Spoilers ahead for Mare of Easttown Season 1, Episode 2. In the final moments of Mare of Easttown’s April 23 episode, the mystery surrounding Erin’s murder intensifies. It’s not just the identity of her killer that remains unknown, but possibly the identity of her son’s father, too. According to her best friend Jess, Erin told her that Dylan isn’t really DJ’s father. So who is? Jess can’t be certain, but suspects the dad may be Mare’s ex-husband, Frank Sheehan. It’s hard to believe the happily engaged high school teacher could be involved, but Easttown — population 10,000 — is already dominated by unlikely relationships and complicated ties. Erin is the second young woman dead or missing in the past year and suspicion is pervasive. Even if Frank isn’t DJ’s father, the question of paternity is now in the air. We know that Frank knows Erin, who was a student in his algebra class a few years before her death. But he also tells Mare that he barely spoke to the young mom, which in itself is hard to imagine in such a cloistered town. Erin’s father is cousins with Frank’s close friends. It’s not a strong connection, but one that makes it difficult to buy that Frank never spent any time with Erin. There’s also Frank’s cryptic suggestion that Erin’s home life was hard. How does he know? He tells Mare it’s just an inkling so maybe it’s gossip, or maybe he knew Erin better than he’s letting on. Dylan is still a possibility. This is a show about the secrets lurking under the facade of a simple life. Maybe Erin had reasons to lie to Jess about Dylan. Maybe the dream of a different father for DJ made it easier for Erin to cope with the disappointment of Dylan, who seemed to despise her. This week also saw the addition of a creepy deacon, Mark, who counseled Erin when she was a part of his Catholic youth group. She quit after having DJ, and the deacon tells Father Dan that his relationship with Erin fizzled out. But he doesn’t look Dan in the eye as he laments not trying hard enough to maintain the standard of pastoral care and, honestly, shows don’t add a creepy deacon for no reason. Mark has a secret. Then there’s Kenny’s mostly stoic cousins, Billy and John, who Mare recruits to accompany her to tell Erin’s father the bad news. John is married to Mare’s best friend. Billy doesn’t say much at all, but when John asks him if he’s OK and takes him into a hug, his eyes shift uncomfortably. Of course, there’s also Kenny himself. He’s brokenhearted over Erin’s death and takes his vengeance out on Dylan by the episode’s end, but we also know from the premiere that he treats Erin poorly. Is it a long walk from Kenny’s aggressive parenting to incest and sexual assault? Absolutely. But we live in the age of the grisly crime drama, and it feels naive not to consider him. The answer to DJ’s paternity may still be none of the above. Erin’s bike is missing from the woods where she was last seen alive and where her body was eventually found. The pink beach cruiser could be with the man who killed her or maybe even the man who fathered her son. If Kenny is right that Erin’s murder was motivated by revenge, they might be the same person. Mare of Easttown GenreCrime dramaCreated byBrad IngelsbyWritten byBrad IngelsbyDirected byCraig ZobelStarring
May 30, 2021 (2021-05-30) Mare of Easttown is an American crime drama limited series created by Brad Ingelsby for HBO. Directed by Craig Zobel and written by Ingelsby, the series premiered on April 18, 2021, and concluded on May 30, 2021, consisting of seven episodes. It stars Kate Winslet as the title character, a detective investigating a murder in a small town near Philadelphia. Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice, Evan Peters, Sosie Bacon, David Denman, Neal Huff, James McArdle, Guy Pearce, Cailee Spaeny, John Douglas Thompson, and Joe Tippett appear in supporting roles. Mare of Easttown was acclaimed by critics, who lauded its story, characters, acting, and representation of women. The series received 16 nominations at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards and won four, including Outstanding Lead Actress for Winslet, Outstanding Supporting Actor for Peters, and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Nicholson. PremiseIn a suburb of Philadelphia, police detective Marianne "Mare" Sheehan investigates the recent murder of a teenage mother while trying to keep her own life from falling apart. Mare is a local hero, having been the star of a high school basketball championship game 25 years ago. She has also been unable to solve the case of another missing young girl for a year, leading many in the community to doubt her detective skills. Her personal troubles include a divorce, a son lost to suicide, and a custody battle with her son’s formerly heroin addicted girlfriend over Mare's grandson.[2] Cast and charactersMain
Supporting
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ProductionDevelopmentIn January 2019, it was reported that Brad Ingelsby, creator of the limited series, would write all episodes, with Gavin O'Connor directing. Executive producers include Ingelsby, O'Connor, Kate Winslet, Paul Lee, Mark Roybal, and Gordon Gray.[6][15][16] In January 2020, it was announced that Craig Zobel would replace O'Connor as director due to scheduling issues and also serve as executive producer.[17] Regarding the setting, Ingelsby stated "sort of an amalgam" which he explained "It’s Coatesville, it’s Aston, it’s Drexel Hill."[18] Ingelsby stated that he chose the name Easttown because "it sounded like such a generic town name."[18] CastingIt was announced in January 2019 that Kate Winslet had been cast to star in the HBO miniseries that would be filmed on location in suburban Philadelphia.[19] In September 2019, the cast was rounded out with Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice, Evan Peters, Cailee Spaeny and David Denman.[20] John Douglas Thompson, Patrick Murney, Ben Miles, Katie Kreisler, James McArdle, Sosie Bacon, Joe Tippett, Neal Huff were cast in October 2019.[21] In February 2021, it was announced that Guy Pearce joined the cast, replacing Miles in his role. In the same month, Mackenzie Lansing, Kate Arrington, Ruby Cruz, James Easter Bradford, Elisa Davis, Enid Graham, Justin Hurtt-Dunkley, Izzy King, Jack Mulhern, Anthony Norman, Drew Scheid, and Madeline Weinstein were cast in the limited series.[22][23] FilmingFilming of the show began in the fall of 2019 around suburban Philadelphia and was reported to still be in progress as of March 2020, with plans to continue through April.[19][24] However, production was shut down early due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[25] In early September 2020, a Philadelphia news station reported that filming was set to resume within the month.[26] Because the story is set in a fictionalized version of Easttown Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where series creator Brad Ingelsby was born (the show moves the location east to Delaware County, which is adjacent to Easttown Twp), there were discussions about whether to use the "Delco accent", a version of Philadelphia English common in Delaware County. It was Winslet who insisted that the accent be used, despite being a particularly difficult accent to learn, because she felt the community itself was an important character in the story, and the authentic accent would help emphasize that.[27] "There were a lot of things I could have really leant into that would have made it sound like I was doing something a bit gimmicky and I didn't want that to happen," Winslet said. "So I just had to drill it and drill it and drill it."[18] She claimed that learning the accent was so difficult that it caused her to "throw things".[28] A dialect coach named Susanne Sulby assisted the actors.[18] Filming locations include a train station and high-school gymnasium in Coatesville, Pennsylvania (a city in Chester County), and an American Legion hall in Ogden, a community in Delaware County.[29] Inglesby has said that many of the filming locations were around Aston Township, in Delaware County.[30] Winslet reportedly said that, while filming the show, she became obsessed with Wawa convenience stores. "Wawa was a big part of my life for well over a year," she said.[30] Wawa stores were used as scouting locations for the production's costume designers.[31] ReleaseThe seven-episode limited series premiered on April 18, 2021,[32] and concluded on May 30, 2021. The limited series was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on September 14, 2021.[33] ReceptionCritical responseWinslet was praised for her performance, receiving a Primetime Emmy Award, among others.Mare of Easttown received critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 95% based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Grounded by a career-best Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown's ambitions at times exceed its reach, but its central mystery is supported by such strong sense of place and character it hardly matters."[34] On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on reviews from 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[35] Winslet received widespread praise for her performance, including from Lucy Mangan of The Guardian who wrote, "If you can have a defining performance this late in a career, this is surely Winslet's. She is absolutely wonderful."[36] Alex Abad-Santos of Vox described Winslet's performance as "mesmerizing", adding that "she allows us to see the ugliness Mare is capable of and how obsessive, perhaps even abusive, she can be when she's threatened."[37] The Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz noted "Winslet's eloquent command of the role is obvious from the outset".[38] Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote, "Winslet's immersed performance could carry a far lesser work by itself", while adding that her East American dialect is "convincing and her physical work is flawless."[39] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times declared, "Winslet adds to a long list of magnificent, disappear-into-the-character performances...one of the most resonant performances of her career."[40] Caryn James of the BBC wrote, "Winslet makes an unglamorous return to TV...and her fierce, ordinary heroine is gloriously real."[41] Inkoo Kang of The Hollywood Reporter gave it a mostly positive review describing it as "uneven, but masterfully suspenseful".[42] Kang compared the series with British crime drama Happy Valley,[42] a comparison echoed by Fiona Sturges of The Independent, who wrote that "addiction, abuse and death were woven into the fabric of life" in both dramas, while acknowledging similarities between both shows' protagonists.[43] The New York Times was dismissive in its review, with television critic Mike Hale writing: "Some style in the direction or honest feeling in the screenplay could have mitigated the dreariness, but 'Mare' doesn't offer much beyond Ben Richardson's burnished cinematography."[2] A plot twist in the final episode received lukewarm reviews from various outlets. For The A.V. Club, Joshua Alston wrote, "While [the final episode] is a triumphant conclusion to Mare's emotional arc, as a conclusion to a mystery, it's a mixed bag [...] the whole thing just feels arbitrary and confusing and lacks the emotional logic this show is normally so good at."[44] In Decider, Sean T. Collins agreed but praised the leads' performances, writing, "The resolution of the mystery is a bit 'twists and fake-outs for twists' and fake-outs' sake.' But each new revelation came with an emotionally devastating payload for the characters, with Winslet and Nicholson in particular doing their best work of the series."[45] Critics and viewers have also particularly praised the series and Winslet for convincingly replicating one of the varieties of the Philadelphia regional accent, an oddity in mainstream media. The specific accent is known as the "Delco accent", after Delaware County to the west of Philadelphia.[46] The characters' accents, along with their fondness for Wawa, were parodied in a May 2021 Saturday Night Live sketch.[47] RatingsMare of Easttown proved to be a record breaking ratings hit. The massive viewership resulted in HBO Max servers crashing shortly after the finale was released on the streaming service.[48] The final episode of Mare of Easttown drew four million viewers over the holiday weekend across HBO and HBO Max, with nearly three million viewers Sunday night (all platforms), marking a series high for both linear and digital, according to HBO. The finale also set the record as the most watched episode of an original series on HBO Max during its first 24 hours of availability, besting the finales of The Undoing and The Flight Attendant over the same period of time. Mare of Easttown also joined The Undoing as the only series in HBO's history to see consecutive growth week-to-week.[49]
Accolades
Potential second seasonThough intended as a limited series, Winslet stated in August 2021 that she "would love to return" as Mare, and that for a potential second season, Ingelsby "has shared some very cool ideas. We will see what happens. I also have to figure out if I can do it. Can I go through it again? It did cost me a lot emotionally to be her, and I have to figure out if I can summon it all up again and do it again."[77] References
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