One of the up sides to cable programming is that we don't always have to wait until the season is nearly wrapped up to find out of the show will be back for another season. Such is the case for Bates Motel. A&E's creepy new drama series has only aired three episodes so far, with the fourth ("Trust Me") set to play tonight, and A&E has already announced word that they've given the order for a second season of the series.
Created by Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin, Bates Motel is set in the modern day but is set up as a prequel to Psycho, focusing in the relationship of Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga) when Norman was just in high school. The series has been doing pretty well for A&E, bringing in a little over 3 million for its premiere airing, and retaining most of that audience, with the last two episodes earning 2.84 million and 2.82 million viewers. With those numbers, added to the series premiering as the most-watched scripted drama in network history with the key demos, it's not a huge surprise that A&E's looking to move forward with the series.
The network has given a Bates Motel a 10-episode order for Season 2, to match the ten episodes in the first season of the show, which was first announced in January of 2012 and given a straight to series order the following summer.
The series has been doing a great job of pacing itself, and gives the modern setting a classic feel, tying the old with the new in a way that makes the setting feel almost timeless and almost dated, but still somehow modern. I've been enjoying the first season so far, and now it looks like we'll have a second season to look forward to after this one wraps up.
Bates Motel airs Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET on A&E. You can watch the promo for tonight's "Trust Me" here, and if you're new to the show and want to catch up, Amazon has the episodes available for $1.99 a piece or you can watch them for free on A&E's website.
