McNamara’s Picks: ‘Bates Motel,’ ‘Those Who Kill,’ ‘Hollywood Game Night,’ ‘Call the Midwife’

“Bates Motel” The A&E prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic “Psycho” sounded like such a bad idea, even in the hands of Carlton Cuse (“Lost”) and Kerry Ehrin (“Friday Night Lights”). Who would want to watch the presumably Freudian-nightmarish young adulthood of infamous mama’s boy Norman Bates for hours at a time?

Well, me for one, the minute I found out the mama in question was being played by Vera Farmiga. Her Norma Bates floods the screen with wicked humor, ruthless pathos and more than a hint of insanity, but whether she is genesis, incubator or just struggling caretaker of the real craziness in the Bates household remains the tantalizing question that the series deftly poses again and again. Certainly young Norman (Freddie Highmore) is and isn’t like other boys.

After the mysterious death of her husband, and Norman’s father, Norma fled up the West Coast to the fictional town of White Pine Bay, Ore., where she had bought a motel and the chance to start anew. Complications arose immediately, in the form of rapists, drug lords, sexual slavers, corrupt police officers and her own mildly reprobate first born, Dylan (Max Thierot), all of whom Norma handled in her own determined, if more than slightly bipolar, way.

BEST TV OF 2013 Lloyd | McNamara

If watching Farmiga so vividly portray a woman who, with so much evidence to the contrary, still believes she is just a normal mom trying to have a normal life isn’t enough, Highmore’s fresh ‘n’ creepy Norman is something to behold as well. In fact the entire cast, including “Lost” veteran Nestor Carbonell as a very mysterious sheriff, burns with chill intensity against the dank and lovely scenery of the Northern Pacific coastline.

Season 2 opens with Norman up to his elbows in his new hobby -- taxidermy! -- while Norma is a tiny bit concerned about a) the new freeway that will cut traffic to her establishment and b) the murder of Norman’s favorite teacher last season. New characters are on the way, and Norma has miles to go before she sleeps -- gray-haired and mummified while her young darling runs amok -- and no matter what happens next, it will be wily and crazy and really, really good. A&E, Mondays, 9 p.m.

“Those Who Kill” Chloe Sevigny fans, of whom there are many, will certainly want to check out her take on the Scandinavian-born troubled detective tracking down serial killers, this one against the glowering sky, sylvan fields and industrial waste of Pittsburgh. Based on the Danish series “Den Som Draeber,” “Those Who Kill” follows relatively green Det. Catherine Jensen (Sevigny) as she tracks down murderers with the help of possibly unstable and certainly fey forensic specialist Thomas Schaeffer (James D’Arcy).

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Like fellow “Big Love” alum Mirelle Enos in “The Killing,” and, to a lesser extent, Jeanne Tripplehorn on “Criminal Minds,” Sevigny plays a woman driven by her own demons as much as the quest for the truth -- Catherine suspects her stepfather of being a serial killer too. The first episode is more than a little rocky, setting up characters and slapping down mood in a very slapdash manner, but Sevigny always brings a little something extra to any role, and if D’Arcy bears an unfortunate physical resemblance to Erick McCormack, busy solving crimes in a similar way on TNT’s “Perception,” well, that’s not his fault. A&E, Mondays, 10 p.m.

“Hollywood Game Night” The second season premiere of the celebrity-studded game show features Sean Hayes, Christina Applegate, Allison Janney, Don Cheadle, Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde. But if you’re like me, you watch it mostly for host Jane Lynch because, she is so fabulous. While the show may never reach the towering peaks of “Hollywood Squares” or “Password,” it won’t be for lack of trying. Especially amid the welter of shows that take themselves Very Seriously (see above), “Hollywood Game Night” is a lot of fun. NBC, Thursdays, 9 p.m.

“Call the Midwife” The charming PBS series about a group of midwives working in London’s East End during the early days of the national health service will return for its third season next month (watch this space). Which gives you plenty of time to catch up with the second and first seasons, which are both available on Netflix. If you want a grittier (though still quite sentimental) period drama than “Downton Abbey” provides or if you need a break from all the British murder and mayhem of “Sherlock,” “Luther” or “Ripper Street,” this is the show for you. Though it does not shy away from the ravages of poverty and disease or the many things that can go horribly wrong during childbirth, “Call the Midwife” is a thoroughly hopeful show that revolves around the lives of women in a way that easily moves into larger issues of politics and social responsibility. Voice-over by Vanessa Redgrave and a coterie of lovely young woman and strict but loving nuns, and many adorable babies. Practically perfect in every way. Netflix anytime.

In a previous version of this story, Kerry Ehrin was mistakenly identified as Kelly Erhin.

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