Doughouse

There is a very distinct line between what’s working and what isn’t in Bates Motel, all of which are on display in ‘Ocean View ‘, an episode where Norman and Norma face a number of truths they struggle to contend with.For every strong scene, there are two are three equally ineffective scenes, where character nuance is forsaken for melodramatic dialogue. This is mostly with the minor characters, thankfully – when Bates Motel sticks to the Bates family, the material continues to be much more consistent.

Some of ‘Ocean View’ is just so damn silly: everything that comes out of Shelby’s mouth, for example. His now-forbidden love with Norma has become a completely unbelievable thing on the show: we’re supposed to believe these two are dedicated lovers after hooking up a couple times? I do like how Norma has to face the fact that he’s had an Asian sex slave in his basement – but unfortunately, Shelby’s such a cardboard character there’s no reason to care about him, except to the extent he drives a wedge between Norman and Norma, or his connections and intimidation drive the two of them to kill him.

That part is at least interesting, despite it coming from the most frustrating of places: watching Shelby steal evidence was one of the stupidest things this show’s done yet. First: no police officer leaves his office unlocked, and no police officer would leave keys to an evidence locker available for anyone to come snatch… especially the fucking sheriff – who is a complete ghost in this episode, even though he just arrested one of the main characters for murder.

Even Dylan’s a bit of a bore in this episode – he watches his Asian friend Ethan (whose only purpose is to provide exposition about the shady operations going on) get shot in the neck, after he gave him $5,000 to get an apartment (because… he was really in need of a friend? At least Dylan chases down the guy who shot him and violently runs him over, in a very Christine-esque chase sequence as a way of payment). Yes, he does offer Norman a way out, but it comes at the price of the cheesiest motorcycle riding scene in the recorded history of man, as they giggle like little school children, riding down the countryside.

Emma also returns in the episode, and gets jealous when she finds out that he hooked up Bradley while they’re hunting down the Asian girl. I liked Emma’s presence, right up until she explained how she found Keith Summers’s boat the Asian girl hid on, which was a complete joke (nothing tweaks me more when people are searching for something than inexplicable ‘intuition’ that so happens to lead directly to the correct clue).

Finding the girl so soon is an interesting move – and bring her back to the hotel to show Norma is even more interesting. But I’m starting to grow wary of Bates Motel’s pattern, where the most interesting things are not what’s actually happening, but what might happen in the next episode. At some point, the set-up and execution of story arcs and character beats have to match each other, and the show’s really struggling to capture that balance.

There are some great elements to the episode: the cinematography is top notch (particularly in the chase sequence, and the low-angle shots while Norma sits in a holding cell), Highmore’s performance, and the scene in the car where Norman tells his mother he’s afraid of her, which sends her flying off the handle, leaving him to walk home from 10 miles away. But there’s so many outlandish, underdeveloped, or just uninteresting moments in ‘Ocean View’, that I’m starting to get a little wary if things are going to improve through the second half of the season.

Grade: C

Other thoughts/observations:

– What mother accuses their son of something, using the terminology “getting laid”?

– Ethan’s not a real estate agent, but you could probably get an apartment for ’22 hundy a month’, by his estimations.’

– Norman’s prideful walk home from Bradley’s was great.