The brilliance of Mare of Easttown is that it deals with complex themes such as mental illness, drugs, and the death of teenage girls. Kate Winslet plays Detective Sergeant Mare Sheehan, who is dealing with the loss of her father to suicide, the loss of her son to drug addiction and his eventual suicide, her divorce from her husband who lives right behind her house (which she secretly hates), and a fight for the custody of her grandson with her son’s girlfriend who had a drug addiction. The complexity of Mare goes beyond her job as she dives deep into the cases to ignore her grief and mental health. The people of Easttown know each other too well, and the disappearance of one girl is felt across the entire town. So when the body of teenage single mother Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaney) is found, county detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters) comes in to assist Mare on both of the cases as the townspeople start to doubt her detective skills.
From the first episode, Mare of Easttown shows that people are complicated, difficult, and going through many problems behind closed doors. No character is perfect. Mare tries her best to be a good parent and grandmother, but because of her unresolved grief, she is unable to make better decisions in her life. The show gives space for the characters to make mistakes and deal with the consequences of their actions. When Mare’s grandson’s mother Carrie Layden (Sosie Bacon), who is a former heroin addict, tells her that she plans to fight for the custody of her son, Mare plants drugs in her car. Because of this, Mare is suspended from her job and asked to step down from investigating Erin’s murder. This does not stop her from looking into the details of the case, though, as she works with Zabel to find the missing girl.
Mare’s problem is not only that she is obsessed with finding this girl, but that she tucks her other problems away by solving the case. She does not want to confront her own issues and everyone around her deals with the brunt of them. In a heart-wrenching scene, Mare’s daughter Siobhan (Angourie Rice) drunkenly asks Mare why they do not talk about Kevin (Cody Kostro) anymore. After his suicide, Mare would not speak about the grief it caused her because she feared that her son’s death was her fault because of the generational trauma from her father’s suicide. The scene captures raw emotions from both of the characters as they represent the suffering and guilt that rage when trauma is left unresolved. Mare’s agony and sadness are directly linked to her youth, which she has never spoken about until she starts therapy. The grief counselling scene is the first time the audience sees her in a vulnerable state as she describes what happened with her father and her son. It’s incredibly devastating to watch as Mare recalls the past, but Winslet conveys Mare’s emotions and vulnerability with such ease.
There are so many layers of Mare Sheehan to peel off. Due to the unsolved case of the missing girl, she is blamed for it and her reputation as a detective is on the line. Her concern for her grandson’s physical tics, which is an issue that her son had when he was younger, is always on her mind. Mare fears that her family history of suicide and mental illness would get passed down to her grandson through her, which shatters Mare completely as there is nothing she can do to help him. Through her counselling session, she finally learns to accept that she needs to face her problems head-on to get some closure. It’s not solely about solving the crimes but rather the psychology of the characters and how they deal with grief, trauma, and death within a small community where everybody knows everyone. There is morality and judgment, human errors, and where there is a tragedy, there is room to forgive others. Everybody is flawed in Easttown. There are lies and truths to be hidden away, concealed so that nobody finds out the truth. In Easttown, people protect each other no matter the cost, and that familial and community bond is integral to the town itself.
Mare of Easttown is an exploration of trauma, guilt, and how to deal with the pressure of family and societal fatalism. The show explores the reality of the town’s addictions. Abuse, poverty, and the murder of young girls: these issues are rooted within every familial bloodline in Easttown. It’s a close-knit community where everyone knows each other. There is an intriguing feeling that encapsulates the town where everyone’s personality and behaviour are fractured or budding. Mare’s relationship with her mother Helen Fahey (Jean Smart) is explosive: they often yell profanities at each other, but there are moments where they share and embrace each other when they are sad. The closeness of family and friends is really important in Easttown, and the horrors surrounding the rural suburb lead to irreversible consequences by which they all grieve together. There are moments of weakness and strength that balance the unadulterated familiarity. Mare of Easttown is an exceptional limited series that deals with real-life values with fascinating, vulnerable characters like Mare Sheehan.
