Release OrderRecommended
0 / 6 watchedFilm first, then the series. This is how audiences met Norman Bates, and the show lands better with the original fresh in mind.
- 1 Psycho Hitchcock's 1960 original. Start here.
- 2 Bates Motel Season 1
- 3 Bates Motel Season 2
- 4 Bates Motel Season 3
- 5 Bates Motel Season 4
- 6 Bates Motel Season 5 Final season. Latest released entry.
Chronological (Story) Order
0 / 6 watchedSeries first, then the 1960 film. Works as a curiosity, but the show contradicts the film's era and details, so treat it as a reimagining.
- 1 Bates Motel Season 1
- 2 Bates Motel Season 2
- 3 Bates Motel Season 3
- 4 Bates Motel Season 4
- 5 Bates Motel Season 5
- 6 Psycho Watch last in this order; the series does not lead cleanly into it.
About Bates Motel
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) introduced Norman Bates and remains the anchor of the franchise. Bates Motel aired on A&E from 2013 to 2017, with Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga as Norman and Norma Bates across 50 episodes.
Release order is recommended: watch Psycho first, then the series. A second list below flips them for viewers who want the prequel story first, though the show is a modern-day reimagining rather than a strict lead-in to the film.
Good to know
Continuity caveat: Bates Motel is set in the 2010s in White Pine Bay, Oregon, not 1960s Fairvale, and its producers stated the film sequels were not treated as canon. The show retells the Marion Crane story with major changes, including a different fate for Marion. The other screen entries, Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986), Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990), the 1987 Bates Motel TV movie, and Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake, are optional and not needed for either list.
