Widescreen: Winslet's 'Mare of Easttown' joins the pantheon of great detective shows
Like most of the world, I first swooned for Kate Winslet in 1997 when she was dancing in steerage with Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2021, she sat down at a Pennsylvania dive bar and ordered a Rolling Rock and a shot of Jameson, and I swooned again.
Such is the allure of watching the perennial Oscar contender play a small-town detective in HBO's “Mare of Easttown,” a seven-episode limited series that concludes at 9 p.m. Sunday. Mare Sheehan is not a corseted Jane Austen heroine, but a plaid-clad grandma who speaks with an accent unheard on prestige television since Kathy Bates played the bearded lady on 2014's “American Horror Story: Freak Show” - and she suffers enough family trauma to sink an ocean liner when she's not searching for missing teenagers.
But there are larger mysteries than missing teens afoot in Easttown; the show's central plot concerns a dead one, Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny), and just about everybody has a possible motive. As we approach Sunday's finale, my prime suspect is a bit younger than the more obvious choices, but every solution would be tragic.
“Mare of Easttown” doesn't shy away from the tragedy that plagues all of its residents; Mare's son is already dead when the first episode begins, and he won't be the last one close to our protagonist to lose his life. But “Mare of Easttown” never succumbs to the darkness, thanks to writer/creator Brad Ingelsby's ability to craft funny familial vignettes to which any viewer can relate. Mare's vulgar rows with her mother (Jean Smart, wonderful as always) provide a much-needed pressure release, as does Mare's curious romance (no-mance?) with a college professor (Guy Pearce).
Best of all, “Mare of Easttown” has captured that old water-cooler magic in our time of binge-watching thanks to its traditional week-to-week release schedule and its propensity for cliffhangers. Talking about “Mare of Easttown” has been as entertaining as watching it. (OK, so maybe by “water-cooler” I actually mean “phone calls to Mom while walking the dog,” but you get the picture.)
The cliffhangers end Sunday as the one-shot series comes to an end. The first episode is available free on HBO.com if you want to see what the hype is about, but I'm guessing you won't want to stop there.
Further viewing
The structure and small-town relationships of “Mare of Easttown” instantly recall “Broadchurch,” a 2013 BBC drama that ran for three seasons and features Oscar winner Olivia Colman and not one, but two “Doctor Who” stars in David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker. Episodes are available at bbcamerica.com with a TV provider login or on Netflix.
And of course you can't watch a detective show without thinking of Peter Falk's classic “Columbo” tales, all of which are streaming on Peacock and IMDb TV. I recommend all three stand-alone episodes starring Jack Cassidy as the villain: 1971's “Murder By The Book,” directed by 24-year-old Steven Spielberg; 1974's “Publish or Perish”; and, best of all, 1976's “Now You See Him.”
Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor. Follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.