Mare Of Easttown finale is HBO Max's most-watched episode since launch, according to HBO Max
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Like Netflix, HBO Max is in the habit of self-reporting its streaming data, which is about as reliable as trusting a self-evaluation from Chad in marketing. While we’d audibly raise an eyebrow at press releases in which streaming platforms proclaim that every new, much-tweeted-about show is the “most passively watched by women folding laundry in the 25-40 demographic,” HBO Max’s latest viewership report actually sounds very correct. Per Uproxx, the series finale of Mare Of Easttown is the platform’s most-watched episode since last year’s launch—a claim confirmed by HBO Max itself:
Mare Of Easttown’s finale raked in 4 million viewers over the weekend, with almost 3 million viewers tuning in to watch the episode Sunday night across all HBO platforms. Kate Winslet and director Craig Zobel’s riveting detective drama is the latest addition to what appears to be a slowly growing stable of mystery thrillers about deeply flawed women, each with a signature hairstyle that, when read like tea leaves, reveals their hidden traumas. Following Nicole Kidman’s poodle-doodle-’do in The Undoing (someone needed to undo the kinks on that wig) and Kaley Cuoco’s brazen middle-part messy bun in The Flight Attendant (a symbol that perhaps Gen Z and millennials will achieve peace in our lifetime), Winslet and her extremely relatable, oft-unwashed low ponytail quickly proved the strongest of the bunch—which admittedly had a lot more to do with a compelling narrative, great performances, and Zobel’s wrangling of a convoluted narrative fraught with twists into a coherent story that emphasized character over content. Still, there’s something to this whole hair thing.
Even before HBO made those viewership numbers public, Mare Of Easttown had obviously become a big deal in the culture, as evidenced in large part by a particularly well-executed SNL satire rife with those rich Delco accents. All of which is to say that absolutely no one is surprised at talk of a potential second season, and while we should know better after what Meryl Streep did with her teeth for Big Little Lies, there is not a scenario in which we would turn down more Mare Of Easttown. Not even if they wash her hair.
12 Comments
So a whole BUNCH of people saw the magical world where like half a year passes over the course of an episode yet the babies didn’t age a day.
Springfield is in Delco.
Can confirm.
Considering the production was halted because of Covid (I believe the pizza parlor scene in the last episode was the first scene they filmed with the child actor that played Mare’s grandson), it’s a minor miracle that kids weren’t sprouting and shrinking throughout the course of the series.
How does viewership increase each week? Are new people tuning in for episode 4 that didn’t watch episodes 1-3? Or is it that 500k people watched the show in week 1, then 1M people watched at least one of the first two episodes in week 2, 1.5M watched in week 3, and so on?
So did HBO pay the AVClub for all this laudatory coverage with a big sack of money with a dollar sign on it, or was it something more discreet like a valise?
Or…is this what simply happens everytime a TV show breaks through in pop culture. Something that doesn’t happen as much these days.
I only learned of it’s existence like three days ago so I’m genuinely surprised by this.
Some episodes on HBO Max that are more deserving of that honor:- Fresh Prince: “Twas the Night Before Christening”- Doctor Who: “Robot of Sherwood”- Steven Universe: “Onion Gang”- Batman: The Animated Series: “Almost Got ‘Im”- The Nanny: “Kindervelt Days”- The Wayans Bros: “Pops’ Secret”
Maybe.But you’d need a time machine to launch HBO Max when those episodes aired…
This was the rare show that I actually watched live. And of course on finale night, HBO max was glitchy – I guess they couldn’t handle the traffic.
When they say “most watched” they mean within a certain time period right? It’s not like more people have watched the last episode than the first episode right?No one’s going into a murder mystery show and is like, “I’m just gonna skip all the early episodes and just watch the last one because I heard the series is good.”