As it turns out, Mare Of Easttown is to television as one might imagine the homes in the “olde historic” portion of the town itself: an austere and modestly handsome exterior that opens to a gobsmacking world of character and detail.
Even before the pole-axing double cliffhanger, “Fathers” finds Mare at a level and pace of storytelling that feels almost jarring after a pilot that spends most of its energy setting the table. It’s a nifty twist on the contemporary murder-mystery series, many of which burn through their gunpowder setting up the crime, only to spend subsequent episodes retreating into subplots. “Fathers” begins with Mare discovering Erin’s body and ends with her beset on all sides as the case intersects with her life in increasingly uncomfortable ways.
Before we get into the plot machinations, some catch-up is necessary given the ultra-connected nature of the Easttown community. The broad tapestry of characters takes a minute to come into focus, but “Fathers” brings some clarity. For one thing, Mare and Frank have been raising their grandson for two years since their son Kevin died by suicide. That offers a lot of context into Mare and Frank’s relationship as well as Mare’s general world-weariness. It’s no small feat to keep a marriage together following the death of a child under any circumstances, let alone a death by suicide. The custody arrangement is about to become the latest fire Mare has to put out, as Drew’s mother Carrie has emerged from drug treatment and is ready to end what she assumed would be a temporary solution.
The late Kevin Sheehan is just one of the many patriarchs whose choices drive the action in “Fathers,” beginning naturally with Kenny McMenamin. Kenny is crushed when he’s told of Erin’s death, his guilt compounded by their tense final conversation and his refusal to let her use his truck instead of riding her bike to Sharp’s Woods. Kenny immediately points the finger at Dylan, and honestly, why wouldn’t he? Given the prevalence of intimate partner violence, especially in situations involving money and the sharing of custody, Dylan would be anyone’s number one suspect. Doesn’t help at all that the video of Brianna’s assault on Erin has already gone public, providing a clear motive for involvement by one or both of them.
The viral video proves a blessing and a curse for Mare, who only learns her daughter Siobhan was at the woods and interacted with Erin while watching the clip with her colleagues. That group of colleagues includes Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters, underplaying for a change), the county suit whose bigfooting was all but inevitable. The increased scrutiny on Katie Bailey’s disappearance, and Mare’s investigation of it, would have made it impossible for her to fly solo on this one. So, Mare spends a lot of the episode in the humiliating position of having to train and orient someone who knows nothing about the community she knows intimately.
In another upending of convention, Colin is no vulture from “upstairs.” He’s carrying out an assignment he was given and seems sensitive to the emotional component of the relationship he’s forging with Mare. Colin isn’t taking anything away from Mare and knows trying to wrest the case from her would likely doom it. He’s quietly observant and downright charming, so it’s not surprising to see Mare start to let her guard down so quickly. But if Colin’s pleasant-mannered approach to detective work helps him bond with Mare on a personal level, it doesn’t help meld their totally different styles.
After the Brianna video surfaces, Colin prefers a smoother approach, while Mare is content to swoop into the Delrossos’ fine dining establishment to arrest Brianna and frog-march her out in the middle of her shift. Brianna denies, as does Dylan, any involvement with Erin’s death. The video looks bad, obviously, as do the money squabbles around Dylan and Erin’s baby, but the couple insists they wouldn’t go to such extremes.
That argument is less convincing in Brianna’s case, but it’s enough for Brianna’s father Tony, who’s less than thrilled by Mare’s noisy arrest. Beyond the legal jeopardy his daughter is facing, Tony is personally offended by the way Mare chose to arrest her. It was an attack carried out on his home turf. At least, that’s one explanation for why Tony thinks it’s a good idea to overtly intimidate Mare to the point of chucking a gallon of two-percent through her window. Tony has to know on some level that this couldn’t possibly help Brianna’s situation.
Unfortunately, a time will come when Mare might look back fondly on the days when spilled milk and a pile of broken glass were literal problems and not figurative ones. She finally takes an opportunity to have the conversation with Frank she’s been putting off for so long. She extends an olive branch to her uber-mensch of an ex-husband, who implies that their marriage never got back on the rails following Kevin’s death. He seems happy with Faye and sees no reason why they can’t find a new path as friendly neighbors.
It’s open for interpretation whether Mare’s primary motivation was to make peace with Frank or collect some breadcrumbs for her investigation. After all, Frank, who is apparently a high school teacher, had Erin in a few of his classes and might have had some helpful insights into her life and personality. Frank doesn’t have much to offer except shallow shock and general condolences. It’s certainly not the behavior of a man who just learned of the murder of the mother of his child, his former student with whom he had a highly illegal clandestine affair. At least, that’s the claim made by Erin’s best friend Jess, who says Erin told her in confidence that Frank was more likely than Dylan to have fathered Erin’s baby.
Meanwhile, Kenny McMenamin decides he’s not content to let the system slowly crank towards justice for Erin. He ambushes Dylan, forcing a drive deep into the woods, and puts two bullets into Dylan’s back, in no way swayed by Dylan’s claims of innocence. To recap: Mare’s daughter is among the last people to see Erin alive, and her prime suspect is dead, only to potentially be supplanted by her ex-husband who just so happens to live across the street. Like…imagine a world in which you watch this episode and don’t watch the next one? Can you even?
Stray observations
- I’m trying to figure out what combination of casting, acting, and writing left me so shocked to hear the secret Jess had been keeping. David Denman has a naturally trustworthy face (when he’s not in Dunder-Mifflin warehouse wear, anyway), which is perhaps why I didn’t look at him askew even after learning he personally knew Erin. A truly well-executed twist.
- I’m now super into Mare’s budding relationship with Richard Ryan, which is incredibly charming and offers much-needed respite from this show’s otherwise dour tone. And I probably need a GIF of Mare spitting out her duck liver pate and cramming it between couch cushions.
- There were a ton of really interesting tonal shifts throughout the episode, thanks in part to the playful score by Lele Marchitelli. The sequence in which Mare gets dolled up for Richard’s party is scored in a style often described by closed captioning as “light comic orchestral.” You’ll hear something pretty similar anytime someone does something embarrassing on a reality show.
- I was also pleasantly surprised by the levity of the interrogation montage. The score, the quick cuts, and half-punchlines reminded me of something you’d see in an Alexander Payne comedy.
- Also pretty delightful: the off-screen like-triangle developing between Lori’s daughter Moira and two of her classmates. Moira, upon being told she can’t ditch her current date for a better one: “Whatever.”
154 Comments
Highly informative review of the episode. Thank you!
The positive tone reminds me of why I like to watch “Everything Great About …” videos rather than the “Everything Wrong With…”
The positivity seems to accompany the greater information sharing vibe.
Me trying to keep straight who’s related to whom in this show.
All the townie men look pretty much the same. I had no idea who shot Dylan until I read this.
I mean, some of them look slightly alike, but not sure how you comprehended any of the narrative if you missed that.
It’s possible to use ‘I need to rewatch to remember who this generic-looking bearded white dude is’ as a mental placeholder; the topline narrative–Dylan is shot by someone who thinks he deserves it–is clear enough.
Heh I can get how you feel that.Simply put, Mare’s family has 4 living generations. Mare is mother and grandmother, her mother is living with her to help take care of great-grandson, who’s Mare’s grandson. Tony is the father of that bitchy girl who terrorized Erin, he’s the one who threw the milk carton at her home. Guess the apple didn’t fall far from tree. Erin lived with her father who appears to be rather abusive. He’s the one who shot Erin’s supposed father of her baby son at the cliffhanger. Frank was Mare’s husband, whom got split up after their son’s death by suicide.Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
The whole interconnectedness of the town creates some minor stylistic clashes. Mare seems to know everybody as if this is some dark Pennsylvania version of the Andy Griffith Show, but the general vibe of the setting leans heavy into that of a post industrial town big enough to contain tens of thousands of people. Most of the time I’m happy to brush this under the rug since the rest of the show feels so well done, but there are points where it starts to feel contrived, most notably in the scene where five major characters all narrowly miss crossing paths at the same gas station.
Yeah, that was the complaint I made after the first episode, that Mare and everyone else she encounters are on a first-name basis, as if Easttown were some kind of opiate-addled Mayberry. I spent over 20 years of my life in a tiny, tiny town (~1000 people) and I didn’t know the cops by their first name. The Easttown of the show definitely has that feel post-industrial northeastern town with a population of 10,000 or more; I’m anxiously awaiting the time when Mare encounters a resident of the town who she doesn’t already know by first name.
Whether Easttown is a large town or a small one, a cop would still have a limited area to cover, so from that point of view even a city is a collection of small towns which are a collection of beats. I’m not at all surprised that, as an inhabitant since high school and a cop since the, she knows the names and stories of a ton of people. I’ve seen nothing yet to suggest she knows everyone. She was kinda out of her comfort zone at the book thing.
I grew up in a post-industrial “city” in New York, that had roughly 14,000 people according to the census, and I gotta say, this show is capturing it exactly as it is. (The “city” has now exploded thanks to gentrification, and NYC ex pats leaving in droves after the economic crash to find a cute starter community, but I digress…). We all knew each other’s names. Our main street is a mile and a quarter long, with two gas stations. All the high school kids would party either on the mountain, or the river front. Somebody’s dad owned the deli, or one of the pizza places, or the shitty event space where prom’s, award nights, and fundraisers would be held. There were generational families who had been football stars, or the town fuck up. When I was old enough to drink, guys in their early 50’s would come up to me at the bars because they knew I was my dad’s kid. Idk. Again, 14,000 people, and we were still all up in everybody’s shit. The show rings pretty accurate and true for that kind of living to me.
I agree with you that the vibe of the show is very small town post-industrial, which is pretty strange, since it’s set in Easttown, PA. It’s an upper middle class suburb of Philadelphia. This isn’t the land of bearded men in camo driving trucks. It’s the land of people talking about the houses they’re renting at the Jersey Shore for the upcoming summer.So Mare wouldn’t probably be mystified with why a college professor might choose to live there — the area is a stone’s throw from Villanova and Haverford College. And she probably wouldn’t be warning her daughter that she needs to get her college applications out or she’ll never get out of Easttown, an upscale suburb of a major American city.
I’ve been making this same complaint as well. I also grew up in a small town (in New England) and generations of my family are from there (and some still there). But that doesn’t mean my mother knows everyone when she walks into a grocery store. It’s silly.BUT … I’m giving the show the benefit of the doubt on this. I THINK what we are seeing here is a development of the theme of the show: that a small town is suffocating from every angle. Mare’s job is inseparable from her friends and acquaintances, which in turn are inseparable from her family, which in turn are inseparable from Mare and her job. Mare encounters someone around every corner who somehow touches both her work and her friends and her family. The show is purposefully trying to make that point.
Good point. When I was growing up, my mother knew absolutely everyone, stopped to chat to all the women, and thereby knew the stories of every family. Shopping with her was a nightmare. But I think women are much more likely to be like that than men. It’s a social network and an information highway long before anyone thought of those names.
From what I know of the area (going back a bit), each of these towns is like a small hub, and the people from one hub all go to the same places and not over to the next hub (which is probably their high school’s rival among other things). Delco is a rolling amalgamation of towns, in the aggregate there are a ton of people, but it is very insular as the show makes it out to be. For example: if everybody in town knows that is the gas station with the cheapest gas that’s for townies and not people commuting through, it could easily be the place 5 people who know each other stop for gas or to pick up some light groceries (though it would more likely be a Wawa).I am watching “Catastrophe” on Prime, which is great except that it has the main 6 people running into each other all the time in LONDON. I accept it for suspension of disbelief. On the other hand if you live in like Media (which is nicer than Easttown) or one of these other Delco towns, your community is so insular you could very well see all the same people every day like Mayberry. Plus Mare is a cop and a local celebrity to some degree (like if somebody at the bar once played basketball at like Villanova or Temple).I’ll also tell you this, nearly every one of these towns in PA (and there are THOUSANDS across the state) has a little museum dedicated to how great it is. Very insular. I would bet Texas is similar with all the high school football rivalries.
They also rarely leave, so there are entire generations of families in and around that small home town. So everyone at least knows someone’s cousin, if not a closer relative. Also lots of big Catholic families. I grew up in a small town in WNY, but never encountered anything like I did when I moved to the Philly area. And Delco is probably the worst/best at this.
I understand why Jess didn’t just tell Mare what she knew and/or suspected about Erin’s baby’s father. But she told the police nothing. Why wouldn’t she mention the “internet boyfriend” (who later turned out to be the product of catfishing) that Erin was so excited about and was going to see, that she and Erin talked about the last time they were together (if I’m remembering my characters correctly)? She skipped it so emphatically that later, when she told her mother that Erin told her a secret, I had to assume that it was this – for whatever strange reason it needed to be a secret. (I was later disabused, of course.)
While it wasn’t explicit I figured that the cops already knew Brianna was catfishing Erin because of the video and the interviews.
Because Mare is not a trustworthy person. She blows up at everyone, makes everything personal.
A) As someone who works with teens … god love them, but coherent communication is not one of their strong suits.B) I don’t think we are supposed to believe that Mare is a great cop. She seems “good enough, I guess …” for Easttown. So this case falling into her lap makes the show more intriguing, in my opinion
It’s really bothering me I can’t binge through this. Sometimes it better to come late to the party.This Guy Pearce character is the biggest mystery on this show. Why does he find uber-bitch, Mare, so irresistible? And then the game playing at the book signing? She was right to leave because some cat and mouse is going on… ish.
I dunno. But I’ve been drawn to some ladies similar or worse than her for whatever reasons.
I’m convinced he’s the killer, or at very least the peeping tom. Remember the first scene, the old woman calls in Mare about the prowler, described as weasel faced? How is this not Guy Pearce, a silver weasel if ever there was one?
My first thought after last week’s episode was that HBO probably doesn’t hire Guy Pearce for this small of a role unless he’s the killer. Which would be really disappointing if it happens, it sucks when a mystery is given away by nothing more than obvious casting. Hopefully they have something more creative in store as the show goes on.
To some men, the smell of “fucked up life” is down right intoxicating. I know, I’m one of them and damn if I wouldn’t be all over Mare if I just got to town. Lives with her mom and her dead son’s son with possible neurological problems? Check. Cop? Sure. Doesn’t seem to give a fuck? Oh man, please please please let her fall in my lap. =)
I went through a phase where I casually dated a string of single moms who’d just gotten out of crappy relationships/marriages and… hmm I’m trying to think of how to say this without sounding arrogant and condescending…It felt really good to be a good guy to them and remind them that they deserved a good, healthy relationship. I don’t mean to sound like some movie character like some gigolo version of Mary Poppins who dropped from the sky holding a backpack with wine and cooking skills ready to show them how to fix their sink as well as their inner selves, I was just in an area where my age bracket for online dating had a lot of them on there and since I made it pretty clear I was only in the area semi-temporarily my well-written profile did well with the kind of person looking for more than just a hookup but not a serious thing.It really is crazy how much a shitty guy can make a person in shitty relationship with them feel so… shitty. So yea I do kinda get the attraction to Mare, she’s the kind of person it feels good to make feel better.
Just depends where your heart is. If you think you’re gonna fix them, you’re there for the wrong reasons and you won’t last or the relationship will turn hyper-toxic. If you both know the score and you’re a solid man for the time your together and aren’t bitter you’re not getting what you want, you’re nothing but good for other people. We need more people like that in the world, honestly.
Ehh come on now, the guy is at an event being thrown for him he’s allowed to soak up a bit of glory, she shouldn’t need baby-sitting. If she’d gone over and said “Hi” and he ignored her that’d be one thing but she just hung back while he was in the middle of conversing with people *at his event*.Like yea okay ideally because we see Mare as our character and window to see from, he should have been more attentive but realistically he’s a grown woman and she can go say hello too.I vote “hopefully still an okay dude” because I love Guy Pearce so much muchly biggly, and also because I like seeing when well-written, interesting characters get into good, interesting, relationships that have realistic ups and downs with mistakes and forgiveness rather than “hah this dude was a piece of shit all along and look how triumphant and strong she is for leaving him and being alone again.”
I think it was rude and actually I like that she didn’t tolerate it. It felt like a kind of ego puffing, that he enjoyed people fawning over him and maybe even wanted Mare to see that he was “important.” He did need a sec to detach from the conversations but Mare had enough time to eat (and spit out) horderves, in a place that clearly wasn’t her scene.
Nice cliffhanger fakeout suggesting, through the cutting, that Kenny had raped his own daughter. Maybe he did and the friend’s speculation that it was Frank is the actual red herring.So Mare is attracted to intellectuals. With marrying a math guy and now dating a literature dude. Guess she wanted to stay in uni via her partners.Winslet did some fine acting with the neurologist in the monologue about her son.I like the comedy of this town’s characters all knowing each other well enough that they can break out into verbal spats so casually without the fights becoming a big deal. Peters, the normal out of town guy, entering this world and seeing how Mare was like, was funny.
yes, I don’t find the show condescending towards it small town characters either, but it’s more of a gentle humour about how everything is so interconnected.
this is a great point–I saw SO many elements of the various bleh places I have lived in my life, but they were presented matter-of-factly, not in a Hillbilly Elegy sort of way, which was sort of a relief.
yes, it’s just the way it is! the show also shows the duality in small town communities, it’s nice not having to take on the responsibility of everything on your own but then that responsibility falls on people like Mare and things can become toxic.
Agreed on Winslet’s acting in that scene. She did a brilliant job of showing the cracks in Mare’s world weary tough cop armor without allowing herself to fully break and open up to the doctor. Two episodes in and it’s some of her best work in years, which is saying a lot considering how wildly talented she is.
If Frank is the baby daddy, it’s an obvious conclusion for the audience to jump to that he would be the murderer. Erin needs money for the baby’s medical bills so she blackmails Frank out of desperation and he kills her. That’s too simple for this show, surely?
I hope that is too simple an answer, yes! I mean, Frank would know that her dying would make it much more likely that someone would look more closely at her baby’s paternity and maybe do a DNA test.
Weren’t they having an engagement party at his house that apparently ended up being a late party with people drinking? If so, wouldn’t he had to dip out to perform this murder and dip back in, without notice of his time missing by the other guests?
That is what I thought too. Can it be that easy? If not, I think it is the uncle who was staying at the house looking after his brother. He had a look that was unusual when he was asked by his brother, Jess’ dad, if he was sure he was OK to stay and watch their brother.
Damn, I’m two days late!! I agree with you.
Probably too easy a conclusion. But is this show really going for twisty whodunnit though? Maybe the kitchen sink setting for the show should have a kitchen sink murder plot.
The whole point of these types of shows, is to make it so that in the early stages anyone looks to have a reason to kill.
I think the show is going to give you a person you want to be guilty (Brianna), but isn’t. Then introduces a weird character that arrives around the same time the murder happens (Guy Pearce) that is shrouded in mystery. Also, to add some more guessing games, the show will slowly lead you towards another shady character (Frank) to distract you from who the real killer is. Things are interesting enough with Erin’s aggressive dad and that bratty Dylan. The killer might be someone very close to home. I hope I am wrong.
I think the small town premise guarantees it’s someone introduced by now and I say it’s 100% the deacon guy who gave the eulogy and was tersely fielding questions from Mare’s cousin about how well he knew Erin.My slightly less certain prediction is that Mare and the author get together until he finds out he’s mining her and the town tragedy as second novel material
YES. The moment they were back in the sacristy, I said out loud, to myself, “That’s the motherfucker right there.”
I think it might have been too simple of an answer…Then again, we have gotten similar simple answer for The Undoing and that was an interesting twist of non-twist twist.Still, I am already so damn hooked.
The pastor/priest has a connection to Erin as well that is suspicious; and while I have no on-screen reason, I suspect Ryan (Pearce) simply because he’s too big a name to just be a romantic side story.
I included him in the developing suspect list myself.He’s more than just a distraction for Mare.
Per the Vanity Fair podcast, Guy Pearce was brought on (probably by Winslet, after they worked together on Mildred Pearce) when another actor whose name I forget (but who isn’t totally unknown) had to drop out. So I wouldn’t take Pearce’s fame as an indicator one way or the other.
We saw the deacon dump Erin’s bike in the river. That’s a little bit too on the nose to be anything but a red herring. Surely?
Perhaps Frank came clean with his fiance and she decided to tie up some loose ends before they get married
But Erin was killed the same night as Frank’s engagement party so though it’s not impossible, we’re being tossed a hook to create the beginning of a suspects list…The Guy Pearce character can be tossed into this mix.It’s going to get crazy.Aside: These people have awful diets!!
Actually, reading all these responses makes me realise that practically anyone could have done it. So will we have an ‘oh my God, that’s the last person I would have expected’ surprise reveal or an ‘okay, that makes sense’ logical conclusion?Maybe it’s all about the journey and not the destination in this case. I’m going to stop trying to figure out who the culprit is and just enjoy the ride.
No, it’s not Frank. I think it’s the other bearded drunkard. There are way too many cuts to him for no apparent reason: Him stumbling home drunk the morning after the murder; cut to his reaction during telling the father, etc.Now, why there is this confusion over two heavy, heavily bearded men? I guess we’ll be straightened out.Now, why Erin’s father has shot blanks toward Dylan’s back is another reveal. No reason to leave his grandchild without any guardians (especially using his bullets, his fingerprints on the car, etc.) except Dylan’s parents. And, we need that character for a reaction to his not being the father.This is set in current day, right? So, DNA tests can be done to determine not-parenthood, right? I think that would be the obvious thing to do.
Its strange to see Evan Peters play such a seemingly normal character.
This is a really good career move if he can pull this off. Can’t always play characters dialed up to 11.
I barely recognized him without the American Horror Story vibes.
I’m super late to the party (I wanted to let all the episodes build up), so I just watched ep 2 last night. I kept going…. who IS that guy? He was giving me Jonathan Groff in Mindhunters vibes but I knew it wasn’t him. So I pulled up IMDB this morning and literally yelled HOLY SHIT! Nice pivot Evan.
Ryan Murphy ruined his career.
I totally didn’t recognize him and just finished WandaVision a few weeks ago. I had to IMDB him.
It’s nice.
He was normal in WandaVision…except for the last name.Heh. Boehner.
One thing: Why would Mare go to the same gas station where the mother of the first missing girl works? WHY? Is it the only gas station in town?OK, I’m over it now.Everyone in this town is SO surly.
Going in didn’t seem to be her plan, the gas pump’s card reader was broken. I think she’d have gone elsewhere otherwise.
Also it’s not a huge city, the next gas station probably is a half mile or so away, enough to be out of the way if you’re on a schedule. I grew up in a town that had a cluster of gas stations in one spot and then the other part of town had one gas station and that was it. (Well actually I grew up in a town that had one gas station and then they couldn’t afford to get their tanks retrofitted so they’re just a tiny store that has no working pumps and a mediocre selection of beer. The town nearby me had the gas station a mile away from others.)
Also why did Dylan obey Kenny’s order to drive away towards the woods where he obviously planned to shoot him? Didn’t seem like Kenny had much leverage over him there. Dylan could have just walked into the store (talking the keys with him!) and called the cops to report that Kenny had been hiding in his back seat and pulled a gun on on him.
Dylan’s pretty entitled and more than a little bit stupid.
He’s obviously never seen the Sopranos
Right? Never go to a second location with a guy who wants to murder you!But he is kind of dumb. And it’s possible in such a stressful situation he is in a panic and much more open to “taking orders”. He’s trapped in a car a foot away from a guy with a gun on him. He wouldn’t get one foot out the door before he was shot. Now whether Mr Gunny is actually willing to almost immediately get caught and shoot him then and there, well we don’t know, nor does Dylan. All he knows is if he does what he says, he buys some time. It may not be logical, but he doesn’t strike me as a critical thinker in even the most ideal of situations.
The minute I saw that deacon’s sermon, he pinged my “he’s involved” radar. Then the conversation with the priest where he’s like “I knew her, but lost touch and, oh, I mean, I didn’t *really* know her [but I totally slept with her]” was pretty much a WATCH THIS SPACE moment. More coming there, no doubt.
I think we all felt that way, which probably means he has nothing to do with it. The suggestion was too unsubtle.
Maybe… I still think it’s pretty clear he’s hiding something. I don’t think that means he’s her murderer. I expect we’ll be seeing more of him. (Also, just a trivia note, the deacon is played by James McArdle who played Saoirse Ronan’s character’s husband with Kate Winslet in Ammonite.)I feel the same way about Richard Ryan (Guy Pearce). There’s more there than meets the eye. If they’re manipulating me to suspect him (they clearly are), he can’t be the main killer. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t hiding something!Or, in both cases (and Mare’s ex, too): Just because he isn’t guilty of murder doesn’t mean he’s innocent. These guys are all hiding something.
i called Frank and his creepy-book-reading-fiance, last week as the killers. I’m here for the next ten minutes for platitudes.
Frank’s way too passive aggressive to straight up murder someone.That fiance though, seems like she could.
Nah. Priest did it.
My thoughts as well
what is Evan Peters not in?
Nomadland
Untrue, he actually played one of the majestic purple mountains in the background and got a BAFTA or something for it.
Tom Baker–era Doctor Who.
My pants 🙁
Birth of a Nation? No, Mission Impossible? No, wait, C.H.U.D.? Am I warm at least?
As someone who grew up in Delaware County, I’m really proud of the fact the area was deemed depressing and bleak enough for one of these prestige-y type “girl murdered in small town” shows.
Was Easttown that bad? I looked up the demographics of Easttown Township (that is the place, right?) and it actually looks like a very affluent community:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easttown_Township,_Chester_County,_Pennsylvania The median income for a household in the township was $95,548, and the median income for a family was $109,103. Males had a median income of $80,341 versus $40,955 for females. The per capita income for the township was $51,028. About 0.7% of families and 2.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.6% of those under age 18 and 3.7% of those age 65 or over. If those numbers are correct, then it seems sort of bizarre to me that it’s played as a depressing wasteland vortex with no prospects and no hope.I’m really liking the show, though!
I did a perusal of the internet and found that it does take place in Chester County (I grew up near Chester County). The area is wealthy in some parts, more blue collar in others and looks like what’s depicted in the show. I guess that would explain the high society party thrown for the writer as there’s also places there with a lot of money.
I think I saw on one of the extras that the creator said it wasn’t based on an actual town but an amalgam of small town exurbs of Philadelphia.
I have not watched this show, only seen the preview and read the reviews, but it sounds like the producers carefully studied the Danish version of The Killing and distilled what made it so memorable. Unlike the US remake, which really didn’t seem to understand what drove the original show.
Agree entirely, from what I’ve seen so far. Only difference: Mare doesn’t have Sarah Lund’s great sweaters.
I’m really enjoying this so far–unlike Sharp Objects, The Outsider, and most of HBO’s other disappointing short series of late this one does let itself have a sense of humor. That makes a big difference. I also appreciate the worldbuilding and the plotting–they seem to be trying to tell a story rather than simply aim for tone. I hope they can keep it up.
I thought Sharp Objects had its moments, but ultimately too melodramatic and over the top I agree.
Agreed. This type of Scandi-inflected noir detective can get *really* dour. I’m glad they were smart enough to have Evan Peters and the interrogation scene here to have some sense of levity.
Evan Peters in a non Ryan Murphy project! Cool.
Sharp Objects didn’t completely land but it was still very memorable, I still dream about that green wallpaper.
The teeth in the doll house floor.
“Don’t tell Mama.”
Is The Outsider no good? I keep meaning to watch it, because I’m a Steven King sucker, but I keep forgetting about it. It has such a forgettable name and I don’t really see it talked about anywhere.
I watched the first episode of The Outsider knowing nothing and was completely hooked, completely. “Amazing set up! How are they going to write their way out of this?” Then the credits rolled and I saw it was a Steven King thing. “Oh so a ghost did it.” Yep.
yeah – that was disappointing; I still watched it, but could have been better if there was no super-natural aspect to it.
The “ghost” parts of The Outsider were what worked the best for me. The whole El Cuco monster, the idea of it being essentially a parasite that literally survives on grief and despair, was really compelling and intriguingly macabre. It was the Stephen King “band of misfits coming together” trope that hampered the show’s overall effectiveness in my eyes.
same here, but i think the approach they took was really great. i hate the “mystical being” trope, but kept with it. they do a great job of weaving loss, grief, science, the paranormal, and skepticism. yes, it is a mishmash of his other works, because he kind of re-writes all his stuff anyway, but this seemed more grounded. for a genre i really don’t care for, i was engaged and enthralled.
Give it a watch, The Outsider is one of better Stephen King’s adapted works. It is almost as if his very words are coming to life onscreen and the acting are just ballsy and amazing as hell. Even if the plot stumbled a bit toward the end and took quite a while to reach the conclusion, the journey is more than worth a watch.
Stephen King’s conclusions always take a long time to reach.
Great opening episode, after that it stretches one episode of material into nine. Buries the most compelling plot (woman dealing with town who thinks her husband’s a murderer) under hours of quirky detective doing quirky things. It’s a disastrous mess.
Meh, I’ll probably still give it a try. Especially since Mr Mercedes has ended and Castle Rock was unceremoniously cancelled.
I mean, as long as it’s not as bad as The Stand. Which I couldn’t even bring myself to finish.
I recommend it. It’s a pretty grounded take on a supernatural Stephen King story. And, yeah, if you don’t like it, at least it’s short.
The Outsider did a Game of Thrones…it was amazing right till the end then completely sh*t the bed lol
i *really* liked The Outsider.
after watching the episode of Mare, i looked up a few actors and saw Mare’s friend was in another HBO show, so i pulled that up. i knew it was a king thing, and am usually turned off by the whole phantasmagoric side of king. but The Outsider does a really great job in approaching the mysticism i usually hate, and how those who doubt it come around. i ended up watching it all in two or three days.
it has a lot of parallels to Mare so far, almost as if they are companion pieces. and the cast is incredible.
Pretty much! I see Mare of Easttown as sort of anti-Sharp Objects. I loved that show for its subject matter and yet I believe Mare of Easttown is intimately more involving and personal that utilizes amazing cast of actors far better than Sharp Objects and other shows.
Yeah still need to see if Mare sticks the landing and doesn’t devolve into Sharp Objects-esque ITS NOT ABOUT THE MYSTERY ITS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS nonsense, but so far so good
To be fair, Sharp Objects’ direction is quite different and its seriously great treatment of characters did gave us a HELL OF A TWIST right at the very end. Even if the mysteries aren’t as strong, in which I agree with your take.Hopefully Mare of Easttown is able to maintain this delicious balance of mysteries and character developments throughout as the second episode had shown us thus far.
Honestly I didn’t find the ‘twist’ at the end of Sharp Objects a twist at all–when the ‘twist’ reveals that the only possible murderer was indeed the murderer it’s not a great surprise. In particular the post-credits reveal was a cheap attempt to create some drama. It didn’t care enough about plot to set up a compelling ending.
The Night Of was quite good, if a bit slow in parts.
The real culprit in ‘The Night Of’ is the legal system and the destruction it can cause.
I do want to give that another shot, there were some good moments early, but what I remember most about it is 1) the worst writer in an MFA workshop would say that the John Turturro itchy-feet-as-metaphor should have been pulled back a bit; 2) it goes off the rails when the defense lawyer kisses the suspect in jail; it fell into the sort of conventional crime-drama trope that it had been trying to avoid.
Well, the eczema metaphor was certainly lost on me. If anything, I guess I just figured this poor lawyer can’t catch a break. Like, at all.
If they had to go through family court, I find it dumb that Dylan’s parents would not have gotten a paternity test to prove their 17 year old is the father of a kid. This twist is just too soapy for me.I did like that Erin’s dad did shoot Dylan. Now, maybe next week he’s found and saved, but I thought someone would have stopped it and it would reset for next week.
I’m guessing blanks, just to scare the shit out of him.
He doesn’t look like someone who would have blanks, or think to buy blanks (plus he seemed to have been drinking for the past few days)…
Well, the lack of bullet markings in the kid tells me otherwise (unless I saw it wrong, then never mind). We’ll find out tonight.I mean, if everyone involved gets killed, including Mare, that would be disappointed. ‘cause, now the father will go after Roy from The Office for an episode. Then, his cousin in the episode after that.
So its the Deacon right? He’s the murderer? Gotta be.
Guy is the wildcard…why cast him if he doesn’t have a major role to play? I think he’s killing people to then write his books about the murders
But why would he have to commit the murders just to write about them? There’s a million murder books out there, true and fictional, not to mention whole TV series and movies. I’m fairly certain more of those writers didn’t do the basic research by killing folks.
Man, in that ‘painful exposition’ scene with the school counselor, Kate’s forehead vein was its own character. . . Has she had that for a long time?
There is a Happy Valley feel to the show. And it’s a compliment.
Mare herself is the killer. The show ends with her declaring “I have commited the perfect crime. For the only person I would never arrest…is myself!”Or it’s the guy who threw the milk. The murder weapon was milk.
I would actually love this. I’d love for one of these shows to pull a “Murder of Roger Ackroyd” by revealing the main protagonist is the killer all along.
Of course, that’s why no heard or found the murder weapon! The gun was made out of milk!
It Was Mare All Along …
So, Lori is the focal point of the town, right? She’s the only thoroughly likeable character, and everyone seems to trust her (even with vital evidence!).
Okay, Evan Peters is pretty adorable in this. When they enter the restaraunt to arrest psycho girl, and the mother asks “table for two?” he gets this sort of playful, bashful smile and his face starts to light up. But then Mare sort half looks back toward (not at) him, looks forward again and plainly goes “no”, and his face kind drops and then he tries to hide that disappointment by looking all super serious. Loved it.
Lot of big reveals in this episode, but none so shocking as this one from the article itself: that’s how you pronounce Siobhan?
It took me years of reading that name before I heard it actually pronounced…I had seen it in a number of books featuring Irish characters but had never met anyone named See-obe-han. Enough people spell it Shevaun(or other variants) to really confuse the issue further.
The milk is still leaking all over…
Isn’t Evan Peters too young to outrank anyone?
One item on Frank….Mare went over there because their grandson is blinking and she was worried that it was tied to their son’s issues….Frank was then the one who brought up Erin….so Mare didn’t go over there fishing for that.also, the scene with the pediatrician hasn’t been discussed much but its among the better and most powerful short scenes that i’ve ever seen….
One item on Frank….Mare went over there because their grandson is blinking and she was worried that it was tied to their son’s issues….Frank was then the one who brought up Erin….so Mare didn’t go over there fishing for that.also, the scene with the pediatrician hasn’t been discussed much but its among the better and most powerful short scenes that i’ve ever seen….
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are multiple murderers. I mean, the central theme of the show seems to be, “It takes a village to…”
I really wasn’t going to watch this, we’ve been cop drama ed to death e’er since ever, but I couldn’t sleep one night and bang, I’m hooked.
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At least, that’s the claim made by Erin’s best friend Jess, who says Erin told her in confidence that Frank was more likely than Dylan to have fathered Erin’s baby.That is not what happened. I just watched the episode, and Jess said: “Dylan isn’t the baby’s real father.” Lori: “So why come here instead of go straight to the police?” Jess: “Well, Erin wouldn’t tell me who the real father was, but… but I think it was Frank Sheehan.”
Which means Julianne Nicholson will get a lot to do in Episode 3. Hallelujah.
So this old grey Mare is still what she used to be? Still what she used to be? Still what she used to be?
Stupider decision:- Dylan lying to a police officer about his interactions with Erin even though said interactions were witnessed and recorded by numerous people, including the daughter of the aforesaid police officer; or- Brianna’s father repeatedly harassing a police officer in a threatening fashion and then vandalizing her house with a jug of milk he purchased in front of said officer and which should be readily traceable to him? No
Mare going over to Frank’s and then never bringing up their daughter’s appearance in the fight video seemed very odd to me.
2nd episode was an improvement, but the show still looks and feels like a patchwork of a dozen other grim crime shows.
Which wouldn’t be bad if the series had any interesting character and any decent writing.
Unfortunately there are no characters, just good actors looking so so so sad, miserable and depressed, in this town where the whole population should had committed suicide long time ago or by now be very happy after consuming a ton of Xanax.So, the game or red herrings begins with Mare’s ex-hubby, but we all guess who the killer is, right? I mean has Guy Pearce played any good person recently? Except it he is also a meta-red-herring.
I am already bored with Kate’s permanently constipated sad face and I still keep watching this for Julianne Nicholson (such an underestimated actress).
p.s Anyone remembers the series inside the series in The Good Wife? Basically a parody of the “True Detective”? Well this show is soooo close !
Faye is the killer.Just sayin’.
I really liked the first 2 shows. The part with Erin’s dad being told about her death actually made me tear up despite his being a probably-abusive drunk dickhead (and now murderer). So did the scene with Mare recalling her son’s issues as a child and wondering if they will lead to her grandson having the same problems. Deeply affecting stuff.And boy does Easttown produce some asshole teenagers! If they can successfully “redeem” or broaden Brianna’s absolute cunt of a teenage character (which I assume is where they’re heading after such a one-sided portrayal), I will be pretty impressed.finally I enjoyed Kate Winslet hitting the “o’s” hard in some of her pronunciations to remind everyone they’re somewhere around Philly LOL.
Nobody is going to read this, how does Dylan drives a nice restomod Ford Bronco? Depends on their condition those are pretty pricey, the one in the show could start at 60k plus. Didn’t seem like a rich family.
Someone will read it. 🙂 I had the same thought! His family didn’t look like they had a lot of money. But maybe they do, and that’s why Erin said he’s the baby daddy?
The people over at Jalopnik noticed:
https://jalopnik.com/hbos-mare-of-easttown-has-a-huge-car-casting-fail-1847049467
We now have confirmation that Easttown is basically where Easttown township would be if it was in Delco and not Chester County, as in it is not south of Ridley Park where most people think of Delco but is in the northern part closer to Newtown Square and Berwyn. I think this is important because it plays more like the Ridley Park suburb from what I know of the area.It’s important because they have done such a fucking great job with the setting. These are the people who I have met in this area. You ask, why does everybody give Mare such a hard time? Why is her daughter so harsh as to say “lower your expectations”? Well, why are ALL of these people such assholes. I wish somebody would point out the entitlement in an older white male feeling free to threaten a police officer! Also the relationship between Winslet and Evan Peters (lots of actors have been trying to break out of their asshole roles lately, including Alexander Skarsgard and others) is perfect because it’s not like they are a yin-and-yang…they’re two different people…their disparate styles might compliment each other but they might not, it isn’t necessarily The Last Boy Scout.I have no problem with the cliffhanger but probably have one of the uncles or that priest picked as the father, they effectively made a lot of people suspects in this episode. My only problems with the episode were (a) the catfishing wasn’t immediately explained to Mare when it was apparently explained in the video (b) the dipshit bf said he didn’t talk to Erin and he is not on camera because it is pointed the other way, but the other kids would have put him in the jackpot and that lying or catfishing would have likely caused Mare to call him back in.I am hoping this won’t stay too close to The Killing.
gallon of two-percentThat jug had a red cap which indicates it’s whole milk. (Red = whole; green = 2%; yellow = 1%; blue = skim.)
Of the three episodes currently available, this one is the best. Good TV makes me talk to the screen, giving advice to the characters. When Kenny and Dylan got out of Dylan’s truck I said, “okay, Kenny, nothing you’ve done so far can’t be undone, please come to your senses” and when he raised his gun I was all “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” and when he did I’m all, “oh this is bad, this is bad, very bad.” That’s some good drama.
I found the “well executed twist” rather obvious, sadly. Trustworthy face or not – when he talked about her behaviour in class (or lack thereof) and offered his insight about “sensing trouble at home” I immediately thought “oh, no… they didn’t… go full Broadchurch on this…”. But they did. That brilliant show seems to have been more than just an inspiration for this one.
So, are they putting Julianne Nicholsen in some monster heels or on apple boxes? She’s only 2 1/2 inches taller than Winslet, but she absolutely towers over her in the show. Before looking up their respective heights, I would have thought she was 8 or more inches taller.