I switch on my flickering neon Bates Motel sign and have a seat to watch the highly anticipated television prequel to Hitchcock's Psycho , Bates Motel on A&E . A grown-up Freddie Highmore ( Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Finding Neverland ) portrays demure and awkward 17-year old Norman Bates who lives with his mother Norma Bates, played by the perfectly cast Vera Farmiga ( Up in the Air , The Departed ). After losing his father, Norma takes a reluctant, yet obeying Norman to a small Oregon town to start a new life. They purchase the Seafairer Motel which is located just on the corner of Murder and Batty Street. Thus, a family business has begun. Bates Motel is quiet and composed (although not by the legendary Bernard Hermann). It is tidy and fully absorbing. Nestor Carbonell as Sheriff Alex Romero is either a direct descendant of Anthony Perkins, or cast because of his uncanny resemblance to the original Norman Bat...