Series streaming: BATES MOTEL's addictive enough to induce a good, if guilty, binge....

Adult fans of Vera Farmiga and Nestor Carbonell and younger fans of Freddie Highmore and Max Thieriot have no doubt already checked in to the BATES MOTEL. Ms Farmiga, in fact, is so good in this surprisingly deft cable TV series -- just now beginning its second season on A&E (the first season is streamable via Netflix) -- that she gives the series the kind of class that no other actress I can quickly think of could begin to bring to the table. Farmiga, above and below, does this effortlessly, via her usual manner of being absolutely in the moment, no matter how bizarre some moments turn out to be.

In Bates Motel -- a kind of modern-day/present-tense prequel to the Norman Bates (and his mom) that moviegoers first met in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho -- the "moments" (well, actually, the entire series) get so crazy that they leave any soap opera you've witnessed dead in the dust. (This must be the reason why soap operas as we've known them have all but died: Cable TV has cribbed their sex, sin, love, death and general nuttiness then goosed it all to the nth degree, while giving it glossy writing, acting and production values and -- most important -- smart, often-ground-breaking story lines that keep us glued.)

Ms Farmiga grounds this series, and what a pleasure it is to watch her go through her paces. The actress can, and often does, turn on a dime while keeping things believable. Mr. Highmore, above, lends the show youthful energy, sweetness and (on occasion) shock. Younger viewers who may not be familiar with Psycho need not worry: There's no necessity to have viewed the source. Older folk who have, however, will enjoy how Bates Motel uses the things we remember so well -- the motel room, the large stairway inside the house and a certain upstairs bedroom -- to jog our memory on one hand, while giving these objects a new and different look and purpose.

The series begins following the death of Norman's dad/mom's husband, as the mother and son move to a beautiful seaside town in what looks like northern California. The town turns out to be a bright and perky cess pool, as we learn once the episodes begin to mount up. The police prove more hindrance than help (that's Mr. Carbonell, as the sheriff, below, and Mike Vogel, above, as his deputy), while Norman doesn't fit in well at school -- though he does manage to catch the eye of two pretty students, as well as one hungry teacher.

Quite soon into the picture comes Norman's half-brother and Norma's (yes, that's mom's name) other son, played quite well by Mr. Thieriot (below, with Farmiga), who adds a little sexy sass and a new plot line or two to the mix -- as does the hotel's previous owner, who doesn't much take to this family twosome who now owns his old stomping grounds.

Best not to question a few of the series' odder events and looser ends. These are good for surprise, shock and some suspense, even if they defy reason now and again. As much as we come to like Norman and his mom (and we do), it is also clear that there is something deeply wrong here. By the final episode, the Norman we thought we knew and the Norman we see now, are beginning to merge.

Season One of Bates Motel, with ten approximately-42-minute episodes, can be seen on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and probably elsewhere. We'll hope that Season Two, now playing on cable TV, complete with annoying commercials, ends up here, too, commercial-free.

DVD/Blu-ray: OZ THE GREAT & POWERFUL --a first-rate prequel to Dorothy & the gang plus reviews from TrustMovies' grand-kids!

Just as far too many of our cultural guardians, especially here in NYC, were slow, uninformed and/or taste-free regarding mainstream movies such as Cloud Atlas, John Carter, Sin City and V for Vendetta (while praising inflated, empty crap like Iron Man and The Avengers), so it is with Disney's OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, out now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Neither of my grandchildren had seen this film in theaters, though they have watched the 1939 original, along with the 1978 musical version, The Wiz, numerous times. So I rented it and brought it over for a July 4th, get-out-of-this-awful-humidity, movie afternoon.

I'd never have thought of giving Sam Raimi (at left) the directorial reins here but, surprise, his movie is damned good: gorgeous to look at, filled with eye-popping effects and scenery (in which CGI is used sublimely well) and characters who are all too human, including those witches: That's Michelle Williams as Glinda (just below) and Rachel Weisz (left) and Mila Kunis (right), as the naughty duo, further below.

Yes, Oz the G&P borrows from everything from the original to Broadway's Wicked, but it mixes the merchandise into a well-told tale with eye-popping visuals. Granted, the film is no intellectual stimulant. But, hello: Neither was the original. It offered sweet enchantment, one terrific song, and a couple more good ones. The prequel does pretty much the same thing (without the songs).

Another plus: James Franco (below) does some acting for a change! He's the best here since Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Howl. (He's much better even than in This Is the End, where he must play "himself." And since he has spent so much time trying to cover his own tracks, no wonder his "himself" character is less interesting or "there" than any of his co-stars in this very funny, smart and irreverent movie.)

While nods are made to scarecrow, tin man and lion, the two new characters introduced to play sidekicks to Mr. Franco's Oz are truly inspired, even if they are simply voices (Zach Graff's and Joey King's) put to use on special effects. The good little flying monkey (below, right) and the girl made of porcelain (a truly amazing creation, shown at left, above and below) are charming creatures who entertain and move us every bit as much as did Lahr, Bolger and Haley in the 1939 version. Franco's character, by the way, is actually a very different kind of "Dorothy." But he's Dorothy nonetheless. Sure, he plays the Wizard, but his mission here is pretty much the same as Ms Garland had in the original.

Best of all, the movie manages to make a wonderful nod to the magic of motion pictures in its spectacular finale in which early movie technology is used to save the day. This is every bit as lovely and meaningful as anything in Hugo (a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, by the way) -- but it's tossed at us with a hell of a lot more subtlety -- which has, face it, never been a mark of the work of Martin Scorsese.)

So what did my grandchildren think? (Both my daughter and son-in-law loved the movie, too.) The boychik, 5-year-old Ronin (above), found it "good -- and the part I liked best was when the woman turned into the witch." OK...

Marlo (above, on the stairway doing her early-Carmen-Miranda number), the young lady of the house and now 8 years old, loved it, too (that's her mom and my daughter, Laura, above, left). "It was amazing, a little scary, a little sad, very active and very exciting. It was the most amazing movie I have ever seen -- except The Painting." (Smart girl: If you haven't seen The Painting, for art, animation and storytelling's sake, do!)

So inspired by the Oz movie was Marlo, in fact, that she sat right down after the viewing to draw this picture (shown above) of the character played by Mila Kunis before she turns bad.

Oz the Great and Powerful, out now on DVD and Blu-ray (on which it dazzles), is available from Disney, for sale or rental from the usual suspects. (I'm told by my companion that, in 3D, this film looked ever more spectacular.)