MANILA, PHILIPPINES — For the better part of her acting career, Kate Winslet has proven to be way more than just a pretty face. After Titanic turned her into a global superstar in 1997, she has received accolades including three BAFTA Awards, an Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Mildred Pierce in 2011. Emerging as one of the best actresses in her generation, Winslet has been able to pick and choose what roles to play, whether on the big or small screens. Therefore, when the British-born Winslet agreed to not just star but also executive produce the seven-episode miniseries Mare of Easttown, people definitely took notice.
Mare Sheehan (Winslet) is a divorced detective in the fictional town of Easttown on the outskirts of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Twenty-five years after hitting the winning shot for her high school basketball team, Mare is still recognized in her hometown as “Ladyhawk” although her personal life hasn’t been ideal. Divorced from Frank (David Denman), her son Kevin (Cody Kostro) committed suicide and left behind a son named Drew (Izzy King) that Mare and her mother Helen (Jean Smart) have been raising. Her daughter Siobhan (Angourie Rice) has been performing in a local band but is thinking of leaving for college.
Easttown is a very small place and all the neighbors have basically known each other for generations. Mare’s best friend Lori (Julianne Nicholson) was her teammate on that basketball championship squad whose husband John (Joe Tippett) previously cheated on Lori. Another former teammate, Dawn (Enid Graham) has been looking for her daughter Katie (Caitlin Houlahan), who has been missing for over a year. The disappearance of Katie Bailey has been a problem for Mare, with her neighbors questioning her detective skills and putting yet another strain on her relationships.
Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny) is one of Siobhan’s schoolmates and is a single teenage mother who is trying to raise money for an ear operation for her son. After failing to get help from her ex-boyfriend Dylan (Jack Mulhern), Erin is found dead at a local creek and Mare is one of the people tasked to solve her murder. As Mare tries to solve these cases while beginning to get to know author and teacher Richard Ryan (Guy Pearce), she’s been able to avoid grieving for her son but that has been taking its toll on her own relationships.
When Mare’s boss, Chief Carter (John Douglas Thompson), assigns county detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters) to assist Mare with the McMenamin case, she bristles as the implication that her work isn’t good enough. Drew’s mother Carrie (Sosie Bacon) is a recovering addict but is also determined to win custody of her son, much to the chagrin of Mare, Helen, and Siobhan. This eventually pushes Mare to do something unbecoming of a law enforcer and winds up being given time off from her cases.
Over the course of seven episodes, series creator and writer Brad Ingelsby and director Craig Zobel have been able to craft a story about this very small East Coast town that somehow resonates with many. In the Philippines, where several generations in a family often live together and where people literally grow up together, it’s easy to empathize with Mare and the people who have seen her grow up and grow old before their eyes.
Creator Brad Ingelsby and director Craig Zobel could have easily become just another whodunnit with the twin cases of Katie Bailey and Erin McMenamin, but it goes beyond that. It’s a relationship study between family members as well as neighbors. Mare of Easttown is a drama at its core but there are comedic moments that are just enough to lighten the heavy mood every so often. When the mood does get heavy though, the show takes your breath away like a punch to the gut especially after you’ve begun to be invested in several of the show’s characters.
The assembled cast is marvelous not just individually but as an ensemble and it starts with Winslet. Just putting on a Pennsylvania accent can be tricky for the very English Winslet but she also brings a physicality to Mare when she spends some time selling an injury she sustained in chasing a criminal and sustaining other bumps and bruises on the job.
As someone whose weight has been scrutinized by the press for years, Winslet clearly doesn’t listen to those critics as Mare’s body reflects someone not just in her mid-40s but also dealing with so many things on her plate. Her interactions with everyone in Easttown sometimes leave her being judged by people she grew up with but she carries on, particularly for the people closest to her.
Veteran actresses Smart and Nicholson could have become mere window dressing in front of Winslet but they also get their respective moments to shine. Smart’s Helen didn’t just have to deal with her own husband’s failure as a father and husband but also her grandson’s suicide and the fear that her daughter could exhibit the same traits that led to those tragedies. She wants to see Mare achieve some form of happiness but also closure over what happened to Kevin.
Nicholson portrays the dutiful best friend so well, but she also struggles with keeping her family together after her husband’s infidelities while taking care of a daughter with Down syndrome. Lori just wants to have a perfect family life and, in the end, feels that certain truths have to be hidden in order to make that a reality.
Now streaming on HBO Go and HBO MAX, don’t be surprised if Mare of Easttown reaps several television awards when those start being handed out in early 2022.
