Just finished Ep1 of this HBO Max show and I’m hooked. Kate Winslett is a detective in a small eastern Pennsylvania town and a murder occurs. I don’t know much more than this because I’ve only finished 1 ep, but I have to say that I really enjoy the pacing and real feel of this so far. I think it’s something special. Only 3 eps out right now, but check it out.
One of my best friends on Twitter (where making friends isn't really a thing) is a Philly girl and apparently locals are over the moon about how well they nail the accents in this show. I've been meaning to check it out.
I'm through ep 3 and... meh? Winslett is compelling, but the character is not likeable at all. I'll give it a few more before I make the decision, but while I'm not rooting for the bad guy, I wouldn't want to spend 5 mins with the protagonist. The Sinner with Bill Pullman is in a similar vein, and IMO a bit better put together.
I really think it’s well put together. Easttown, as far as I know is an imaginary town set outside Philadelphia, which would be about an hour or so away from me so needless to say, I find these characters compelling. Mare is a real piece of work for sure and yeah, I’d keep my distance. But at the same time, she gives a lot of people around her a lot of leeway. The opioid addict in the beginning and the father that threw a gallon of milk through her window. So many people deserve to go to jail around her and she lets them go but then she tries to frame an innocent woman. Not sure if she can be redeemed after this.
I can’t believe they ended Ep 4 like that. I have half a mind to let the show air and binge watch the rest of this at a later time. That was a brutal cliffhanger. So I get that this is a small town in PA, but the fact that there seemed to be like 4 black people in the entire town was kind of knawing at me… and one was an opioid addict. I guess it’s possible, but really? OK. At least they’re not “token” characters…. And then with one shot about 15 mins in, they doubled the black population of the entire town! Well… so a flashback seems to show that Mare’s son, Kevin, who committed suicide, was a drug addicted shitbag who violently rummaged through Mare’s purse looking for money while she cowered in between a toilet and a corner… Why is everyone making Mare the bad person? I mean… where was Kevin’s Dad? Frank?
So I guess I’m talking to myself at this point, but I don’t care… this show is fantastic second week in a row where I can’t believe they left me hanging like this. I really hope that some of you are waiting binge watch this. So… I keep going back and forth on whether Mare is a good cop or not. She seems to let a lot of people get away with a lot of things, but she does crack the big cases that matter where a normal cop wouldn’t. She’s got good instincts. So she talks to a semi-retired prostitute and gets a huge tip from someone and solves a year old abduction and possibly an older murder… but in the first episode, she lets an addict go that went on to try and rob/extort a woman for $5000…. And she tried to frame an innocent woman battling addiction trying to get on her feet. I’m not sure small town policing can go much further than this… police where it matters…. Have a few people around you who owe you favors so when you get a chance to make a difference you got people to go to for info. I imagine the semi-prostitute was someone Mare arrested a time or 2 and just decided to let it go because she wasn’t really harming anyone… and now that woman helped Mare crack what’s possibly the biggest case of her career. If you’re not watching this show, you probably should. This ep was a real shocker.
So... it's OK then to try to frame Kevin's wife and send her back to jail for drug possession so she can keep her grandkid? Yeah, IMO there's no excuse for that. And I have a hard time believing she got caught by the chief of police and there were no real consequences. Then she uses the other detective to get back access on the case... The one good quality she has is she has mercy on some people that need it. But she tried to ruin someone else's life for her own desires, using her badge to do it. That's way more serious than the show ends up treating it.
The ending was surprising, and I like the way they handled the detective. But at best IMO Mare is an anti-hero. I have to say the 'poor Catholic Priest' plotline also doesn't thrill me. Sex abuse in the catholic church was so prevalent and covered up so long... In PA alone, that from 1950 on the AG said they believed there were at least 100,000 cases of sexual predation by Priests. This is set in PA. Some of the character moments are good, though. The mother at the wake and the identity of the stalker were very well written.
I just started watching in the last day or two and am a couple episodes behind. But in the strict sense, even assuming Mare clears all the murders on her plate with arrests, solves all the problems, etc., it still doesn't balance out that she tried to frame the mother of her grandkid for being on drugs.
No, I've been carefully reading snippets of your posts. Just don't want to spoil anything as I won't get around to watching the show until its likely over. I decided to binge Lovecraft Country based on a lot of what you posted in that thread, and you didn't steer me wrong.
OK.... so I made a prediction last week that seems to be bearing out, yet somehow I believe that there's an element of misdirection at play here. Episode 6 starts to answer some major questions and it is a very satisfying episode.... To the point where it seems like the drama is pretty much complete... yet there is a whole series finale to go. Needless to say, there may very well be a major plot twist next week. So... who killed Erin McMenimin? I like shows like this rooted in reality where... I believe that the audience has a chance to figure things out before the end. I hate when shows present some things only to have some left field, out of nowhere flimsy assed twist just to maximize the drama. So @Demiurge mentioned The Sinner as a similar show... Anybody have any other suggestions?
Pretty good list. My take at this point: And yeah, The Sinner is really good, if more than slightly uncomfortable. If you haven't caught up with your BBC, Broadchurch and Hinterland are in this vein as well. Hinterland is more of a traditional detective series, Broadchurch follows one case that rocks a small town. But interesting to see the counter programming to 'small town is the heartland.' Lots of 'small towns are full of broken and repulsive people' shows now.
Just watched it again for the second time in 24 hours… which means I’m officially obsessed… and I want to change a few things.
Well, it's over. I have to say I didn't see the final twist coming. I just found some of the actions of the individuals to get there not that believable.
Have to admit that after the first 13 mins, I was sure that I was going to be disappointed in the ending but I thought it tracked given the way people acted in the show, but I have to agree that it was a bit unbelievable. This outcome was something I briefly considered but rejected because it was too… much. Highly unlikely.
I just watched the first two episodes and Winslet gives a phenomenal performance. The only criticism I have is that it's obvious in places, at least to me, that she's doing an "American" accent. I can only pick it up because I have a British friend who's an actor and Winslet has the same tells as most UK actors who do Yankee accents. Not going to read much further in this thread for fear of spoilers, but I like the slow burn and episode two certainly set up a bunch of twists. Thanks for the recommendation.
The people around here are so fond of this show! I’m a bit over an hour from eastern PA and a full 3 to 4 hours away from Delaware County PA where this show was set, yet: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/course-wawa-introducing-mare-easttown-220032729.html
Just finished it. Great series with some seriously excellent, award-worthy performances. As has been pointed out by a few other posters, I did find some of the revelations in the final episode a bit difficult to swallow, mainly because I don't think the script was a good as it could have been. Some of the characters' motivations weren't fleshed out as well as they should have been, and certainly the missing gun could have been explained better (the timeline doesn't add up unless you make up your own theory). I think a few tweaks in the script here and there would have made it a far better series finale. Still, compelling stuff.
