Kate Winslet as Mare Sheehan, a local police detective in a small Pennsylvanian town that begins the premiere episode by answering a complaint from her neighbor. Although she listens to her neighbor explain that a voyeur might be on the loose, peeping into people’s houses, Mare points out her job is to investigate burglaries and overdoses. “All the really bad crap,” as Winslet’s character puts it.
It quickly becomes clear that Mare has been involved in the search for Katie Bailey, a local girl that has been missing for a year. And by the end of episode 1, titled “Miss Lady Hawk Herself”, Mare finds herself investigating the case of another local girl that’s been found dead. Given this setup, and given that Mare of Easttown is debuting in the aftermath of Big Little Lies, Sharp Objects, and The Undoing, it might initially seem like Mare of Easttown is the latest example of HBO’s bringing together a star-studded and talented cast together to adapt a bestselling novel. Along with Winslet, Mare of Easttown features Jean Smart, Evan Peters, Guy Pearce, Julianne Nicholson, and Angourie Rice. Also, like HBO’s previous forays into the murder mystery genre, the show puts a complicated female character at its center.
Still, despite these similarities, Mare of Easttown is not based on a novel. It’s not based on a particular true story, either. Series creator Brad Ingelsby, who wrote all seven episodes, with Craig Zobel directing, has said that he first started writing the series in 2018. As he told Black Girl Nerds in an interview: “I was feeling like we were in a dark time in this country. I wanted to portray the need for comion and mercy and to help each other with a certain level of kindness and decency.” So, even though the show is not based on any specific source material, it does take a great deal of inspiration from real and relevant events.
Ingelsby’s objectives shine through in the Mare of Easttown premiere. Although a dead girl is discovered in the episode’s closing minutes, it’s only after the audience has spent many scenes with the character in order to better understand her inner life and motivations. This stands in contrast to how The Undoing, which was parodied on SNL, and other entries in the murder mystery genre, use death largely as a hook with little regard to the real victims being evoked. Although there are several more episodes left, so far Mare of Easttown is notable for how it has taken its time to show the humanity and complexity of nearly everyone in its ensemble cast.
While the premise could potentially invite unfavorable comparisons to Hillbilly Elegy, an adaptation which was accused of relying on of the hardships of communities to tell a simplistic and moralistic narrative, Mare of Easttown’s first episode isn’t so easily reduced to sadness and misery. The script is quite funny in parts, the interactions between characters coming across as authentic, while Winslet’s performance highlights both the positives and negatives of her protagonist. It’s the sort of freedom that comes with Ingelsby being able to tell his own story, rather than working with what another writer has already established. In another vein, on a more plot-based level, this could help the mystery elements of the series as well. With no source material to consult, Mare of Easttown fans could very well be in for a few surprises.