Kate Winslet’s just a great cop trying to keep her head above “wudder” in Mare Of Easttown
TV Reviews Kate Winslet
The global protests that followed the death of George Floyd didn’t just renew scrutiny about American policing. They also sparked, for the first time, an examination of how police procedurals have fortified inequities in the justice system by oversimplifying police work and deifying those who do it. There’s been woefully little progress toward police reform since last summer, but cop shows are, at the very least, showing their characters grapple with the part they play in a system that produces wildly different outcomes depending on who you are. Law & Order: SVU is in the midst of a season-long arc about police misconduct. The writers of Brooklyn Nine-Nine elected to restructure its farewell season in light of the cultural shift.
The broader conversation around cultural representations of the police may not initially seem to implicate Mare Of Easttown, HBO’s latest emo whodunnit. After all, Mare Sheehan’s turf is one of the bedroom communities that make up Delaware County, Pennsylvania. There’s work to do, of course, mostly owed to the fact that opioid addiction has ravaged Easttown like it has so many communities like it. But much of Mare’s work relies on her soft skills, which television cops don’t get to reveal often enough. When Mrs. Carroll spots a prowler lurking nearby, she won’t call main dispatch. What’s the point when Mare — never Detective Sheenan — will come to your aid first thing in the morning? Mare reminds her there’s a protocol to reporting such things, but Mrs. Carroll holds her ground: “I trust you, and I don’t know who the station will send over.” She’s viewed as a community servant, not the thin blue line between order and chaos.
The challenge facing cop television now is the challenge to depict a desire for greater accountability in a profession notoriously hostile to it. Mare of Easttown doesn’t face that challenge because its protagonist is consumed by accountability. Not the accountability that follows a tragedy or springs from a congressional committee, but the kind that comes from a genuine investment in the community and a desire to improve it. Mare has that kind of personal accountability, hence the early morning call from Mrs. Carroll. In fact, her sense of responsibility runs so deep that she would sooner publicly accost a cancer patient than have anyone think she didn’t do enough to find a missing girl. Her life is about to complicate as a renewed focus on the Katie Bailey dovetails with a brutal murder in the usually uneventful town.
The pilot follows parallel tracks, both featuring women navigating messy break-ups and raising children under circumstances they didn’t plan for. They share deep roots in Easttown, the kind of roots that ground you but also convince you that it’s impossible to uproot. The first woman is Mare, who, when she’s not solving all manner of local crime, is twisting herself in knots over her ex, Frank. It’s a break-up compounded by both their co-parenting arrangement and sheer proximity. It’s hard to get over someone who never goes away, and so uncomfortably close is Mare’s extended family that Frank and Faye, his intended, live directly across the street. Mare is the last to know about their engagement party, and one of the few people in the neighborhood without an invitation. Not that she’d have accepted it.
The other is Erin, a teenage mom whose life has stalled out as she navigates parenthood alone. Actually, Erin and her baby would arguably be better alone, rather than weighed down by the dysfunctional village raising her child. Kenny, Erin’s hot-tempered father, makes clear he sees Erin’s son not as a grandchild, but as a drain on resources that his father should be providing. Dylan, for his part, has moved on with the, um, confrontational Brianna, who doesn’t take kindly to Dylan’s vestigial relationship with Erin. Dylan shares custody of the kid, perhaps due to some minimal sense of duty, but doesn’t want to financially support the child any more than family court forces him to. It’s no wonder Erin’s taken solace in an online flirtation with a generic heartthrob named Brendan. Especially when he says things like “I want you to dance again,” a sentiment that fills her head with glimpses of a life without motherhood.
Creator Brad Inglesby’s script is elegant enough that initially, it isn’t quite clear how Erin’s story will intersect with Mare’s. But the moment she’s seen firming up plans with Brendan, it’s obvious that Erin is the victim whose murder Mare will have to solve. That knowledge makes all Erin’s scenes tough to watch because they’re so inevitable. As sketchy as the Brendan situation seems, it’s plausible that Erin would be intoxicated by a new romance to the point of ignoring all the red flags. If you need something fun and exciting to distract from your circumstances, you’re less likely to dwell on the inconsistencies.
When Erin arrives at Sharp’s Woods for her date with Brendan, she’s immediately reminded that while her dancing days might be far behind chronologically, she couldn’t be farther away from them. She runs into a couple friends from high school, and she might as well be speaking Mandarin when she talks about how her entire life is now devoted to her son. That awkward moment is just the beginning of Erin’s truly heartbreaking demise. Instead of encountering “Brendan,” she’s attacked by Brianna and her coterie of street toughs, the fulfillment of a threat issued early in the episode. As vicious as the beating is, it certainly isn’t enough to create the horrific head wound visible when Erin’s nude body is revealed.
In the final scene, Mare’s life finally intersects with Erin’s as she gets the call to investigate the murder. But as we’ve learned, Mare can’t just investigate cases. She can only be consumed by them.
Stray observations
- Kate Winslet is truly killing her take on the elusive DelCo accent, from the initial mention of “ooverdoos” calls to the “clean wudder” the baby turtle will need to survive.
- I loved seeing Kate Winslet’s reunion with Guy Pierce, but of all the plot threads introduced, I’m least interested in their relationship.
- Really looking forward to getting to know Lori, who seems like exactly the kind of radically empathetic friend Mare needs. The scene at the basketball ceremony is squirm-inducing.
- Don’t get me wrong, I’m on Mare’s side with the whole Frank thing, but couple names don’t get much more adorable than Frank and Faye. That’s just cute.
- Speaking of the basketball ceremony, female athletes aren’t always given the attention and support they deserve, so it’s pretty cool that Easttown is so proud of its Lady Hawks.
- The elegant and understated title reveal is interesting, but I saw listed in the credits Imaginary Forces, the team that assembled the beloved opening credits for Stranger Things. I’m curious to see if there’s a more formal opening in the next episode.
- I get that Kenny is supposed to be irrationally angry, but my dude, microwaved cheese is always a hazard to the roof of your mouth. If you can’t hang, then clearly that frozen mac ‘n’ cheese life isn’t for you.
142 Comments
It’s “wooder” not “wudder”. Wudder is an entirely different pronunciation of water.
Yeah, if it came out closer to “wudder” she borked the accent.(and if anyone else is thinking “wudder” and “wooder” have the same vowel sound, they are clearly not local)
As a born and raised Philadelphian, I can attest to this. I am eternally grateful that because my parents are New Yorkers (Brooklyn and Queens), I do not speak with the regional accent.
What’s so terrible about having an accent?
Not a thing at all — I happen to speak with a New York one. That said, I subjectively find the Philly accent (as well as Baltimore’s) unappealing.
Wudder you talking about?
and the main-goo woodeh-rice is the jawn at Reedah’sWeirdest regionalism I ever heard in the midatlantic: people pronouncing “Reese’s” “ree-seas”…so are they “ree-seas pee-seas”?
I knew a lot of people who said ree-sees pee-sees when I was a kid. If you’re a little kid who’s not reading the label, you just say what you kind of hear.
it’s nic-ee of you to giv-ee your perspectiv-ee 🙂
And for the record, I never said reesees peesees. lol I just heard it. This was in TN.
of cours-ee
if you asked me to say “Reese’s Pieces” right now I would say reesees-peesees and it wouldn’t occur to me for a second I’m wrong.
I grew up in Berks County near Chester County (which is where this is actually set, not Delaware County; also Easttown is one of the “best places to live in America” and the median income is like 100k so … I don’t understand why they set it there per se, but there are plenty of places outside Philly that do look like the fictional Easttown.)
I think her accent is pretty good although it’s a little weird on the whole because some are actors on the show are better at this than others. I don’t have a full-on accent but I say my “ons” and add weird ‘a’ sounds where they don’t belong: ex., athlete is “ath-uh-leet.” In Texas I went to Whuddaburger. I think it’s fascinating people notice the accent and have such a strong reaction to it because for a long time I didn’t think it was an accent at all!
“Wudder” is what Elisabeth Shue’s character said in The Saint. They never said where the character was from, but the actress is from Wilmington, DE. Not saying that to argue your point. I just love that movie and will take any opportunity to talk about it.
it does sound like the former but we spell it like the latter.source: grew up in T/E school district (E is for Easttown).
I’m originally from South Jersey (Burlington County), but moved to Georgia at 6 years old. I didn’t even realize I said it different until someone pointed it out to me in high school. I’m pretty sure I now say a bastardized amalgam of “wahdder”
Correct. Now is there a scene where she shops at the local Ackamee?
I kind of like this show, but man is it bleak. Almost everyone comes off as a jerk, at best. The only pleasant one is Guy Pearce’s visiting professor, which obviously means he’s the murderer.
Ha that was actually my immediate thought–but would the timing add up? I guess we still don’t know exactly when Erin was killed.
It’d be tight, but maybe. If she left his house at 2 or 3 am, and he went out immediately afterwards, sure.
I’m convinced he’s the peeping tom. Ferret in a hoodie? Come on, it’s him.
Having grown up in Delco, I can assure you that it is (or was, I’ve barely been back in the past few decades to check) quite filled with jerks. The default manner for treating people there is with aggressive hostility.
Haha ikr? Lol
The show may have taken pains to avoid that explanation by having Pearce expressly say he’d only been in town since the previous fall. I’m assuming the person who killed Erin also killed the girl a year ago.
Hey, maybe he came in for a job interview!
I said the same thing to my wife when watching this… Pearce is too big a name to just be some side-piece; he’s got to be the killer!
I mean it’s good. The sheer quality of it comes across in waves. And Kate Winslet is such a watchable actor. But did it have to be a pretty young woman who dies? And then draped across the rocks. Couldn’t a curve have been thrown, the boyfriend instead perhaps – or, here’s a suggestion, make us care without needing to murder someone. Don’t the characters already feel trapped in that place? I’m carping. But still.
I’d watch a mini-series of Kate Winslet reading the phonebook (are those even still a thing?), but she was excellent in this first episode. She always seems to disappear into her characters and I forget that I’m watching a major Oscar winning superstar and that was very much the case with Mare. I rewatched Titanic last night and the way she elevates just about everything she’s in is remarkable. Really looking forward to the rest of this series!
Pretty sure they live back-to-back rather than across the street, which is way worse.
Frank has perfected his passive aggressive game.
She looks out her back window (patio?) at the party going on in the back of their house, so I think you’re exactly right–and holy God that would be so much worse.
Frank Fay was a vaudevillian and actor. He was also Barbara Stanwyck’s violently abusive first husband, a racist, an anti-Semite and a straight-up fascist who was rooting for the Nazis (not even kidding). He was an awful, hateful person. He is also, weirdly, an important progenitor of modern stand-up comedy. He made a few movies, though very few, and I’ve seen two of his starring roles (plus a bit part in Nothing Sacred). Whatever he had that audiences liked, it didn’t translate to film. He also originated the part of Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey on Broadway (that’s weird too, IMO).
None of which is directly relevant to this show, except that naming Mare’s angst-providers “Frank” and “Faye” made me cringe repeatedly. Did add to the general low-grade bleakness of her world, though.
He was an awful, hateful person. He is also, weirdly, an important progenitor of modern stand-up comedy.
I dunno, as someone whose partner is (well was, covid) in standup, I’ve heard stories that don’t make the relation between the two all that weird.
He’s also thought to be the inspiration for Norman Maine
Frank and Fay Furillo were also the lead character on Hill Street Blues and his ex-wife. Someone on the writing team is at least as old as I am.
I had never heard of him before. I also hadn’t heard of “Joseph Scott”, who was referenced in one of the sources wikipedia cited about the “Friends of Frank Fay” rally, whose claim about the involvement of the (then rabidly anti-Catholic) KKK I found odd. The first result of a DuckDuckGo search for both names was an apologia for Fay saying that “while Frank Fay was indeed a raging anti-semite, he was not actually a fascist” although “we […] see nothing wrong with being a fascist”. Not a defense I’ve heard before (I more often hear that Mussolini’s fascism wasn’t especially anti-semitic). Even that guy who wants to insist Fay was a super cool standup comic has to admit though that his movies are just bad.
while Frank Fay was indeed a raging anti-semite, he was not actually a fascist” although “we […] see nothing wrong with being a fascist”. Hooo, Nellie. With defenders like that…
His movies are just bad. Maybe he had something live and on stage that dissipated before the cameras, but as it is, he’s brutal to watch. His voice is thin and high, like John Gilbert’s supposedly was and actually wasn’t (Gilbert sounds fine; Fay sounds creepy). He plays everything to the balcony, and does weird things with his expressions and hands to make sure we get it, nudge nudge, wink wink. He had lousy taste in scripts and couldn’t generate chemistry with anyone. In God’s Gift to Women, he’s surrounded by Laura La Plante, Louise Brooks, Margaret Livingston and Joan Blondell- three silent movie queens and one of the sexiest leading ladies of the pre-codes- and can’t gin up a spark with any of them. He’s a black hole of charisma.
And A Fool’s Advice/ Meet the Mayor is even worse, just cringingly false and unfunny. It’s “folksy,” so I can’t help but wonder if his Elwood P. Dowd held any similarities, which is an awful thought. That one’s free on Amazon Prime and YouTube, if you’re curious, but seriously, don’t. Life is short. (GGtW is on Amazon, too, but for money. Do not pay for this movie.)
Did an actor’s taste in scripts really matter back then? I thought once you had a contract with a studio, you appeared in whatever they decided. His terrible acting is all on him though.
Yes and no. Actors could and did refuse to take roles; how well it was received varied widely. Sometimes they were allowed the leeway, sometimes the part was finessed or rewritten until they agreed, sometimes they were told to shut up and get on set. Stars like Bette Davis and Ida Lupino spent as much time suspended as they did working. Olivia De Havilland Curt Flood’ed it right to court, and won. That crack in the foundation of the system started its eventual collapse, though it took some years to crumble. Still, wiggle room often could be found. Fay was an established vaudeville star when he got to Warners and could have used that as leverage for better parts, like others did, but he wasn’t smart enough (ha ha).Plus, in the case of Meet the Mayor, it was filmed at Columbia, but Fay wrote it and financed it with his (and Stanwyck’s) own money. He could only blame himself (and should. Good Lord, it’s awful.)
Looking at her IMDB page, Bette Davis went from 1931-1946 making at least one movie every year. It does seem that movies got made much more quickly then though.Good point about Meet the Mayor. That’s worse than bad choice in scripts.
Much more quickly. A star would have at least two, maybe three films a year, plus radio (Lux Soap won’t sell itself), plus publicity tours. Which is restful and luxurious compared to character actors- the Frank McHughs and Allen Jenkinses of the world were churning out six/seven/eight pictures a year, sometimes. It was presumably easier to do when you were just playing a type, but they did still need a little sleep.
Did an actor’s taste in scripts really matter back then? I thought once you had a contract with a studio, you appeared in whatever they decided. His terrible acting is all on him though.
Is Guy Pearce turning into David Carradine?Anyways, really liking it, Winslet amazing, very dark/depressing, murder was predictable, looking forward to more, yada yadaBut seriously how f*cking bat-shit psycho is that Brianna broad? I honestly hope it was her, just so they can lock her snotty evil ass up.
He’s a great actor and one who I tend to think is underrated. Even way back in the 80s when he was in Neighbours he was one of the better members of the cast during it’s classic era (by virtue of being able to act and express emotion) and in the excellent LA Confidential, among so many other great roles.
Ah the Kylie/Jason era of Neighbours. We got it about five years later in Canada (and only for a few years), so those episodes aired when I was 11 or so, and you’re right, Guy always stood out (I guess I didn’t really notice him again until Memento).
I had mentioned he doesn’t portray his characters as “Bad” or “Good” and it feels genuine. I think he is picky about projects, so is not seen as much but always brings something interesting to whatever character he plays. The Rollo Tomassi moment when Captain Smith mentions his name in L.A. Confidential with that subtle eye reaction from Pearce as Exley is still impressive after all these years.
Oh I don’t mean it as a dig against him, I’ve been a fan since the mid 90’s at least. I think it’s just the long gray-ish hair combined with his slender frame was sending me Carradine vibes.
Guy Pearce is always great. Even in grade-C garbage like Lockdown (in which a ‘roided-out Pearce rescues the president’s daughter from an orbital space prison) he’s magnetic.My two favorite performances of his are (of course) L.A. Confidential and (less obvious) The Rover.
I thought Lockdown was exactly what it was trying to be (and had to pay the writers of Escape from NY because of that)
I dunno–there was a local murder in the Canadian city I grew up in (under a bridge, no less) by a group of teen girls who had been tormenting another girl and… their behaviour wasn’t all that different from all the reports.
Yes, I immediately thought of the Reena Virk case when I saw that scene, and thought ‘They copied this from that event’, they were so similar. (I’m from the Southern Interior of B.C. and remember the case well, sadly.)
Yeah, was raised mostly in Victoria, where actually I now am living again (and I believe she would be the same age as me—though at the time my twin sister, who had been badly bullied, was much more aware of the situation).
Van Island?But yeah I know it happens but that doesn’t make it any less … the things I said. Like that girl was straight up unhinged. Like, what is that guy even doing with her? Not that he’s any prize himself I guess…
Yep, Victoria.
No, I definitely see your point (it is an interesting choice, as the reviewer said, that he does have partial child custody which shows… something). I guess it’s just that I have a twin sister and for a few years when we were teens (JR high though, she broke away by high school) she was running with a pretty rough crew and I definitely saw some girls who behaved *exactly* like that, at least in how they talked to other girls (I wasn’t aware of any actual physical violence though).
Sounded like it. I grew up in BC and was in HS at the time, so I remember it.
Anyways. I guess I was lucky to never have come across any people like that in my life. I wonder what the deal with the custody thing is too. Like around Erin he’s completely cold but in the ending montage he’s seen showing at least some affection for the kid. Gonna have to be a wait and see as we learn more about these characters. I almost wonder if they’ll reveal there was a reason so many people seemed to hate her. There might be some dark f-up shit she did that hasn’t been disclosed to the audience yet. Like they really went out of their way to make her extremely sympathetic.
And Brianna being all psycho for that boyfriend. What a loser.
I was surprised that he was there and present for the beating
I agree, am liking this from the start with quirky side characters and a complicated lead. Seems too obvious and easy to be Brianna the shitbird. Snotty/evil indeed, and the previews next week showed her being taken in ‘cuffs—she is a suspect, but she would beat her to a pulp, not strip her down—there is someone else involved in both murders perhaps? I love Pearce in anything, you can’t tell if he is good, playing bad, or bad, playing good? I couldn’t believe when they let Erin walk away by herself after that cruel beating? Someone knew she was alone, altered and vulnerable. The scene of her dad coming in the house, with his dull, dour face—why did they show that shot? So many questions.
Everything points so obviously to Brianna, that it can’t possibly be her.
Oh for sure there’s no way. Unless they go the way of: She’s the initial suspect but has a solid alibi and they go down this twisted maze of catching THE REAL killer who has ties to the other missing girl, they go through all this trouble and catch the killer but it turns out he had nothing to do with the new murder and suddenly it’s revealed it was actually the initial most obvious suspect.Or something.
lmfao SVU is in the middle of a season-long arc about police misconduct. You mean, when the SVU crew got a female department head fired because her male employee was a rapist? And let (un)Stabler beat up a suspect in a bombing case?no idea what “Mare of Easttown” is like because I haven’t seen it myself, but the word on the street is “slow and boring.”
Dick Wolf has done more damage to criminal justice in this country than any GOP Senator
You haven’t even seen it? I don’t judge or proclaim unless I have seen it myself, and watched it last night. So far I have only seen good reviews. The first episode introducing everything and everyone is usually a slog but this one had several interesting characters, dramatic developments and humor plus the acting was genuine—no one looking glamorously out-of-place here. Winslet is believable and Pearce is always good no matter what he does. It certainly is an elevation over the usual Law And Order episode.
Agreed on all counts–didn’t find it ‘slow and boring’ at all but kind of mesmerizing, in a really depressing way. I figured within the first minute or so of her introduction that she was the victim, and it truly made her scenes (particularly the few where she smiled) just incredibly heart-breaking. There’s not a bad performance in the group so far, and Winslet is just remarkable. I know it’s going to get more depressing, but it’s already ‘must watch’ TV as far as I’m concerned.
I liked the pace though did not find it depressing, rather for me it felt tragic and sorrowful because of the poor girl. Many times the first episode is the toughest because you are juggling multiple new storylines and meeting people you are trying to sort out within the presentation but this was done very well and allowed us to know the characters while trying to understand and follow the drama. The elements are sad and dark though involving. I hope there is truth and resolution in the ending which would make all these sad events worth the journey.
I feel even more sorry for the baby boy, but yes, sorrowful and tragic (and depressing)… The sheer hopelessness of everyone’s situation really got to me. Looks like another outing of must-see endurance TV. Kate Winslet is exceptional in the lead.
And, not once was I prompted to wake up by that Two-Ping submarine noise.Yes, I believe that is what that is for, to wake up old people (not me, yet) who have nodded off.This is going to be great TV, especially when Exley finds out the Titanic is going to sink and Mare realizes there isn’t enough room for all the passengers. Yes, that was a shitty Oscar Best Picture win.My guess: her father, before stumbling into the house in the morning, hit her with his truck. Accidentally, or not.But, looks like instead of giving us reasons for everyone to have killed her (that disappointing “The Undoing”) only to find out that it was the obvious one all along, we’ll have zero suspects until the final half-hour when that new cop, who was faking his blood aversion, is caught.
Oh wow, all the osmotically infused half awake L&O episodes you allowed as background noise have given you some great insight. I love that you are suspecting everyone which is the smart way to go, but she was nude in a creek with a big slice in her head so crime of hate/passion? Also is he Exley or is he Boyd in Ravenous? (btw, I am still burned by the lack of love for LA Conf. that year at Oscar time….) The presentation of her looking like Mare from PA and not Marianne from Sense and Sensibility gives me great hope this will be an interesting ride.
does this take place in the Olive Kitteridge universe? b/c these HBO dramas ALL look the same. it’s like they apply the same filter to all of them.it gets boring and samey, but i’m hoping this mini series will have a satisfying whodunit.
After the disappointment of ‘Your Honor’, I was really hoping that something intense, bleak and gritty would come along soon. The first episode had me hooked within five minutes. Kate Winslet never disappoints.
Your Honour was so cringe and it always made me lol that the judge was running everywhere on fucking foot, with some really heavy handed acting. This is gritty but it also cares for its characters, and I felt like hugging Mare in one scene and mouthing off to her in the next, just like we often feel with real people.
Yes, exactly!
my guess of the killer is Winslet’s ex and his fiancé. no idea why. that’s for the writers to sort out. i want to genuinely gasp when the killer/s are revealed. i want an interesting whodoneit.
Were there several entire paragraphs of this that didn’t get posted? I know reviews are rushed and it’s not great form to pick on them, but aside from a sentence that seems like it was garbled by the computer (“Her life is about to complicate as a renewed focus on the Katie Bailey dovetails with a brutal murder in the usually uneventful town”) this review doesn’t really explain the high rating (even if it’s not un-earned—I’d probably give the pilot a B or B+). No mention of Jean Smart? Mare’s living situation (is her cousin living with her? That the baby’s father was among the group when Brianna was beating Erin up? And she is looking after her dead son’s boy and, it seems, his teen mother)?
she is looking after her dead son’s boy and, it seems, his teen motherI got the impression Siobhan (great Irish name) was Mare’s daughter with the ex-husband, meaning she’s the little boy’s aunt, not his mother. Also, she’s not into dudes.
Oh pretty sure you’re right. I guess I was reading too much into the fact that she called Mare by her first name (I know, I know, on TV shows that’s what all the cool kids do). That said, I don’t think showing a younger person in recent movies or TV shows, particularly a young woman, sexually involved with someone of the same sex is ever indicative that they aren’t bisexual or pansexual.
Good point re: my dudes comment.I think her familiarity with the Dave Denman character gave me the impression she was his daughter. Guess we’ll find out significantly more in the coming weeks.
Ha, well I really don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote my initial post because, yes, obviously she is the daughter of Mare’s ex it seems (Frank?) so I’m pretty sure you’re right. As well it would make sense with the little ways we saw them parenting the grandson–I assumed maybe Mare took more responsibility simply due to Siobhan’s age, but…
It does seem like there’s a paragraph or two missing from the end of this review as yeah, there’s a lot of things not touched on–it’s a pretty detailed show so I suppose that would have been a much longer review, but I agree it feels a tad incomplete as is.
Exactly. I know I’m a bit of a hypocrite as I’ve also complained on here about some other TV reviews which are almost entirely “And then this happened” recaps and nothing else, but…
I’m glad I speak fluent hoagie-mouf ‘cause 90% ah dis country in’t ging tao undurstaund anythin’ dey sayun.
For anyone who watched Devs, Erin is played by Cailee Spaeny. Spaeny was Lyndon on Devs.
Oh my goodness, that’s where I recognise them from!
As a huge Devs fan I was hoping to see more of her, but unless we get loads of flashbacks that’s probably not the case.
they did Lyndon dirtyI wonder if she could play that part if that show was made today…I know it was made very very recently but a lot has changed?
Currently, TBS has a show Chad starring Nasim Pedrad playing a fourteen year old boy, so I think it could still fly under the radar.
that’s 100% different, that’s a woman playing a boy as opposed to a woman playing a trans-man. If Chad realizes Chad is a woman then it could get hairy (ironically?), but I don’t foresee that as a plotline.
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/alex-garland-interview-devsLyndon isn’t trans. Garland states in the interview; “It’s not a trans character, and it never was, and I never toyed with the idea of it being a trans character”
that clearly doesn’t read, whereas in Chad it is the whole point. I guess then I’d have to say the casting was a failure…the denouement of the character was also a failure so Garland really ran the table
A rating is too generous for something that’s same old, same old detective story.
I’m from Tennessee, but my mom’s family is from the Eastern shore of MD. They share a similar accent to this one here, and I’ll never forget the time my sister and I were riding bikes around my grandparents’ neighborhood on a summer visit and a neighbor said “Doon’t y’all get tahhhhr gooin’ up that hill?” My sister and I looked at each other, and then back at her, and she repeated herself. We were both at a complete loss, even though we’d spent a good deal of time there over the years and were somewhat used to the accent, so my sister took one for the team and tried to respond: “… Do we get tall?” The lady looked at us like we were kind of dumb, “TIE-ERD.” *facepalm*
Yeah, honestly a ‘Philly’ accent is more just a generic mid Atlantic accent that everyone pins on Philly. Then people won’t bother to tell the difference between a NYC and a Long Island accent, or even not bother with the LI accent(Looking at you Emergence, I know you got Allison Tolman but jfc if she’s gonna play a Long Island native she HAS TO AT LEAST TRY AN ACCENT).
I remember years ago Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did a bit on Weekend Update. They were arguing over some sports thing, maybe, and they each slipped into their home accents. Fey, a Philly (suburbs) accent, and Poehler, a Boston accent. Hearing Tina Fey’s was the first time I’d ever heard anyone besides my MD relatives talk like that. The only thing she did differently was say “yinz.” The Marylanders said “y’all.”
‘Yinz’ is a western PA thing anyhow.
Respectfully disagree, it really is a distinct accent. If anything, it may be stronger now in the suburbs and south New Jersey than in the actual city, since it had its strongest roots in the Italian, Irish and Jewish communities that have since dispersed, intermarried and presently mostly live oustide the city limits.
I’ll give you south Jersey, that’s distinct, but when I go into Philly I don’t hear much of that. Don’t really spend time in the Philly ‘burbs so I can’t speak for them.
Let’s be clear, I’m watching this show entirely for delco references and couldn’t care less about anything else. When does Mare visit Pica’s for the first time?
I made it 4 seasons into How to Get Away with Murder just because they would say “Fishtown” and “Cherry Hill”
Yeah, I will be checking this out because parts of it were filmed in my hometown, and also because Kate Winslet rules.
Where was it filmed, btw?
All around Delaware and Chester counties from what I can tell, but you can actually see my childhood home in the background for a few seconds of one scene in the premiere – the part where she spots the prowler in the alley was filmed on that street. I actually missed it the first time through, a friend mentioned it to me and I only noticed on a rewatch.
Mare has a daughter about to graduate from high school, and Pica’s is a classic post-prom destination. There’s no problem anyone has in this show that couldn’t be solved with some sandwiches from Di Bruno’s.
It lost me when she chased the suspect on foot and twisted her ankle. She knew where he was going and could have just driven up to his house. The fact that she didn’t understand politics and the police departments place in politics gave me the first sign the show was in trouble. Hugging the woman who punches the handcuffed man in custody was when I turned it off.At least Professor T reruns are still available
fair enough..but she punched her brother..it wasn’t just some dude in handcuffs. a brother who is screwing over his entire family and it is painful to watch…absolutely cool if that is still enough to bother you..but to me it shows an understanding of all the people in that situation.
If she understands these people so well how did she not see that coming. I am so tired of watching stupid people do stupid things and I don’t need a TV series to see more of that.
Also, the woman is a friend from high school. They were on the basketball team together, but, you turned off before that scene. So, I’m guessing she knows all the people involved, for years.
It’s Delco, not DelCo. Sincerely, Area Philadelphia Man
True, but according to Google, Easttown is in Chester not Delco?
From what I read, it sounds like the Easttown in this show is a fictional Delco suburb. Maybe a stand-in for Upper Darby, Chester, or Ridley Park?The actual Easttown Township in Chester County is little more than a census amalgamation of two Main Line villages and some indistinct suburban housing developments. Its basically just a random shape someone drew on a map and called it a township.
I wish they made that clear or they called it something that isn’t nearby with the same name. It sure feels like Delco from my limited experience, plus the opening shows that power plant that blew up a few years ago and is south of downtown
Yeah I grew up next to Easttown and it’s nothing like the show- it’s very affluent and always has had really big mansions. Why not just make up a more neutral name?
I live in a place that has towns called Asse and Erps-Kwerps, so Easttown to me sounds like the most generic name possible.
Yeah. Believe me, I avoid that whole area. Delco sucks.
As someone who grew up around the wicked bahd Mass accent and had parents with the inscrutable Down East Maine accent, I still was not prepared when I met my first PA native in college and he announced he was going to go do the warsh.
People make fun of that accent, but it always just reminds me of my grandma. Sadly, though, this show sounds like very much not my thing.
I’m from central PA and I still catch myself with the “warsh” and “warter”.And I can’t get two syllables out of “mirror” to save my life.
Just another dour, pompous, condescending HBO series. Stylistically generic and inoffensive, hackneyed characters and subject matter, plumbing the darkness purely for grim entertainment value while having nothing of substance to say.Yet another example of the HBO house style failing to evolve beyond reiterating the same outdated, stylistically conservative “prestige” aesthetics that they’ve been flogging for decades now to diminishing returns.
I’ll give you ‘dour’ but I’m not sure I understand where ‘pompous’ is coming from, and I guess I’m not smart enough to understand what ‘stylistically generic and inoffensive’ even means. Sounds like someone was pre-disposed to hating this before watching a second of it (and HBO in general) but whatever—certainly that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it, no matter how wrong it is.
Yeah, I hate it when things are pompous and condescending.
The show is pompous and condescending in its depiction of “poors” by elites.My comment is, according to you, pompous and condescending in calling that out, presumably because I committed the sin of posting trenchant criticism on a site by and for facile dullards.Your comment could be described as pompous and condescending in passing off smug, tritely dismissive sarcasm as some kind of profound gotcha.As should be so obvious as to go without saying, similar qualities exhibited by different exemplars differ in significance and meaning according to context and purpose.
Thanks, for a moment I was worried that you *were* actually pompous and condescending, but then you called yourself ‘trenchant’ and everyone else a ‘facile dullard’
kill yourself
The kind of Pennsylvania towns ravaged by opioids while clinging to past athletic glories are not the kind of towns with black police chiefs. Nor do they have homeless shelters. And they don’t have female detectives.
Great name.
So, from what I read in this review… is this essentially a Nordic Noir set in Delco?
Now that I’ve watched the trailer, this show looks like to be channeling the spirit of the original Danish version of The Killing far better than the worthless US remake. The world-weary look on Kate Winslet’s instantly reminded me of Sofie Grabol’s iconic portrayal of Sarah Lund.
If you’ve ever seen Happy Valley, the setup is very similar to that (although I’m sure that one was inspired by Nordic Noir as well).
That was the first thought that entered my mind.
Can the typo in the ‘Stray Observations’ (Guy Pearce, rather than ‘Pierce’) be corrected?
Speaking of the basketball ceremony, female athletes aren’t always given the attention and support they deserve, so it’s pretty cool that Easttown is so proud of its Lady Hawks.Don’t forget Jackie Daytona and his support of the women’s volleyball team in What We Do In The Shadows
So how can Kate Winslet be a “great cop” when “all cops are bastards”?
I feel like this review oddly flattens a nuanced, interesting character. The article portrays Mare as a “community servant” who “can’t investigate cases, she can only be consumed by them.” The author writes that “her sense of responsibility runs so deep that she would sooner publicly accost a cancer patient than have anyone think she didn’t do enough to find a missing girl.”This seems to avoid the overarching trait Mare demonstrates in the premiere — she’s unpleasant to basically everyone she meets. She ignores the call from her ex husband, is irritated at him when she finds out he’s engaged, only to have him note he’s been calling her in vain for weeks. She is reunited with her old teammates and supposed friends, only to be openly hostile to all of them, including the cancer patient mother of a missing girl. She goes to a bar and is confrontational with Guy Pearce, then sleeps with him and is openly disdainful of the idea that he would like to see her again. The rest of the family attends her ex husband’s engagement party, where it’s clear they are instantly lighter and happier outside of her presence.All of this makes her an interesting, nuanced character. And there’s certainly a kind of feminist story being told here — of a woman so busy and disappointed in her life that she winds up even ruining the moments where she could be happy. She’s carrying a ton of responsibility and taking care of a lot of people, but in a way that sort of makes her challenging to be around. But the AV Club seems to have a strange blindspot to that story, maybe because it is conflating the fact that Kate Winslet is leading an HBO police drama (which is truly awesome) with the character she is playing (who is not awesome by design).
Kenny is so young-looking, I thought he was Erin’s new boyfriend.
Which made her flirtation with “brendan” all the more confusing to me, but she’s obviously not a gal that makes good choices.
Kate Winslet is great in this, but one thing bugged me just like it bugged me in The Outsider: just because it’s a small town, you’re not necessarily going to know everyone by their first name, or vice/versa. It’s a small town in Pennsylvania, not Mayberry. Well, obviously it’s not because they have real-world problems, I just mean in the sense of everybody being one a first-name basis. If every time she gets called to a house to investigate a burglary or break up a donestic disturbance, and someone’s like, “Oh, Mare, thank god you’re here,” I’m gonna get seriously irritated.
They should have made this “Mare of Bethelehem or Allentown” etc – or at least actually set in Delaware County since it’s actually working class. But then Philadelphia should have more of an influence since it’s right next door and huge. A show set in Easttown should be more like Veronica Mars- we have huuuge mansions throughout the township and there’s definitely a “rich vs. less rich” thing between the richest people, Asian/South Asian immigrants who are usually middle-class, and the African-American descendants of former servants from some of the ancestors of the mansion people
yessss it drives me nuts that they call this fictional place Easttown. I guess it’s a bit more poetic than Mare of Coatesville? Philadelphia isn’t lacking in gritty exurbs so … I just don’t get it. I do think they nailed Erin and her ex as characters; there were plenty of similar grim turds floating around the area that I recall from childhood.
The show creator is actually from the T/E area too so it’s not really a mistake. Maybe some producer pushiness created the weird name? And it’s too close to be just fictional. Like if it was “Marwyn” or something that would be more believable. Also every county that touches Philadelphia is affected by Philadelphia. It’s not the same thing as a small town in the middle of nowhere.
It’s truly baffling. Unless he is attempting to drive people away from moving there to preserve its character. I’m sure people in my home area (around Elverson) would have encouraged me to depict it as a pit of devilry and despair to prevent more people from moving in.
I’m guessing you are right, that it is a producer’s choice. They could have had a lot more fun with it. Wynnesletyn anyone?
I could maybe even see that- there’s been some major grumping in the community about new developments being built. Our roads are delicate, twisty Revolutionary things so it’s not a town that expands easily. And we really don’t need the money (again you couldn’t pick a place that was less classic small town- you can just walk from the border of one ‘town’ to another in that part of the Main Line, it’s more about which school district you have and the exact price of your real estate). I feel a little disappointed- I feel like something set with that sort of old money + new money + up and coming immigrants could be interesting. Not to mention there aren’t enough dramas that casually include lots of West and East Asians in their background of “Americana”.
Elverson is already the the Devil’s sphincter, so no need to worry there. It’s arguably the worst place in the world, loaded to the gills with Kool-aid drinking religious zealots and “storm-the-Capitol-type” so-called patriots who all believe Covid is a hoax. Only a fool is taken in by its quaint, village-like facade. Highly NOT recommended…and not because I’m making it up to keep others from moving to the area. Consider it a public service instead. This community and it’s people would need a fireman’s ladder to be able to look up to the squalid stench of humanity depicted in Mare’s fictional Easttown.
I’m here for Kate and Jean but I found the writing forced and cheesy (especially during every teenager scene. It felt very ‘how do you do fellow kids.’) The ex-husband and Brianna are comically one-dimensional, evil in a way the show hasn’t justified yet.
Who is Guy Pierce?
Are we playing reverse-Jeopardy?