Mare of Easttown is an American crime drama television miniseries created and written by Brad Ingelsby for HBO. Directed by Craig Zobel, the series premiered on April 18, 2021, and concluded on May 30, 2021, consisting of seven episodes. It stars Kate Winslet in the title role, who investigates a murder in a small town outside Philadelphia. Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice, Evan Peters, Sosie Bacon, David Denman, Neal Huff, James McArdle, Guy Pearce, Cailee Spaeny, John Douglas Thompson, and Joe Tippett appear in supporting roles.
The series received critical acclaim for its story, characters, acting, and representation of women. It has also been noted for its cast members speaking in a mostly accurate Philadelphia accent, a dialect seldom heard in mainstream media. Mare of Easttown received sixteen nominations at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards and won four, including Outstanding Lead Actress for Winslet, Outstanding Supporting Actress for Nicholson, and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Peters.
Premise In the fictional suburb of Easttown, Pennsylvania (not to be confused with the real Easttown, Pennsylvania, which is also a Philadelphia suburb), police detective Marianne "Mare" Sheehan investigates the recent murder of a teenage mother while trying to keep her own life from falling apart. Mare is a local hero, having scored the winning basket in a high school basketball game that won Easttown its first state championship 25 years earlier. She has also been unable to solve the case of another young girl missing for a year, leading many in the community to doubt her detective skills. Her personal troubles include a divorce, a son lost to suicide, and a custody battle with her son's formerly heroin-addicted girlfriend over Mare's grandson.
Cast and characters Main Kate Winslet as Marianne "Mare" Sheehan, a detective sergeant in Easttown, Pennsylvania, who is investigating the murder of one young girl and the disappearance of another Julianne Nicholson as Lori Ross, Mare's closest friend Jean Smart as Helen Fahey, Mare's mother Angourie Rice as Siobhán Sheehan, Mare's daughter David Denman as Frank Sheehan, a teacher and Mare's ex-husband Neal Huff as Father Dan Hastings, Mare's cousin, a Catholic priest and the pastor of St. Michael's Church Guy Pearce as Richard Ryan, an author and creative writing professor Cailee Spaeny as Erin McMenamin, a teenage single mother who is treated badly by her ex-boyfriend John Douglas Thompson as Chief Carter, Mare's boss at the police department Joe Tippett as John Ross, Lori's husband and cousin of Erin's father Kenny Evan Peters as Detective Colin Zabel, the county detective called in to assist Mare Sosie Bacon as Carrie Layden, the mother of Mare's grandson Drew and ex-girlfriend of Mare's deceased son Kevin James McArdle as Deacon Mark Burton, a Catholic deacon reassigned to St. Michael's after sexual misconduct allegations at his previous parish
Supporting
Kate Arrington as Faye, Frank's fiancée Ruby Cruz as Jess Riley, Erin's best friend Ned Eisenberg as Detective Hauser, a county detective Enid Graham as Dawn Bailey, an Easttown resident whose daughter, Katie, has been missing for over a year Deborah Hedwall as Judy Zabel, Colin's mother with whom he lives Caitlin Houlahan as Katie Bailey, a girl who went missing from Easttown a year prior Cameron Mann as Ryan Ross, Lori and John's son Jack Mulhern as Dylan Hinchey, Erin's ex-boyfriend Patrick Murney as Kenny McMenamin, Erin's father Chinasa Ogbuagu as Beth Hanlon, Freddie's sister and Mare and Dawn's close friend Phyllis Somerville as Betty Carroll, an elderly Easttown resident; this was Somerville's final role before her death in 2020 Robbie Tann as Billy Ross, John's brother, Lori's brother-in-law and Kenny's cousin Madeline Weinstein as Becca, Siobhán's stoner girlfriend
Other
Rosa Arredondo as Tammy, a former sex worker and friend of Mare's who works as an informant for her Debbie Campbell as Katherine Hinchey, Dylan's mother Gordon Clapp as Pat Ross, John and Billy's father Eisa Davis as Gayle Graham, Mare's therapist Sasha Frolova as Missy Sager, an escort Jeremy Gabriel as Steve Hinchey, Dylan's father Connie Giordano as Patty Del Rasso, Brianna's mother Justin Hurtt-Dunkley as Officer Trammel Dominique Johnson as Freddie Hanlon, Beth's opioid-addicted brother Izzy King as Drew Sheehan, Mare's grandson, born to her son Kevin and his girlfriend Carrie Layden Cody Kostro as Kevin Sheehan, Mare's late son who died by suicide prior to the events of the series Jeb Kreager as Wayne Potts, a resident of Easttown Katie Kreisler as Trish Riley, Jess' mother Mackenzie Lansing as Brianna Del Rasso, Dylan's girlfriend Patrick McDade as Glen Carroll, Betty's husband Kiah McKirnan as Anne Harris, a DJ at the Haverford College radio show where Siobhan's band performs Patsy Meck as Jan Kelly, an employee at the Easttown police station Eric T. Miller as Tony Del Rasso, Brianna's father, a restaurant owner Kassie Mundhenk as Moira Ross, Lori and John's daughter, who has Down syndrome Anthony Norman as Nathan Forde, a member of Siobhan's band Drew Scheid as Geoff Gabeheart, one of Siobhan's friends, drummer in Siobhan's band Androgynous Sadat Waddy as Sean, Dylan's friend
Episodes
Production Development In January 2019, it was reported that Brad Ingelsby, creator of the show, would write all episodes, with Gavin O'Connor directing. Executive producers include Ingelsby, O'Connor, Kate Winslet, Paul Lee, Mark Roybal, and Gordon Gray. In January 2020, it was announced that Craig Zobel would replace O'Connor as director due to scheduling issues and also serve as executive producer.
To prepare for the role of Colin Zabel, Peters participated in a ride-along with the Marple Township Police Department. He also worked with dialect coach Susanne Sulby on the local accent and used a roughly 20-minute recording of a Delaware County-area resident as a reference, listening to it regularly during production.
Regarding the setting, Ingelsby stated "sort of an amalgam" which he explained "It's Coatesville, it's Aston, it's Drexel Hill." Ingelsby stated that he chose the name Easttown because "it sounded like such a generic town name."
Casting It was announced in January 2019 that Kate Winslet had been cast to star in the miniseries. In September 2019, the cast was rounded out with Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice, Evan Peters, Cailee Spaeny and David Denman. John Douglas Thompson, Patrick Murney, Ben Miles, Katie Kreisler, James McArdle, Sosie Bacon, Joe Tippett, Neal Huff were cast in October 2019. In February 2021, it was announced that Guy Pearce joined the cast, replacing Miles in his role. In the same month, Mackenzie Lansing, Kate Arrington, Ruby Cruz, James Easter Bradford, Elisa Davis, Enid Graham, Justin Hurtt-Dunkley, Izzy King, Jack Mulhern, Anthony Norman, Drew Scheid, and Madeline Weinstein were cast.
Filming Filming of the show began in the fall of 2019 around suburban Philadelphia and was reported to still be in progress as of March 2020, with plans to continue through April. However, production was shut down early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In early September 2020, a Philadelphia news station reported that filming was set to resume within the month.
Because the story is set in a fictionalized version of Easttown Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where series creator Brad Ingelsby was born (the show moves the location east to Delaware County, which is adjacent to Easttown Township), there were discussions about whether to use the "Delco accent", a version of Philadelphia English common in Delaware County. It was Winslet who insisted that the accent be used, despite being a particularly difficult accent to learn, because she felt the community itself was an important character in the story, and the authentic accent would help emphasize that. "There were a lot of things I could have really leant into that would have made it sound like I was doing something a bit gimmicky and I didn't want that to happen," Winslet said. "So I just had to drill it and drill it and drill it." She claimed that learning the accent was so difficult that it caused her to "throw things". Dialect coach Susanne Sulby assisted the actors.
Filming locations include a train station and high-school gymnasium in Coatesville, Pennsylvania (a city in Chester County), and an American Legion hall in Ogden, a community in Delaware County. Inglesby has said that many of the filming locations were around Aston Township, in Delaware County. Winslet reportedly said that, while filming the show, she became obsessed with Wawa convenience stores. "Wawa was a big part of my life for well over a year," she said. Wawa stores were used as scouting locations for the production's costume designers.
Release and reception The seven-episode series premiered on April 18, 2021, and concluded on May 30, 2021. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on September 14, 2021.
Critical response
Mare of Easttown received critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 95% based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Grounded by a career-best Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttowns ambitions at times exceed its reach, but its central mystery is supported by such strong sense of place and character it hardly matters." On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on reviews from 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Winslet received widespread praise for her performance, including from Lucy Mangan of The Guardian who wrote, "If you can have a defining performance this late in a career, this is surely Winslet's. She is absolutely wonderful." Alex Abad-Santos of Vox described Winslet's performance as "mesmerizing", adding that "she allows us to see the ugliness Mare is capable of and how obsessive, perhaps even abusive, she can be when she's threatened." The Wall Street Journals Dorothy Rabinowitz noted "Winslet's eloquent command of the role is obvious from the outset". Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote, "Winslet's immersed performance could carry a far lesser work by itself", while adding that her East American dialect is "convincing and her physical work is flawless." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times declared, "Winslet adds to a long list of magnificent, disappear-into-the-character performances...one of the most resonant performances of her career." Caryn James of the BBC wrote, "Winslet makes an unglamorous return to TV...and her fierce, ordinary heroine is gloriously real."