Bates Motel (TV Series 2013–2017) Poster

(2013–2017)

Parents Guide

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Sex & Nudity

  • A psychologist suggests that the main character has sexual feelings for his mother.
  • Season 1 has a dark theme regarding an illegal sex trade.
  • References to incest throughout.
  • Some characters in the third season are sex workers.
  • Sexual violence occurs in Season 1 and Season 4. These scenes are referenced throughout the series.
  • Norman starts to masturbate as he secretly watches a couple having sex, but is interrupted. Brief and no nudity.
  • A woman is shown in the shower and her top breast can be seen. Partial Nudity.
  • Norma goes to a club and peeks through a window to see an orgy taking place, very brief and non graphic.

Violence & Gore

  • Violence throughout entire series. Characters are often murdered by stab wounds.
  • A woman is strangled to death.
  • At the start of the episode a car skids off the road. People open the door and we see a very burnt and bloody body for about 5 seconds. A teenage boy and his adult brother get into a fight. The teenager tries to hit him in the head with a hammer but misses and is punched multiple times. He is thrown to the ground and we see him with a bloody nose. It is revealed later he also gained a black eye from this incident. We later see a burning human body dangling from a pole. We can see its skin being burnt off in detail and from a distance.
  • We see a bloody severed hand in a bucket. There is a small puddle of blood. We can see the cracked bone and flesh hanging from the hand.
  • We see the blood stained window on the back of a car where a man got shot from the previous episode. Later we see a man set the car on fire and it explodes. There is also a large gun fight in this episode with many disturbing and bloody injuries.

Profanity

  • "Bitch, "dick, and "shit."
  • 2 F-Words, one partially said in season 3, episode 1, one fully said in season 5, episode 10

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

  • People smoke cigarettes casually throughout. Teens smoke marijuana. Marijauna plants are shown frequently and marijuana trade is a big part of the earlier season
  • The earlier seasons of the show have a lot to do with marijuana trade. Large pot fields are shown and people are shown cutting up and processing the marijauna. Large buckets, bags and boxes of marijuana are seen and teens and adults are shown rolling up and smoking joints. A man even smokes a bong
  • Dylan smokes cigarettes
  • Charecters talk about marijauna trade like taking about distributors and cutters etc
  • A party shows underage drinking and a drug deal (marijuana) is shown briefly. Smokes clouds from marijuana are shown but all smoking is either in the backround or out of shot
  • At a party we seen teens drinking and dancing. We see a close up of the teens rolling marijuana and smoking it. People sold into sex trafficking are drugged multiple times.
  • Marijuana is discussed and shown throughout.
  • Some smoking. A teen takes a sip of alcohol and coughs as he can't handle it.
  • A character is seen smoking from a distance although it is not said or shown if it is a cigarette or marijuana. We also see some characters standing at a marijuana farm although nothing suggestive or mentioned. In later scenes, marijuana is discussed.
  • Four characters smoke marijuana in one scene and Norma argues about how they can't smoke it at the motel. We also see these people plus a couple of others in marijuana shed with all the plants being cut down and taken. The following scene shows another character smoking weed. He mentions that he has a marijuana cupcake. In yet another scene we see a fair few people smoking marijuana and drinking. Emma eats a cupcake given to her by the hippies. It has marijuana through it and she is later seen high. She talks a lot and says she isn't feeling fun yet although then the scene stops.

Frightening & Intense Scenes

  • The overall tone of the series is rather disturbing and very violent, some scenes can be very emotional as well

Spoilers

The Parents Guide items below may give away important plot points.

Sex & Nudity

  • Incest is discussed throughout the series. A character discovers that his parents are siblings.
  • An angered man breaks through the kitchen door and handcuffs the screaming Norma to the kitchen table. As she is bent over, he pulls out a razor and slices down the back part of her dress and begins to rape her.

Violence & Gore

  • A main character is killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. Their main murder is a prominent theme in the final season.
  • A man begins to rape a woman, but her teenage son hits him over the head with an iron, when he (the rapist) regains consciousness about a minute later, the woman stabs him several times until he dies (very bloody).
  • Quite suddenly a man gets shot in the neck with a large splatter of blood. It is fast and unexpected. Blood splatters onto the broken glass in the back of the car he is in as Norman's brother drives him to the hospital while he is holding the blood in. Very bloody but not dragged on. Dylan later runs over the man who shot him. We briefly see the body going under the tires although it is never said in the episode if he dies or not
  • We see the bloody body of a cop with his eye missing This is mentioned in conversations multiple times. At the end of the episode Norman's dog gets run over by a car. We see briefly blood come from the dog as the tire runs over it although none after that.
  • We see some images of dead animals very briefly. Two characters fight at a bar. We see them punching and smashing bottles on each other for about a minute. We see both their noses and mouths with blood on them. at the end of the episode we Norma walks into her room and sees a decaying body of Shelby with stitches up and down his body, an empty eye and the other eye falling out. No blood seen, though.
  • We see a woman with some small cuts on her face although not too serious. Norman gets punched across the face and falls to the floor. We see some blood on his nose. Abernathy is shot multiple times. We don't see any blood, but we see his body fall into the water. In the final scene we see a trail of blood which leads to the body of Norman's teacher. She has her throat slit with lots of blood spilling from it.

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

  • Near the end of the episode, a teenager boy and a teenage girl come across a large marijuana field in search of the grave depicted in a notebook. It is also implied that many people in town work for the marijuana fields .

Frightening & Intense Scenes

  • Season 5 is quite disturbing. A human corpse is often showed and treated if she was alive.
  • A character has dissociative identity disorder. His 'other' identity is violent and often murders other characters.

See also

Taglines | Plot Summary | Synopsis | Plot Keywords


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