The third season of '' Bates Motel'' consisted of 10 episodes and broadcast on A&E from March 9-May 11, 2015, airing on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The series itself is described as a "contemporary prequel" to the 1960 film '' Psycho'', following the life of

Norman Bates Norman Bates is a fictional character created by American author Robert Bloch as the main antagonist in his 1959 thriller novel '' Psycho''. He has an alter, Mother, who takes from the form of his abusive mother, and later victim, Norma, wh ...

and his mother

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Astronomy *Norma (constellation) * 555 Norma, a minor asteroid *Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy Geography *Norma, Lazi ...

prior to the events portrayed in the

Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

film. The series takes place in the fictional town of White Pine Bay,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. The season received positive reviews from television critics, and the premiere episode drew in a total of 2.14 million viewers. For their performances in this season,

Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Annabelle Co ...

and

Freddie Highmore Alfred Thomas Highmore (born 14 February 1992) is an English actor. He is known for his starring roles beginning as a child, in the films '' Finding Neverland'' (2004), ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2005), ''August Rush'' (2007), and '' ...

were nominated for

Critics' Choice Television Award The Critics' Choice Television Awards are accolades that are presented annually by the Critics Choice Association (CCA). They were established in 2011, and the first ceremony was held on June 20, 2011, and streamed live on VH1.com. The fourt ...

s for

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...

and Best Actor in a Drama Series, respectively. Season 3 ranked fourth on Nielsen's year-end list of top Live + 7 day programs, gaining an average of 201.8% viewers on DVR. The season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 13, 2015.

Cast and characters

Main

as Norma Louise Bates *

Max Thieriot Maximillion Drake Thieriot (; born October 14, 1988) is an American actor and director. He made his acting debut in the 2004 adventure comedy film ''Catch That Kid''. Thieriot has since appeared in the action comedy '' The Pacifier'' (2005), the ...

as Dylan Massett *

Olivia Cooke Olivia Kate Cooke (born 27 December 1993) is an English actress. In television, she has starred as Emma Decody in the thriller '' Bates Motel'' (2013–2017), Becky Sharp in the period drama '' Vanity Fair'' (2018), and Alicent Hightower in ...

as Emma Decody *

Kenny Johnson Kenneth Allen Johnson (born July 13, 1963) is an American actor, producer, and model. He is known for his roles as Detective Curtis Lemansky in ''The Shield'', Butch "Burner" Barnes in '' Pensacola: Wings of Gold'', Detective Ham Dewey in '' Sa ...

as Caleb Calhoun *

Nestor Carbonell Nestor may refer to: * Nestor (mythology), King of Pylos in Greek mythology Arts and entertainment * "Nestor" (''Ulysses'' episode) an episode in James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' * Nestor Studios, first-ever motion picture studio in Hollywood, ...

as Sheriff Alex Romero

Recurring

Kevin Rahm Kevin Rahm (born January 7, 1971) is an American actor known for his television roles as Kyle McCarty on '' Judging Amy'', Lee McDermott on '' Desperate Housewives'', and Ted Chaough on ''Mad Men''. Early life and education Rahm attended and ...

as Bob Paris * Keenan Tracey as Gunner *

Ryan Hurst Ryan Douglas Hurst (born June 19, 1976) is an American actor, known for his roles as Gerry Bertier in ''Remember the Titans'' (2000), Sgt. Ernie Savage in ''We Were Soldiers'' (2002), Tom Clarke in '' Taken'' (2002), Opie Winston in the FX dram ...

as Chick Hogan *

Joshua Leonard Joshua Granville Leonard (born June 17, 1975) is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his role in ''The Blair Witch Project'' (1999). He has since starred in films such as '' Madhouse'' (2004), '' The Shaggy Dog'' (2006), '' Higher G ...

as James Finnigan *

Peter Stebbings Peter Stebbings is a Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter best known for portraying Kevin Sharp in the drama series ''Madison (TV series), Madison'', Paul Deeds in the series ''Traders (TV series), Traders'', and for writing an ...

as Bob's Employee * Adetomiwa Edun as Marcus Young *

Andrew Howard Andrew Howard (born June 12, 1969, in Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh theatre, television and film actor. Training Howard trained at Cygnet Training Theatre in Exeter in the late 1980s, touring in productions of ''A Christmas Carol'', ''Twelfth Night ...

as Will Decody *

Nicola Peltz Nicola Anne Peltz Beckham (born January 9, 1995) is an American actress. Primarily known for her roles in dramatic film and television, she has performed in some blockbuster adaptations and has since been nominated for a Young Hollywood Award. Sh ...

as Bradley Martin *

Tracy Spiridakos Tracy Spiridakos ( gr, Τρέισι Σπυριδάκος) is a Canadian actress. She starred as Becky Richards on the Teletoon children's comedy series ''Majority Rules!'' from 2009–2010. She then starred as Charlotte "Charlie" Matheson on th ...

as Annika Johnson *

Anika Noni Rose Anika Noni Rose (born September 6, 1972) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for voicing Tiana, Disney's first African-American princess, as seen in ''The Princess and the Frog'' (2009). She was named a Disney Legend in 2011. S ...

as Liz Babbitt

Guest

Wilson Bethel Wilson may refer to: People *Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Rod ...

as Taylor *

Emiliano Díez Emiliano Díez (born August 26, 1953) is a Cuban-American actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. Vic Palmero, George's father-in-law, in the sitcom ''George Lopez'', as well as his role as Manny Beltrán in the sitcom '' Los Beltrán''. Ea ...

as Alex's Dad *

Tom McBeath Tom McBeath is a Canadian actor. He is the winner of three Jessie Awards best known for playing Col. Harold Maybourne on ''Stargate SG-1''. In 2017, he started playing Smithers on '' Riverdale''. Biography He appeared in an episode of ''Street ...

as Stanley *

Keegan Connor Tracy Keegan Connor Tracy (born December 3, 1971) is a Canadian actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Audrey Malone in the Showtime comedy-drama series '' Beggars and Choosers'' (1999–2000), the Blue Fairy in the ABC fantasy drama ...

as Miss Blair Watson

Production

Casting

returned to the series as Bradley Martin following an 8-episode absence in season 2.

was upgraded to the main cast after recurring as Caleb Calhoun, Norma's brother, in the second season.

was cast in the recurring role of Chick Hogan, described as a character that will butt heads with Caleb throughout the season.

was then confirmed to star in the recurring role of Annika Johnson, a guest at the motel.

joined the cast as Bob Paris, one of Romero's childhood friends whom he now has a strained relationship with.

was cast in the recurring role of James Finnigan, a community college psychology professor who forms a connection with Norma.

Filming

The series was filmed on location in

Aldergrove, British Columbia Aldergrove is a community in the Township of Langley within British Columbia, Canada, approximately east of Vancouver. The community is urban in nature and, although not incorporated as a town, is often referred to as one. Aldergrove is located a ...

. At the beginning of the first season, a replica of the original Bates Motel set from the film ''Psycho'' was built on 272nd Street.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

for season 3 began on October 20, 2014 in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

and the surrounding areas, and was completed on March 1, 2015. During an interview in June 2015, Farmiga revealed that she was injured while filming the final scene of the season with

and

, resulting in her having to go to the

emergency room An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

The season has received positive reviews from television critics. It received 72 out of 100 from

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, based on 5 television critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported that 11 out of 12 critical responses were positive, averaging a 92% rating. The site's consensus reads, "''Bates Motel'' further blurs lines around TV's creepiest taboo mother/son relationship, uncomfortably darkening its already fascinating tone".

Ratings

Overall, the third season averaged 1.80 million viewers, with a 0.7 ratings share in the 18–49 demographic. * A Cable Live +3 data is used here as Live +7 was not made available.

Awards and nominations

In its third season, ''Bates Motel'' was nominated for 10 awards, winning one.

References

External links

* * {{Bates Motel 2015 American television seasons

Season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...