HBO Max Mare of Easttown (HBO) (2 Viewers)

[Adam Lenhardt]

HBO's latest serialized crime drama is "Mare from Easttown", starring Kate Winslet in the title role.

Mare Sheehan is a local celebrity, whose greatest accomplishment was scoring the game-winning basket in her high school basketball team's championship season back in 1995. Now she is the most senior detective for the Easttown Police Department. She is, by all indications, good at her job with a strong grasp of her community and the various players involved. However, a year ago, the daughter of one of her old teammates went missing and the lack of resolution in the case has hung over her personally and professionally.

Easttown is a fictional amalgamation of a number of bleak Rustbelt communities just outside Philly, and the show was shot on location in Delaware and Chester counties with a mix of American and Australian actors. The season was almost done shooting when the pandemic shut everything down; the international cast made production particularly difficult to resume. As a result, filming didn't complete until late last year.

The premiere reminded me a lot of "Broadchurch", in that the murder mystery is deeply grounded in the lives of these characters and the specificity of this community. The murder that will presumably drive the series doesn't even occur until very near the end of the first episode. Instead, we just marinate in the lives of these characters and their world -- a place where the only people left are the ones who couldn't get out, and whose great aspiration is for their own children to escape.

The show was originally supposed to be directed by Gavin O'Connor, and the pilot felt very similar to his movie The Way Back that came out last year.

 

[Joe Wong]

My wife and I liked the first episode. Plenty of layers and relationships that long-form storytelling on TV can introduce and hopefully resolve by the end.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thanks for reminding me about watching this HBO show.

 

[Citizen87645]

Watched the first episode after reading an article about how few shows or movies have even attempted to do the regional Philadelphia accent, despite plenty of stories being set there (Rocky, Silver Linings Playbook).

There are plenty of crime serials like Mare, but I'm curious what Kate Winslet will bring to the table.

 

[TonyD]

A few things about the accent.
Easttown isn’t anywhere near Delco so I’m not sure why they chose to use this dialect.

Also the accent is close but Kate didn’t nail it.
I grew up in Philadelphia in the neighborhood that was mentioned in the show, Kensington.
lived in Delco Proper for over 20 years.
I have a lot of problems with this dialect they went with. I could go on and on about it.

As for the show itself I’m all in. I really enjoy these murder in a small town mystery shows.

 

[Citizen87645]

Fwiw, here's the article I read. https://slate.com/culture/2021/04/mare-of-easttown-kate-winslet-philadelphia-accent.html

 

[TonyD]

I’ll read the entire article later but one thing that is wrong is that this show doesn’t represent a Philadelphian accent. It’s a Delaware County ( Delco) Accent.
Despite that article saying Rocky Balboa doesn’t have a true Philly accent he actually sounds very close to a south Philly accent and not a Kensington accent.

There might be as many as 5-6 different Philly area accents.

Anynof the Philly accents are tough to mimic because there are so many different ones.

Some that we have would be
Jamming a handful of words together to make one word.
Letter T in the middle of a word becoming a D sound and D’Souza to the end of words being skipped over as silent.

Pronably the most known word is Wooder in place of Water which we did get from Winslet in this ep.

 

[TonyD]

Btw in that article is this clip that very closely represents the way people from Delco sound.

 

[TravisR]

Btw in that article is this clip that very closely represents the way people from Delco sound.

Out in the Philadelphia suburbs, I do occasionally hear that accent and it makes me wonder if I've somehow stumbled into Baltimore.

To be fair to this show, you hear a variety of accents anywhere you go so I think anything close is permissible and still accurate.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

To be fair to this show, you hear a variety of accents anywhere you go so I think anything close is permissible and still accurate.

I've also gotten the sense that the writers are treating the Easttown of the show as a fictional amalgamation of various communities west of Philly and not a representation of the actual township in Chester County. Brad Ingelsby, the show's creator, was born and raised in Berwyn -- which partially falls within the boundaries of the real Easttown -- so I have to believe it was a creative choice rather than a mistake or oversight.

 

[TonyD]

I've also gotten the sense that the writers are treating the Easttown of the show as a fictional amalgamation of various communities west of Philly and not a representation of the actual township in Chester County. Brad Ingelsby, the show's creator, was born and raised in Berwyn -- which partially falls within the boundaries of the real Easttown -- so I have to believe it was a creative choice rather than a mistake or oversight.

.

For sure.
I meant to say that myself but either forgot or posted it somewhere else.
But yes This fictional town is located In Delco and probably not Chester county only because several of the location mentioned are in Delco and not Chester county.
The one I remember was when she said Riddle, meaning Riddle Hospital which was only minutes from where I lived for 15 years in Delaware county across the street from the old Granite Run Mall. (rip GRM)


btw I’m already seeing spoilers on ep 2 on twitter which hasn’t aired yet.

 

[Citizen87645]

So when the new episodes come out every Sunday, does that mean they are available at a specific time like 8PM ET?

I was expecting them to be like Disney+ and available to watch the morning of, but I see episode 2 is not up yet.

 

[TravisR]

So when the new episodes come out every Sunday, does that mean they are available at a specific time like 8PM ET?

I was expecting them to be like Disney+ and available to watch the morning of, but I see episode 2 is not up yet.

I don't know if anything has changed with the dawn of HBOMAX but it always used to be that an episode of an HBO show wasn't available On Demand until the time it started airing.

 

[Citizen87645]

The Google seems to indicate it won't air on Pacific time until 10pm. So I guess I should just plan to watch new episodes on Mondays.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The second episode delved deeper into this community, and the web of secrets and half-truths surrounding Erin McMenamin's death.

I would be very surprised if Guy Pierce's character doesn't tie into the mystery in some way by the end of the season.

Mare seems like a very difficult person to love, and she probably isn't an easy person to have as a mother. That being said, if you know that a classmate got murdered the night before, you pick up your damn phone when your mother calls. It's pretty clear that, in Siobhan's mind, Frank is the cool decent parent while Mare is the nightmare parent. It will be interesting to see if the revelation from Erin's best friend, which may or may not be an accurate conclusion, forces her to see both of her parents in a more complex way.

The scene between Mare and her grandson's pediatrician was also telling. She shut down emotionally when dealing with her son's mental illness, and then his suicide locked her into that pattern. It's an open question for me whether Mare was always like this, and its just her personality to be abrasive and difficult, or if it's a result of all of these emotions and grief that she hasn't allowed herself to process.

In that way, Evan Peters's detective from the county sheriff's department is a useful complement to her investigation; he's as likeable and personable as she is unlikable and standoffish.

Some really wonderful little character moments here, especially the moment in the gas station. Katie Bailey's mother is one of Mare's biggest and most public detractors. But in that moment, she stands up for Mare against Brianna Delrasso's father. And then, later, when he throws the milk jug through Mare's window, Siobhan comes running out, and Mare takes a very understanding stance to his crime.

The priest who eulogized Erin seemed evasive as hell with the other priest after the service.

The Google seems to indicate it won't air on Pacific time until 10pm. So I guess I should just plan to watch new episodes on Mondays.

Usually the HBO app updates with the new episode at time it starts airing on the East Coast. So 10pm Eastern/7 Pacific.

 

[Citizen87645]

My browser seemed to be caching things pretty aggressively, so it took a couple refreshes and circuitous browsing paths before I got to the second episode.

Despite the heavy material, there were several laugh out loud moments in the episode. How Mare just matter of factly went back to eating her sandwich as the milk was pouring out around her was a highlight.

It was nice to see Evan Peters in a role outside the X-Men and MCU films. His clean cut look and mannerisms actually made me think of a friend of mine, so I'm excited to see if his wife thinks the same.

I was immediately suspicious of Frank when he inquired about Erin. But at this point there are a number of suspects. Personally, I'm hoping Richard the author is not one, just so Mare can have a bit of happiness and respite from the chaos and unresolved grief in her life.

The second episode delved deeper into this community, and the web of secrets and half-truths surrounding Erin McMenamin's death.

I would be very surprised if Guy Pierce's character doesn't tie into the mystery in some way by the end of the season.

Mare seems like a very difficult person to love, and she probably isn't an easy person to have as a mother. That being said, if you know that a classmate got murdered the night before, you pick up your damn phone when your mother calls. It's pretty clear that, in Siobhan's mind, Frank is the cool decent parent while Mare is the nightmare parent. It will be interesting to see if the revelation from Erin's best friend, which may or may not be an accurate conclusion, forces her to see both of her parents in a more complex way.

The scene between Mare and her grandson's pediatrician was also telling. She shut down emotionally when dealing with her son's mental illness, and then his suicide locked her into that pattern. It's an open question for me whether Mare was always like this, and its just her personality to be abrasive and difficult, or if it's a result of all of these emotions and grief that she hasn't allowed herself to process.

In that way, Evan Peters's detective from the county sheriff's department is a useful complement to her investigation; he's as likeable and personable as she is unlikable and standoffish.

Some really wonderful little character moments here, especially the moment in the gas station. Katie Bailey's mother is one of Mare's biggest and most public detractors. But in that moment, she stands up for Mare against Brianna Delrasso's father. And then, later, when he throws the milk jug through Mare's window, Siobhan comes running out, and Mare takes a very understanding stance to his crime.

The priest who eulogized Erin seemed evasive as hell with the other priest after the service.


Usually the HBO app updates with the new episode at time it starts airing on the East Coast. So 10pm Eastern/7 Pacific.

 

[Citizen87645]

Also, I recognized and couldn't place the actress who plays Siobhan (Angourie Rice), so I looked up who she is and saw she plays Betty Brant in the MCU Spider-Man movies. It's funny seeing her going from a type "A" student in those films to a more edgy one in this series.

 

[TonyD]

I was immediately suspicious of Frank when he inquired about Erin. But at this point there are a number of suspects.

They are for sure setting up 4-5 people as suspects.
Peters is terrific, he’s nailing the dialect very well.
Winslet’s dialect is much better this episode. Not hanging on the O’s for too long now.

Cocco’s pizza was name dropped in the ep.
Although the subtitles spelled it wrong.
Here’s a map of all the Cocco’s in Delco so this will give an idea of the area.
I lived near the Aston location for bout 20 years.
The ones I circled are likely the parts of Delco this show takes place in.

Berwyn near the top is where Easttown township is and where the creator of the show is from.

 

[TonyD]

Something else, this episode was heavy, Heavy in tension. Real edge of my seat tension.

 

[Joe Wong]

Intriguing episode, with so many layers. Also, there are so many characters that I haven't fully connected them all yet after only a first viewing. Part of it is that everyone seems to know Mare.