Amid political upheaval and post pandemic uncertainty, the 2021 HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown united viewers. Initial complaints about weekly episodic airings instead of the expected, recently accustomed binge model quickly gave way to virtual water cooler chatter and shout at the television shocks that crashed the streamers thanks to working class crime, realistic characters, and sad consequences.
Kate Winslet is “Miss LadyHawke Herself,” and everyone trusts Detective Sergeant Mare Sheehan thanks to her famed basketball history. The insular mood is apparent with interconnected families and dated, multi-generational homes congested with teen pregnancy, single mothers, tight finances, and arguments. Bullies, beer, and pizza mingle with multiple crimes and chases. Struggling women united in championship twenty-five years ago don’t always get along yet have each other’s backs, and Mare of Easttown takes its time meeting everyone – including our murder victim. Sex and gang violence happen right under the community’s nose while toxic parents raise their kids’ kids amid custody battles and unsolved crimes. The younger generation is problematic with their drugs yet every adult drinks at every opportunity with no objections. However, Mare of Easttown also has a warped sense of humor with uncooperative, clueless teens, awkward rookie cops, and adults who just can’t adult today but take matters into their own hands. Everyone curses thanks to the constant state of anguish over a two-year-old suicide. Grandmothers, mothers, and daughters each tell each other to f-off while paternity doubts, shootings, and suspect relationships lead to autopsies and DNA samples. We’re on the investigation by day but the case comes home at night, too, and mature dinner date banter turns depressing thanks to ballistics and missing fingers. Re-watching Mare of Easttown now, it is fascinating to see how close the deduction is to the killer, however confrontations with the police chief begat administrative leave and uncomfortable grief counselling for parents who messed up trying to do better by the next generation.
Conversations carry the family meetings and real life problems without needing dramatic, over-edited, too cool for school action montages. Halfway through Mare of Easttown, we’re allowed an emotional break addressing the melancholy beyond the police work. Cold case scams, overdoses, phone videos, and violent flashbacks are personal. Regardless of ages, kids dump their problems on their parents. Inescapable habits mean families fall apart, and mothers do what they have to do when there’s another abduction. News reports, online prostitution profiles, and cryptic lockets escalate the heartfelt tension opening Episode Five “Illusions.” Selfish, uncomfortable relationships provide ulterior motives; car accidents, funeral revelations, burned evidence, and priestly accusations culminate in fatal consequences. Hoagie and cheese steak gift baskets don’t ease the pain, hospitals, and press conferences as affairs and lies lead to relapses and slaps in the face. Angry fathers ask questions amid flashbacks of past horrors and who’s blaming whom pointing fingers. Everyone’s too busy with their problems to pay attention; and harassment, gunpoint threats, scared teens, and fishing perils provide red herrings. Demented justifications unveil who you thought you knew truths in the supersized “Sacrament” finale. Compounded crimes and confessions leave mothers to do the right thing, and Mare of Easttown makes time for everything to tearfully pay off with holding one another, absolution in a community trying to put itself together again, forgiveness, and full circle letting go.
Male detectives are allowed to be renegades who don’t put up with anything, and neither does our vaping, roots showing, cheese steak eating grandma Mare. She resents her overrated basketball success and is unable to make it over a fence after a suspect – limping and trying to eat, drive, and call her ex-husband all at the same time. Mare’s really speaking about herself when she tells witnesses she understands their struggle, and by Episode Two “Fathers,” Winslet’s second Best Actress Emmy was secured thanks to her restrained breakdown over her son’s suicide. Mare is very dedicated over details others miss, but she also tampers where she shouldn’t, deletes footage, mishandles evidence, and gets wounded pursuing a suspect after she’s pulled off the case. She admits she wasn’t a good mother to her troubled son and that maybe her relationship with her idealized father wasn’t so great, finally sobbing when death comes again.
Mare realizes she needs to face the culprit and herself with a final climb toward acceptance, but her mother, played by Jean Smart, provides both laughable, embarrassing moments and a harsh voice of reason – calling out Mare’s idiotic circumvention of the law to keep their family together. Likewise Supporting Actress Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson repeatedly defuses no-win situations, as Lori Ross. She insists Mare can’t push people away, but this investigation tests their friendship heavily. Though a green county cop, Supporting Actor Emmy Winner Evan Peters can see Mare is too close to this case. Of course, Colin Zabel also adores Mare – drunkenly attempting to woe her, taking yell at the television risks without backup, and sharing investigation details despite her suspension.
Many on Twitter presumed Guy Pearce (reuniting with Winslet after Mildred Pierce) was the killer solely because of his casting in the small role as Mare’s encouraging, new in town boyfriend. Men complained it was a do nothing part, but women countered that actresses are reduced to the meaningless love interest almost all the time. For me it’s was disappointing that these are basketball folk because I played ice hockey where Mare of Easttown was filmed. However hockey is expensive and basketball much more affordable for this fictitious blue collar community. Talking on top of each other rhythm, difficult Delco dialogue, and local downtrodden style not often depicted onscreen keep the Philadelphia feeling authentic.
Subtle red or blue clues can be found in which local beers characters drink, and who’s Irish, Italian, Black, catholic, or deemed white trash creates unspoken tension. Pandemic filming was noticeable then with minimal extras, six feet apart cross coverage, and outdoor conversations yet that doesn’t seem to matter now. Lockdown breaks in production also allowed crew to hone the script and fine tune footage – proving today’s in the can binge model with no chance to retool is purely for quantity over quality. Although I wish there a was a more specific legal mention of extenuating family circumstances and what the victim’s father thought of her actual baby daddy; these taut hour episodes allow for deeper character moments in a series that’s not so much about the detective work, but mothers, women, mistakes, and grief. Thanks to live HBO and Hulu streams that spring, I often watched each Mare of Easttown episode two or three times, dissecting each leg of the case and coming close to the surprising almost everyone culprit.
Writer Brad Ingelsby (Out of the Furnace) and director Craig Zobel (The Leftovers) weave a well-crafted story with small town clues and sorrow. Mare of Easttown ends on an emotional note, and the compelling, personal storytelling holds up upon repeat viewings thanks to detective attention to detail and the unique slice of life setting. I can totally relate to the Wawa bags in the backseat, and yes, it’s pronounced wooder.
stills courtesy of HBO
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Kristin Battestella writes articles, editorials, and reviews for several websites, magazines, and print publications including I Think, Therefore I Review and Search Magazine. Previously a traditionally published author of speculative fiction and the Fate and Fangs vampire novels, Kristin’s DIY Halloween how-tos and Kbatz Krafts articles have been featured at http://HorrorAddicts.net and in two Horror Addicts Guide to Life anthologies. In addition to sewing and @KbatzReviews Youtube vlogs; Kristin can be heard on the Women InSession podcast at http://InSessionFilm.com alongside her written classic film discourse. Kristin is also active in the local author community, having chaired writing events and conferences with the South Jersey Women Authors.
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