Bates Motel returns for its second season in 2014 on A&E, available through Comcast Cable!

Bates Motel: “Midnight”

In the previous episode, Jake Abernethy threatened Norma at gunpoint, telling her she was responsible for Shelby’s debt. He gave her until midnight the next day to come up with the funds.

As “Midnight” opens, Norma rushes to Sheriff Romero’s to tell him about Abernethy’s threats. Romero assures her that he’ll “take care of it,” but Norma is unsure of whether or not she can trust him.

Later, Norma drops in unannounced at the psychologist’s office for an impromptu session. She asks him for advice about how to handle stress, but deflects all of the doctor’s specific questions. When asked about her childhood, she says only that her parents were kind and that she was an only child.

At school, Emma complains about not having a date to the Winter Formal, and Norman offers to go with her as a friend. Later in the day, Norman overhears a tense phone conversation between Ms. Watson and a man named Eric. Ms. Watson is clearly upset and Norman attempts to comfort her. She makes him promise to keep the phone call a secret before rushing out of the room.

Dylan arrives back at the motel with a pistol for Norma and takes her to a field for target practice. Norma is clearly nervous, but eventually settles down enough to successfully hit the target. During their conversation, she notes with some eagerness that Dylan calls her “mom.”

Later that evening Bradley arrives at the house looking for Dylan. Dylan hands over her father’s belongings, including the watch she was initially looking for at the office. During their conversation, Norman stands just out of sight, clearly agitated by their apparent flirting.

Norman gets ready for the dance and waits for Emma to arrive. Norma, concerned that this might be the last time she sees Norman, confesses that she has a brother who used to sexually abuse her when she was a teenager. Norma was ashamed and afraid their father would find out; when he came home early one day, Norma panicked an accidentally knocked over an ironing board, burning her leg in the process.

When Emma arrives, she and Norma head off to the dance. Norman spends most of the evening looking wistfully at Bradley, causing Emma to realize that he will never return her feelings. Emma rushes off in tears, leaving Norman alone. Outside, Bradley’s boyfriend attacks Norman for sleeping with Bradley and warns him to leave her alone.

Meanwhile, Norma heads to the pier with a loaded gun to meet Abernethy. She hides when she sees Romero, carrying a duffle bag presumably filled with Shelby’s money. When Abernethy arrives, Romero offers a partnership deal to keep the old operation running. But as Abernethy reaches for the bag, Romero shoots and kills him. He then tosses the money into the water and tells Norma (who is still hiding) to go home.

As Norman walks home in the rain, Ms. Watson pulls up and offers to get him cleaned up at her house first. She tends to Norman’s injuries before going into her room to change. Norman watches her in the mirror and begins to hallucinate that his mother is there with him. The imagined Norma admonishes Ms. Watson for deliberately changing clothes in front of a young boy and ominously tells Norman, “you know what to do.”

Norman runs home through the rain, arriving at the motel at the same time as Norma. He seems to have blacked out and does not remember even being at Ms. Watson’s house, instead claiming he came straight home from the dance. Norma hardly notices Norman’s injuries and is simply elated that the danger posed by Abernethy is finally behind them.

The final scene of the episode shows Ms. Watson dead on the floor of her bedroom. Her throat has been cut and a necklace with the letter “B” hangs around her neck, possibly connecting her to the love letters Bradley found in her father’s desk.

Be sure to come back next season to see if Ms. Watson’s murder investigation turns up any connections to Norman.

The month of May is an excellent time in professional sports, primarily because the NBA and NHL playoffs are unfolding simultaneously. This year’s postseason brackets have featured plenty of fast-paced games and many surprises. Here’s a look back at the most important action.

The San Antonio Spurs dispatched of the Golden State Warriors last week, moving onward to face a Memphis Grizzlies team very confident in their ability to reach the NBA Finals. Unfortunately for fans of the Grizzlies, the Spurs have won the first two games via timely shooting and strong defensive efforts in the final minutes of the games, one of which went to overtime.

In the drastically lopsided Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat are only a few victories away from their third straight visit to the NBA Finals. This is a testament to both the dominance of the Heat and the overall weakness of the conference. There have been very few legitimate challenges that stood in the way of the Heat in this year and the last, unlike the gauntlet of formidable opponents Michael Jordan was forced to dispatch of en route to his half dozen championships in the 90s.

In the wake of the 2013 NFL Draft, a handful of teams are hoping to restock and rebuild their rosters. The NFC West is quickly becoming one of the most respected divisions in the entire league, and each team understands the importance of adding talent every April. The St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions all garnered praise throughout the scouting universe by their work in New York City, and each team is hoping to make a playoff run in 2013.

The sport of NASCAR has experienced some ups and downs in recent weeks due to inclement weather that has caused delays and postponements. No fans enjoy a race that is constantly stopped and restarted due to accidents and a wet track, so the world’s greatest automotive sport has to do more than just “go green” in order to continue to be one of America’s most popular attractions. Jimmy Johnson has recently been a dominant force in a large field of talented racers, but it has become clear that anything can and will happen on any given week.

Summer is here and that means blockbusters at the movies, and 2013 is looking a lot like last year as studios lean heavily on franchises, big action, and lots and lots of sequels.

The first day of summer doesn’t officially come until late June; not so with the summer movie season which kicks off the first weekend in May. This year, May starts off the blockbuster season with a doozey:  Iron Man 3. In its three weeks of release it has broken opening weekend records in several countries and is on track to make $400 million in its theatrical release.  Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and Star Trek into Darkness have followed suit and had reasonable success as the big movies release.  Fast & Furious 2, The Hangover III, Epic, Now You See Me and After Earth should all prove big box office draws for May.

June sees the opening of more family friendly fare (Monsters University, the sequel to 2001’s Monsters Inc.) and also more for the comic fans that are increasingly spending huge sums at the box office: Man of Steel. Despite Superman Return’s mostly successful turn at the box office, it just wasn’t successful enough, and the direction was abandoned in favor of an origin story reboot. The Internship and This is The End fill in the comedy niche for June filmgoers. The latter, a self-aware comedy with an ensemble cast playing themselves, promises to be a postmodern take on the Apocalypse.  It stars James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson and Emma Watson. June is a good month for Watson; she also stars in The Bling Ring, a crime drama based on a true story. Directed, written and produced by Sofia Coppola, it opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

The kids are still out when July rolls around and the movies are there for them: The Smurfs 2, Despicable Me 2, and Turbo are all set to delight the younger filmgoer, while there’s still plenty of science-fiction and comic stories for the slightly older crowd: The Wolverine continues the summer comic tradition while also filling in another piece in the X-Men: First Class story from Marvel Studios.

Mad Men airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC, available through Comcast Cable!

Season 6, Episode 8: “The Crash”

The episode opens with Ken Cosgrove driving a car filled with drunk men who are distracting him, and he crashes after one covers his eyes. It turns out that he was meeting with Chevrolet representatives who didn’t like the firm’s pitches, but gave the creative department three years of calendars for deadlines they’re expected to meet. The two heads of creative, Ted Chaough and Don Draper are exhausted by the past six weeks of Chevy work and don’t see how they can carry on at this pace.

We see Don smoking outside the backdoor of his former mistress’s apartment, eavesdropping on her conversation with her husband; when he walks away, a pile of discarded cigarette butts is revealed. At work, Don is called by Sylvia Rosen (his ex-mistress) who tells him to stop loitering in hallway and shuts down his attempts to unburden his emotional turmoil on her. Don has flashback to his childhood in a brothel after this conversation and takes nap, which lasts a surprising two and a half hours.

Betty Francis has changed hair back to blond and is taking her kids to see Don; Sally says Megan Draper pays her to babysit her brothers, which annoys Betty.

At the office, Jim Cutler reveals that Frank Gleason, the head of his former firm’s former art department, has lost his battle to pancreatic cancer. Ted says he can’t work the Chevy account over the weekend and Peggy Olson says she’s going to the funeral but will be available to work.

Jim Gleason calls in his private doctor to help “fix up” people in the office. When Don takes his turn in the room with the doctor it turns out that he is giving everyone a shot of his “proprietary” mix of B vitamins and a stimulant to give them energy and focus. Don is skeptical but gets the shot anyway. Roger Sterling is next and the doctor takes him, despite his revelation that his has a heart condition. After getting the shot, Don hears normal noises as loud and echoing.

The copywriters are brainstorming for Chevy commercials, but Peggy and Michael Ginsberg didn’t get the shot and aren’t as manic as the others. Don insists that Ken allow him into the meeting on Monday and Ken says that he’s just a toy and starts tapdancing (on his foot that was injured in the accident) while talking about how unpleasant his job is. While walking down the hallway, Don has another flashback to childhood and lands on an idea; when he gets back to the creative meeting room, it’s the next day and he has missed the funeral. There’s a girl in the room named Wendy who seems to be a hippie with a mystic bent; when he walks down the hallway, she’s in his office and it seems like he has had another time lapse. She tries to seduce him and he turns her out, but he calls home and tells Megan that he can’t come home to watch the kids so Megan leaves Sally in charge.

Don knocks on the backdoor of the Rosens’ apartment but is drowned out by a radio playing in the kitchen.

Peggy tends to a small injury on Stan Rizzo’s arm when he tries to seduce her; when she rejects him, he tells her that his cousin was killed in Vietnam and she tries to counsel him to get through his grief without dampening his feelings with sex and drugs.

Sally finds an African-American woman in her apartment who says that she is her grandmother, Ida. When Sally says that’s impossible, she claims that she raised her father and that she’s here for a visit but that she didn’t expect anyone to be home. Ida doesn’t know her name and asks Sally about who else is home and when her parents will return. Sally tries to call the police but Ida interrupts.

Don pitches his idea to Michael and Peggy but it’s not about Chevy–it’s a grand theory about interconnectedness and human history. Michael is inspired but Peggy realizes he hasn’t been working on the Chevy account for the past few days. When she tries to stop Don on his way out, Jim points out Stan and Wendy having sex in his office.

Don returns home to find Megan and the Francis family meeting with the police. After finding out that Ida robbed a number of apartments in the building, Don passes out and finishes his series of flashbacks about the prostitute named Aimee who nursed him through a cold, took his virginity, and was kicked out of the brothel, inciting his stepmother to beat him. The next morning, Don and Sylvia share an elevator but barely speak. At the office, Don calls Sally to tell him that he’s fine and didn’t have a heart attack. She apologizes and admits that she didn’t know enough about her father to gauge the truth behind the burglar’s answers. Don tells her that he’s at fault for leaving the door open.

At the office, Jim reveals that Wendy was Frank’s daughter. When Ted demands to know why the work from the past weekend is all gibberish, Don refuses to work on Chevy anymore and says he’ll just evaluate others’ work from now on.

Catch all of this week’s must-see TV shows on Comcast Cable!

With the majority of regular programs having already wrapped up their shooting schedules for the 2012-13 season, TV viewing choices for the week of May 20-26 are varied, ranging from series finales (Rules of Engagement), season finales (Mike & Molly, Hawaii Five-O, Dancing With the Stars, Criminal Minds, Modern Family) and series premieres (Motive, The Goodwin Games, Save Me).

Having regularly bested American Idol in the ratings, NBC‘s The Voice is riding high, and with Idol just having wrapped up Season 12 last week, the singing-competition-with-coach hit show will have fans of the genre all to itself for the next few weeks. Monday night’s episode will feature the remaining 10 contestants performing live, vying for America’s votes and the chance to survive for another week. The 4 teams consist of: Team Adam (Amber Carrington, Judith Hill, Sarah Simmons), Team Blake (Danielle Bradbery, the Swon Brothers, Holly Tucker), Team Shakira (Sasha Allen, Kris Thomas) and Team Usher (Michelle Chamuel, Josiah Hawley).

Adam Levine’s team, at least on the surface, appears to be exceptionally strong, with former Michael Jackson back-up singer Judith Hill drawing kudos from all quarters nearly every week. Blake Shelton stocked his team with all-country artists, and all three are strong contenders, especially Bradbery and Tucker. Shakira’s team features two versatile R&B-flavored artists in Allen and Thomas, while Usher’s remaining team members represent the “quirkiest” of this season’s contenders in Chamuel and Hawley. The Voice airs on Monday and Tuesdays from 8-10 PM on the NBC Network.

Fans of the hit CBS Crime Drama, The Mentalist get a rare Saturday night treat this weekend when the episode “Cherry Picked” re-airs at 8 PM. The episode, the sixth overall in Season Five, originally aired on November 4, 2012.

Patrick Jane is desperately trying to locate Lorelei Martin’s whereabouts following her escape, questioning prison transport personnel for clues involving his primary link to Red John. His efforts are interrupted by a call from his boss, CBI agent Teresa Lisbon, who needs his assistance investigating a recent murder of a gated community security guard which subsequently leads to a kidnapping case which may or may not be a botched mistaken identity affair.

“Cherry Picked” contains all of the trademarks utilized by Jane as he methodically works his way through the evidence presented to him, usually (but not always) managing to stay a step ahead of his colleagues.

The Mentalist normally airs on CBS on Sunday nights from 10-11 PM. This “bonus” episode is certain to satisfy the many fans of the program who no doubt are eagerly awaiting Season Six of the off-beat drama.

In 2009, J. J. Abrams relaunched the Star Trek film series with a cheerful movie that heavily honored the original series while reinventing it at the same time. While it was action-packed and marked with some tragedy, that movie was largely light-hearted as the members of the famous crew got to know each other and became comfortable with one another.

For its sequel, Into Darkness, Abrams drew on the Khan mythos central to the iconic second movie to create a much more somber film experience that still includes plenty of fun moments of camaraderie among Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest of the Enterprise crew.

As before, the movie stars Chris Pine as hot-blooded captain James Kirk, Zachary Quinto as rational first officer Spock and Karl Urban as acerbic ship’s doctor Bones. They and others must square off against the menacing super-villain Khan, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. New shades of character interactions from the first reboot, particularly the romantic relationship between Spock and Uhura (Zoe Saldana), come into play as the crew races against time to defeat this formidable foe.

As in the first movie, the characterizations are excellent, as are the special effects. On the big screen, it truly feels like a journey into outer space, and even though these aren’t the actors that so many Trekkies grew up with, they embody the characters beautifully, so it feels like a voyage with friends. There is a certain level of convoluted structuring in place due to the alternate universe scaffolding Abrams built in the first movie, and that can get confusing for viewers who think about it too much. However, for the most part, the movie is reasonably easy to follow.

What may be a bigger disappointment to some fans is that the film truly does fit the title and thus has a much darker feel to it than its predecessor. Those looking for a frothy summer romp may be a bit disturbed at some of the unpleasantness that develops, while more cerebral viewers may consider it a step up into more serious territory. Either way, it seems the new Star Trek is here to stay.

Tune-in to the 2013 Billboard Music Awards this Sunday at 8pm ET on ABC, available through Comcast Cable!

This Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards will feature plenty of music’s top stars, including Prince, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and many others, making it an entertaining and exciting awards show you won’t want to miss.

The very funny Tracy Morgan, of SNL and 30 Rock fame, is hosting and he is sure to have the audience howling in laughter. The show’s many performers include Prince, who’ll receive the Billboard’s Icon Award, Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Bruno Mars, Miguel, Justin Bieber, Pitbull, Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez, The Band Perry, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Chris Brown, Ed Sheeran, Akon, Ne-Yo, David Guetta and Icona Pop.

There are numerous awards including the Top Touring Artist award, which Madonna has earned through the success of her MDNA tour. Also, there is the Milestone Award, which is fan-driven. One lucky voter will present the award with Cee Lo Green. The three contenders for this special award are Bieber, Swift, and Mars. This will be exciting to witness. Each of the nominees is very popular, but Taylor Swift seems like a good bet because of her positive interactions with fans. However, it’s anyone’s guess.

The finalists for Top Artist are Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, One Direction, Rihanna and Taylor Swift. One Direction seems like a safe bet because they’ve had such a big year.

The Top Hot 100 Song finalists are Fun for “Some Nights,” Gotye featuring Kimbra for “Somebody That I Used To Know,” Carly Rae Jepsen for “Call Me Maybe,” and Maroon 5 for “One More Night” and “Payphone” featuring Wiz Khalifa. Considering Maroon 5 are nominated twice, they have the best odds.

For Top Billboard 200 Album, the nominees are Adele for “21,” Mumford & Sons for “Babel,” One Direction for “Take Me Home” and “Up All Night” and Taylor Swift for “Red.” One Direction is nominated for two albums, so the odds are in their favor.

The Top Duo/Group finalists are Coldplay, Fun, Maroon 5, Mumford & Sons, and One Direction. Mumford & Sons or Coldplay probably have this one because they’ve each had strong years.

The nominees for Top New Artist are Gotye, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Lumineers, One Direction and PSY. One Direction seems like a clear cut winner in this category because of their popularity and productivity this year.

The season 12 winner of American Idol will be revealed tonight at 8 PM on FOX, available through Comcast Cable!

Ever since the season premiere in January, faithful viewers of American Idol have been on the lookout for the country’s next mega artist. The search came down to six performances last night, three apiece from the final two contestants of Season Twelve, Kree Harrison of Texas and Candice Glover of South Carolina. This is the first two girl finale since Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo battled for the title in Season Three. Both contestants gave it their all in three rounds of performances to over 7,000 in person fans at the Nokia Theatre at LA Live and millions more watching on FOX.

The first strategic move of the night was made before the first note was sung. Having become a tradition of the American Idol finale, after the Final Two are announced, they gather around host Ryan Seacrest for the toss of a special commemorative coin with the face of one of the final contestants on either side. Ryan tosses the coin, and whichever contestant’s face it lands on gets to choose if they will perform first or second on finale night. Kree Harrison won the toss and chose to go first, a historical death slot. In seven of Idol‘s eleven previous seasons, the eventual winner has performed second. The final performance of the night is historically the best, stays with the viewers’ memories, and thus often seals the winner, so it is interesting that Kree chose to perform first.

The theme of Round One was songs chosen for the contestants by the creator of American Idol, Simon Fuller. He chose for Kree Harrison Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” and for Candice Glover Adele’s “Chasing Pavements.” Kree’s performance stirred emotion while Candice’s brought down the house. The latter result is typically desirable for the Idol finale, and outgoing twelve-season judge Randy Jackson gave Round One to Candice after making the bold comment that both choices of his boss were boring.

Round Two was the performance of the potential winner’s singles. Kree performed an emotional ballad called “All Cried Out” to a standing ovation by everyone save Nicki Minaj. Candice had an uplifting number called “I Am Beautiful,” fitting for her self-esteem struggles throughout the season.

The third round was songs the contestants had performed previously in the season. Kree chose “Up to the Mountain” and received a standing ovation. Keith Urban called it beautiful, and the rest of the panel agreed. Candice went with the classic “I (Who Have Nothing)” and again brought down the house. Randy Jackson, in his final Idol critique, said that the competition was about singing and that Candice had it all.

Candice was said to have a slight edge going in, and she probably held on to it last night. It was arguably the closest finale in Idol history, and the win could fall either way. However, DialIdol, the telephone software that has correctly predicted every winner since Season Four, gives Candice the hearty victory. Viewers will find out tonight on the Season Twelve finale!

Bates Motel airs Mondays at 10pm ET on A&E, available through Comcast Cable!

“Underwater”

At the end of the previous episode, Norma discovered Shelby’s corpse in her bed. She suspects that Jake Abernethy was somehow responsible, but is of course unable to prove anything.

The next day, Norma is upset when she discovers the other motel guests blithely smoking pot outside of their rooms. Dylan is evasive about the job he’s brought them in for, and it seems to finally dawn on Norma that the town is heavily involved in marijuana production. She angrily storms off and announces that they are moving as soon as possible.

Emma begins work organizing the motel’s office files, but Norma tells her to simply trash most of the paperwork left by Keith Summers. On her way out, Norma receives a flower delivery with a note that simply says “See you soon…” Norma assumes Jake sent the flowers and calls it in to the sheriff’s office.

At school, Ms Watson suggests to Norman that he should try to publish his latest short story. She offers to help Norman edit the story and seems creepily drawn to both he and his writing, referring to him as an “old soul.”

Meanwhile, Bradley approaches Dylan in town and asks him to help her retrieve some of her father’s things from his old office. Later, Dylan asks Gill about the office; Gill assumes Dylan wants the office for himself and tells him just to throw all the old stuff away.

Bradley, however, seems pretty insistent on getting into the office, and Dylan cannot resist her puppy dog eyes. They sneak in after hours and are stopped by Remo. He admonishes Dylan for bringing her there, but lets them into the office anyway. Bradley looks for her father’s pocket watch, but instead finds evidence that he was having an affair with someone with the initial “B.”

Sheriff Romero arrives at the motel and tells Norma that Jake Abernethy is an alias. Unfortunately without any physical evidence, they are unable to uncover his real identity or his connection to Shelby and Summers. Norma is understandably frustrated and Romero offers to patrol the area regularly in case Jake returns.

Norma begins taking steps to move her family elsewhere, including putting the motel property back on the market. She proposes moving to Hawaii to start over, but Norman insists on staying. He snaps and calls Norma crazy before quickly apologizing for the outburst.

Emma interrupts their argument when she stumbles into the living room and explains that she felt like she was being watched while sitting in the motel office. After a few moments, Norma realizes that Emma is high, courtesy of a pot-cupcake one of the guests had left out for her.

After they send Emma home, Norma asks if she can sleep in Norman’s room. Norman offers to sleep on the floor, but Norma insists on just cozying up in his tiny twin bed. They each apologize for the earlier argument and go to sleep.

The next evening, Norma’s realtor tells her there is no market for her property because he has to disclose the news of the highway bypass. When she threatens to sue him for not telling her about the bypass in the first place, he tells her he doesn’t have any assets so it won’t matter. She angrily hits him with her purse and storms out.

When she gets into her car, Jake pops up from the backseat and holds her at gunpoint. He tells her that Shelby owed him money and that it’s up to her to pay him back. He threatens to kill her sons first if she doesn’t comply, and tells her to meet him at midnight the following night.

Tune in next week for the season finale and see how Norma handles this threat to her family.