Murrrdurrr Most Foul!
Jun. 1st, 2021 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogI mentioned we finally got to the finale of Mare of Easttown on Home Box, the seven-part series starring Kate Winslet as a grizzled suburban Philly detective. I've hinted at some of the twists and turns in the arc, and kept blessedly away from any giveaways before we sat down- including posting this warning the morning after its Sunday 10 p.m. too-late-for-us drop:
Anyone who spoils the end of Mare will be murrrdurred.
That homages the distinct "Delco" accent of this particularly troubled portion of the Suburbs of Brotherly Love. There's plenty of Phillies and Flyers bling around to bring the sense of overall place to us, but Delaware County has its own way of saying things. It's also insular to the point of approaching incestuous: everybody knows everyone else, most are related to everyone else, and almost everyone still standing in the final moments is in one service at one Catholic church.
We meet four generations of Sheehans: Helen, played by Jean Smart (who I viewed in a somewhat different light after watching her star in Hacks in between the penultimate and final episodes of this); Kate Winslet's title character, divorced from her still-alive ex; her daughter Siobhan, played by an Aussie actress who also nails the purrfict Delco (the loss of Mare's other child Kevin leads to much non-murderous suspense and some of the strongest scenes of the series including Mare's final one); and her Kevin's son Drew, played by an amazingly expressive kid (not twins, as often is the case) named Izzy King. There are many of the usual intergenerational conflicts and misunderstandings, but despite Easttown's blue-collar trappings, there is tolerance of Siobhan's LGTBQ sexuality, of more adultery than I'd ever be comfortable with, and of Mare's Black high school teammate being in the community. Old people do old people things, Mare is as unglam as you could picture Kate Winslet on her worst day, and the multiracial police force does a fine job of not shooting innocent people in the back for minor traffic violations....
probably because they're busy with other things since, by my count, at least four characters come to gruesome seen-onscreen ends; several others, including Mare, narrowly escape death, two more endure brutal kidnapings, various beatings are seen, and there are Phillies logos in many scenes. Ick. The death toll is so high for a small town I half expected Angela Lansbury and Tom Bosley to show up. (The latter would be a neat trick because he died in 2010.)
But anyway, onto the dying. There's only one real Murrdurr Brad Wrote about, the rest being lesser or no charges of homicide, and it's the getting there that is the true beauty of this series:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Just making sure.
So, the first episode hints at the murder of a Katie, but before long the series turns into a dead Erin before our eyes. Her age-appropriate BF Dylan, putative father of her son DJ, is immediately the prime suspect. Along the way, the writers toy with his culpability; his subsequent GF rats him out, and a friend of the deceased casts even more doubt on his alibi and intentions, but in the end he makes a magnanimous gesture to the family of DJ's real father that seems to clear him... or does it?
Then we turn to The Dirty Vicar, who we see tossing Erin's bike off a bridge. He musta done it! Except not; in the final reveal, we see him true to his word as an ally rather than a perp.
Katie's still missing, and now we see another Gone Girl. Is a single suspect responsible for all three? In one of the most suspenseful sequences of the entire seven, Mare and her forced-upon partner Colin track down a guy with the All Time Serial Killer Middle Name Only It's His First; and the only real murder we ever get to see flashes before our, and her, eyes as Wayne does in Colin and almost takes out Mare in the process. Not him as to Erin, though; airtight alibi.
Now the House of Ross becomes the theater in the round of the final episodes. Billy's got Erin's high school jersey in his stuff, so HE musta done it! Wait, his brother John is in Erin's sole remaining scrap of evidence, so HE's our boy! They all confess to it, so it must be him, or him,.... or.... now it gets confusing....
The series opened with Annoying Neighbor Betty calling Mare in the middle of the night about a prowler. Her Useless Husband was supposed to hook up surveillance cams but never did. Betty's our second on-screen death, coding at the wheel of her car; HUH confesses to an affair with Mare's mom at his wife's wake, the single funniest moment of the series. But after all the loose ends have been tied up with still half an hour to go, HUH is the one who calls Mare in the middle of the night. Things are going missing around his house, he says. His Eagles bling. A pizza cutter. Oh, and his unique service revolver from when he retired from the force, that matches casings found where Erin died, and there are two rounds missing.
Mare checks the cam footage, and there's our man, only he's our boy: Ryan, the son of the most recently spotlighted suspect, who shot the girl by accident and the rest of the Rosses then conspired to prevent him from going to Juvie for three years.
The show's unclear about the timeline of HUH's discovery of the missing gun, but I looked back and it checks out. Ryan's mother, a longtime friend of Mare's, initially disowns her in a stunning scene, but the almost final moments, brought about by Dirty Vicar's sermon of forgiveness, show their reconciliation. The final moments bring Mare to her needed reconciliation with the loss of her son, and as she heads up to the site of his suicide, the curtain comes down....
hopefully for good.
The show kept coming at me all day. A coworker mentioned a pizza cutter, and one of yall had a power failure, a key element a few episodes back that led us to the Bryn Maguffin section of Philly over who confessed to who over what.
I haven't heard any confirmed buzz about them revisiting the loose ends, or creating arll noo ones, to bring Mare back for a second go-round. Winslet is on record as wanting to do it, but as good as she was in both acting and production, she'd need some equally awesome writers, current or new, to get her there. I'm hoping it will not happen for at least a year or two, to let this amazing work find its place among HBO legacy series. It's already the stuff of comedy, on television and in print, and I think it will get better with time away from the accent jokes and riffs on British Kate.
Including mine.
Anyone who spoils the end of Mare will be murrrdurred.
That homages the distinct "Delco" accent of this particularly troubled portion of the Suburbs of Brotherly Love. There's plenty of Phillies and Flyers bling around to bring the sense of overall place to us, but Delaware County has its own way of saying things. It's also insular to the point of approaching incestuous: everybody knows everyone else, most are related to everyone else, and almost everyone still standing in the final moments is in one service at one Catholic church.
We meet four generations of Sheehans: Helen, played by Jean Smart (who I viewed in a somewhat different light after watching her star in Hacks in between the penultimate and final episodes of this); Kate Winslet's title character, divorced from her still-alive ex; her daughter Siobhan, played by an Aussie actress who also nails the purrfict Delco (the loss of Mare's other child Kevin leads to much non-murderous suspense and some of the strongest scenes of the series including Mare's final one); and her Kevin's son Drew, played by an amazingly expressive kid (not twins, as often is the case) named Izzy King. There are many of the usual intergenerational conflicts and misunderstandings, but despite Easttown's blue-collar trappings, there is tolerance of Siobhan's LGTBQ sexuality, of more adultery than I'd ever be comfortable with, and of Mare's Black high school teammate being in the community. Old people do old people things, Mare is as unglam as you could picture Kate Winslet on her worst day, and the multiracial police force does a fine job of not shooting innocent people in the back for minor traffic violations....
probably because they're busy with other things since, by my count, at least four characters come to gruesome seen-onscreen ends; several others, including Mare, narrowly escape death, two more endure brutal kidnapings, various beatings are seen, and there are Phillies logos in many scenes. Ick. The death toll is so high for a small town I half expected Angela Lansbury and Tom Bosley to show up. (The latter would be a neat trick because he died in 2010.)
But anyway, onto the dying. There's only one real Murrdurr Brad Wrote about, the rest being lesser or no charges of homicide, and it's the getting there that is the true beauty of this series:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Just making sure.
So, the first episode hints at the murder of a Katie, but before long the series turns into a dead Erin before our eyes. Her age-appropriate BF Dylan, putative father of her son DJ, is immediately the prime suspect. Along the way, the writers toy with his culpability; his subsequent GF rats him out, and a friend of the deceased casts even more doubt on his alibi and intentions, but in the end he makes a magnanimous gesture to the family of DJ's real father that seems to clear him... or does it?
Then we turn to The Dirty Vicar, who we see tossing Erin's bike off a bridge. He musta done it! Except not; in the final reveal, we see him true to his word as an ally rather than a perp.
Katie's still missing, and now we see another Gone Girl. Is a single suspect responsible for all three? In one of the most suspenseful sequences of the entire seven, Mare and her forced-upon partner Colin track down a guy with the All Time Serial Killer Middle Name Only It's His First; and the only real murder we ever get to see flashes before our, and her, eyes as Wayne does in Colin and almost takes out Mare in the process. Not him as to Erin, though; airtight alibi.
Now the House of Ross becomes the theater in the round of the final episodes. Billy's got Erin's high school jersey in his stuff, so HE musta done it! Wait, his brother John is in Erin's sole remaining scrap of evidence, so HE's our boy! They all confess to it, so it must be him, or him,.... or.... now it gets confusing....
The series opened with Annoying Neighbor Betty calling Mare in the middle of the night about a prowler. Her Useless Husband was supposed to hook up surveillance cams but never did. Betty's our second on-screen death, coding at the wheel of her car; HUH confesses to an affair with Mare's mom at his wife's wake, the single funniest moment of the series. But after all the loose ends have been tied up with still half an hour to go, HUH is the one who calls Mare in the middle of the night. Things are going missing around his house, he says. His Eagles bling. A pizza cutter. Oh, and his unique service revolver from when he retired from the force, that matches casings found where Erin died, and there are two rounds missing.
Mare checks the cam footage, and there's our man, only he's our boy: Ryan, the son of the most recently spotlighted suspect, who shot the girl by accident and the rest of the Rosses then conspired to prevent him from going to Juvie for three years.
The show's unclear about the timeline of HUH's discovery of the missing gun, but I looked back and it checks out. Ryan's mother, a longtime friend of Mare's, initially disowns her in a stunning scene, but the almost final moments, brought about by Dirty Vicar's sermon of forgiveness, show their reconciliation. The final moments bring Mare to her needed reconciliation with the loss of her son, and as she heads up to the site of his suicide, the curtain comes down....
hopefully for good.
The show kept coming at me all day. A coworker mentioned a pizza cutter, and one of yall had a power failure, a key element a few episodes back that led us to the Bryn Maguffin section of Philly over who confessed to who over what.
I haven't heard any confirmed buzz about them revisiting the loose ends, or creating arll noo ones, to bring Mare back for a second go-round. Winslet is on record as wanting to do it, but as good as she was in both acting and production, she'd need some equally awesome writers, current or new, to get her there. I'm hoping it will not happen for at least a year or two, to let this amazing work find its place among HBO legacy series. It's already the stuff of comedy, on television and in print, and I think it will get better with time away from the accent jokes and riffs on British Kate.
Including mine.