Brief Story Line
In a small town referred to as Easttown, Detective Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet - Titanic, Steve Jobs etc) had been investigating the case of a missing girl for the past year. However, before it was even solved, a young woman was found dead which resulted to the community questioning her ability. It took a toll on Mare who was struggling with problems of her own. She had to raise her 4 year old grandson and living together with her mother Helen (Jean Smart - Legion TV series, Super Intelligence etc) and high school daughter Siobhan (Angourie Rice - The Nice Guys etc), while her ex husband Frank Sheehan (David Denman - Brightburn, Outcast TV series etc) was living just behind her house with his new fiancée, making it very awkward for her.
Mare has always been very close with her best friend from high school Lori (Julianne Nicholson - Law & Order: Criminal Intent TV series etc) who was married to John Ross (Joe Tippet). Lori was also the reason Mare decided to try having new relationship with writer Richard Ryan (Guy Pearce - Without Remorse, Memento etc). Meanwhile, due to high pressure, police Chief Carter (John Douglas Thompson) decided to call the County Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters - X-Men: Dark Phoenix etc) to assist in solving the major case to Mare's annoyance. But as the investigation continued, it would appear that bringing in County detective was the right move.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this mystery drama series.
End of Brief Story Line
Well this series was indeed what I expected. It was slow burn, full of drama and the case took the whole season to finally resolve. It is after all a Limited/Mini series, and till the time I wrote this post, there has been no commitment/decision to have a second season. Although seeing the success of the series, it might not be too far fetched. Anyway, the series was set in the small town where people seemed to know one another and some of them were even related (as casually mentioned in one of the episode when Colin spoke to Mare about these relations).
The first episode was kind of like introduction of the lead character Mare who was considered local sports hero, but at the same time having a rather dysfunctional relationship with her family. What I really admired in here was the fact that the people's acting were so wonderful and natural that I could picture them as real family. Kate Winslet once again showed why her acting skills have been praised by critics. I also enjoyed the performance of Jean Smart who was perfect as the mother of Mare. And as I continued watching, the complexities of Mare's life sometimes took more of a center stage than the case investigation, but I was still OK with it.
This kind of series usually would have some facts revealed little by little where every new fact seemed to bring our attention to one or two people that we believed could be the suspect. Once I reached episode 4, I started to build a theory of my own but I was totally not ready with what happened in the upcoming episode. And that finale was truly satisfying. I think it was one of my most favorite episodes, aside from the 5th episode that I thought was the best.
Like in most of other HBO original series, this one has a duration of > 50 minutes, except the final episode that was a little over 1 hour. The series was classified for 18+ due to brief nudity and a bit of graphic violence. There was no opening credit scene aside from brief title appearance, while the closing credit showed all the cast and crew details. It had a long list of names there but what amazed me was no mentioning of the series was based on novel/books adaptation. Which meant the creator Brad Ingelsby (writer of movies like Run All Night, The Way Back and few others) did a fantastic job writing this.
Apart from the many names I already mentioned above, there were also appearances of Cailee Spaeny (Bad Times at the El Royale etc) as Erin McManemin, James McArdle (Ammonite etc) as Deacon Mark Burton and Sosie Bacon (Charlie Says etc) as Carrie, Mare's daughter in-law. Basically the supporting cast also did fabulous job to make the series interesting to watch. Although there might occasionally be one or two characters story that I thought a bit distracting and did not have really added value (like Siobhan's part). Be warned that this series had a dark and a bit of gloomy feel at certain times. However, there were also few brighter scenes (the one in the middle of episode 5 was just hilarious and I could not help but laugh out loud then).
Overall I did enjoy the series due to its cast acting and the case investigation. There might be times where the focus seemed to be shifted more towards Mare's personal struggles, but it was a good thing that the investigation was still given a big portion. It also had few twists that I could guess, though there was one that totally surprised me. So if you are looking for a quite balanced murder mystery combined with the personal struggle of the lead character (fantastically portrayed by Kate Winslet), then you should be able to enjoy this. But if you prefer a more focused case investigation with lot of actions, then this would not be to your liking. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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