Horror on television has arguably never been better, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Fans of Norman “I love my mother more than you” Bates will be happy to hear that his adventures in psychosis won’t be coming to an end any time soon, as A&E has announced they’ve renewed Bates Motel not only for Season 4, but they’re giving it a confidence boost by putting in an order for Season 5 as well. So much weirdness is yet to come!
Like the first three seasons, both Season 4 and Season 5 of Bates Motel will be 10 episodes each, so we’ve got at least 20 more episodes of Norman’s dwindling sanity (not to mention Norma’s) to look forward to. This matches up with the original five-season gameplan set up by series developers Carlton Cuse, Kerry Ehrin and Anthony Cipriano. But just because they wanted at least that many seasons doesn’t mean that they can’t figure out a way to stretch the story to go further.
A&E hasn’t announced that Season 5 will be the last season, so it’s perfectly plausible that the show could go on, assuming it still performs to the network’s standards. Here’s how executive vice president and general manager Rob Sharenow put it, according to Deadline.
The vision of our incredible creative team has exposed the steady breakdown of the relationship between Norman and Norma Bates. We are thrilled to bring fans two more seasons to witness the next stages of Norman’s transformation into the most notorious psychopath in cinematic history.
I’m not quite sure how many stages Norman will go through before his mother Norma bites the dust and he takes over the motel in full, but I certainly hope it’s quite a few, as actress Vera Farmiga’s increasingly fragile performances are one of the best parts of the show. Sure, it’s fun to watch Freddie Highmore get homicidally loony, but only when there’s someone slightly saner to balance his behavior against. And I don’t think Max Thieriot’s Dylan is capable of doing it by himself.
Though the ratings for Season3 weren’t amazing, they were apparently strong enough for A&E’s needs. The March premiere brought in over 2.1 million viewers, and at the end of the relatively steady season, 1.7 million tuned in for the finale.
Unfortunately, Bates Motel’s extended run will not be shared by Cuse’s other show, the U.S. remake of The Returned, which was canceled. That hopefully means we’ll get to see Bates paired up with Damien, the small screen Omen sequel from The Walking Dead alum Glen Mazzara that was originally set to air on Lifetime.
Bates Motel will return to A&E for Season 4 in early 2016, with Season 5 coming in the first months of 2017.
