What was the lesson here?

[Trekker4747]

Other than if Norman Bates offers you a sandwich you TAKE THE DAMN SANDWICH!

Right now I'm learning how slow my internet connection can be....

[Dr. Opossum]

I'll word this vaguely to avoid spoiling too much, but if you have huge and life-altering news to share with someone you know to be a seriously disturbed serial killer, you might want to take someone along to keep an eye on you when you share that news. 

[Tony Farms AKA Puma Man]

-I learned that if you are in a house with a known serial killer, take no opportunities to just run out of the house.  Instead, dress up like his mother whenever possible.

Another thing is, who was on the phone telling Norman she was his 'real' mother?  Mary would routinely pick up the phone and find no one on the other end. 

[Sugar Ray Dodge]

I learned that getting stabbed in the mouth is FATAL! ...and that Jaws 4 isn't the only movie to shamelessly rip off the iconic moments of its predecessor to make a quick buck.

[Trekker4747]

I learned the psychological barrier between "not killing people" and "killing people" is pretty thin.  It's one Norman obviously crossed pretty easily at a young age.  Others seem to do it pretty quickly just, I dunno, because.

I learned that getting thrown in a psychological institution due to multiple murders over two decades ago won't provoke people to sue your "estate" causing you to lose all of your assets and that pretty much your home, business and all of your belongings will be waiting for you when you get out of the hospital... Something that doesn't often happen when you're sent to a mental ward due to murders (often the "insanity" defense leads to longer incarcerations in the hospital than in jail.)

I also learned that greasy-spoon diners are really dedicated to fresh-cut lettuce.

[Darth Geek]

I learned that it IS possible to make a known psycho killer, and the judge and jury releasing him into the public, sympathetic. If the woman trying to keep him in prison is annoying, shrill, and inept enough.

[Trekker4747]

It actually worked in making him sympathetic and I did seem that he just wanted to lead a normal life but then he's driven back to madness by Annoying Girl (C). 

[MrTorso]

I learned to not watch the previews any more.  I enjoyed this riff a lot but the funniest moment is in the preview and I wish I didn't see it before I watched.

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, I rarely watch the previews myself. Not for spoiler reasons, mostly because I implicitly trust these guys when it comes to the VODs.

[Darth Geek]

Norman has a really toned and buff upper body for a guy who was in a straightjacket for 2 decades!

[Trekker4747]

I learned that it's possible to make a sheeted and dormant room in to an elaborately decorated one and back again (perfectly) by oneself, in a short amount of time and without making any notable noise.

In reading the Wikipedia page for this movie I learned Christopher Walken was approached for the role of Norman in this movie after Perkins initially declined.  I would have given ANYTHING to see this.

[Darth Geek]

I learned that bludgeoning an old lady with a shovel looks hilarious.

[andyp1986]

I learned that back in the 80's, the psychiatric and legal systems would release an insane serial murderer back into society, leave him in the exact same house that all of his traumas and past memories stem from, and actively demonize the survivors of his past victims for objecting to all this.

The courts and the mental health professions must have really sucked back then!

[Bob]

I learned how easy it was to hide bodies and remove blood from crime scenes and not leave a spec of blood.

I also learned that back in 1980 people in dinners let smokers curse, yell, try and trip people, etc. and never told they guy to knock it off or lose his teeth.  Being a jerk must have been easier then.

And it is nice to know that if I ever go to jail for 20 years, my house will be well kept up and waiting for me when I get home.

[Trekker4747]

Well, I guess it makes *some* sense for Norman's care-takers to put a transient in place but probably at some degree of his expense (off-set by the profits made from the motel.) But, yeah, a lot of that doesn't make sense.  But, for what it is worth, the movie does play lip-service to the fact the social worker's office was short-handed to properly reintroduce Norman into society.  Which, again, it DOES seem he was ready for until people started messing with him.

I learned -disturbingly- Dennis Franz looks a lot like Ron Jeremy in this movie.