Mare of Easttown

[Annara Snow]

18 hours ago, Zorral said:

We shall soon learn!  If he turns out NOW to be the killer, I myself -- Imma gonna wanna kill the gdd writers room coz how lacking are they if this is what it is.

 

At this point, nothng would surprie me, as I've seen TV writers resort to all sorts of crappy resolutions, from the most out-of-the-left-field absurd twist, to "the twist is... there's never been any twist! Aren't we clever with this completely anticlimactic ending" (cough cough The Undoing).

[Zorral]

33 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

Aren't we clever with this completely anticlimactic ending" (cough cough The Undoing).

  O lordessa, that was one for the books, wasn't it.  I've been scared now, ever since, They will do it some more!

[Mindwalker]

I'm trying to stay unspoiled, so I'll have to get back to the reply later.

Binged 3 eps and will watch ep 4, so I guess I'm hooked!  thought it became less bleak after ep1, with a bit of dry humor.
 

Spoiler

 

The deacon is totally the baby father. Hopefully, anyone but Dylan so he won't get custody.

Siobhan and radio girl are cute. Oh dear. Killer lesbians anyone? (Siobhan and her probably soon-to-be-ex?)

Mare is getting off easy for the shit she pulled with the drugs. Of course she won't stop investigating... Maybe time to review those old murder files of victim no 1?

 

While I can't vouch for the accuracy of the accent, it sounds nice and is wonderfully easy to understand for me as a non-native speaker.

[kairparavel]

Apparently there are quite a few people invested in this final and it's crashing HBOMAX. 

[Zorral]

Ayup.  At 10 PM I tuned in -- and the effer is "Content Not Available."  After many retries, Partner checked on twitter, and by golly, it's all across the country that HBO Max is down just as the finale was to start.

No troubles anywhere else across my streaming universe, just this.  Also the first time tried to watch it as it went up.

Somebody at HBO is going to have a very bad time very soon.

This is a debacle.  Can't even get "Content Not Available" now.

 

 

 

[Mindwalker]

Well, the ending of ep 4 was certainly unexpected.

For the record, I currently think it was

Spoiler

Colin, LOL. His account of his previous success wth the 10 yo victim was somewhat off. And his living with Mom gives me Psycho vibes.

And could Kevin be the father of Erin's son?

Maybe the deacon was just a confidante of hers, but then why would he get rid of her bike...

The Siobhan/ gf/ ex/ grandma drama was funny, but it's still veryy suspicious that they show so much of her (love) life at all, seemingly unrelated o the case. The documentary will, ofc, finally lead to some clue but still...

Also, why was Mare so bad at framing Carrie, not even putting the drugs in different bags? That makes no sense to me, unless she wanted to get caught.

 

 

[kairparavel]

I KNEW IT. 

[Fury Resurrected]

I did not expect this episode to hurt my feelings so much

[RhaenysBee]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:11 PM, Winterfell is Burning said:

Regarding point #2: a lot easier to believe once you realize she looks like Kate Winslet. Plus, it's not like every man in town is after her. Most of the plot points you mention are nitpicking, though.

That’s a fair point. And yes, of course they are, as I said in the beginning, I think the show is great and I enjoyed binging it very much. None of these small things made me dislike it or question how great it was.

On 5/29/2021 at 11:38 PM, Zorral said:

Easttown doesn't look quite as miserable as you are seeing it.  It looks to be a fairly good place to be a kid for a lot of kids.  We are seeing kids everywhere with parents who care enormously for their children.  But like a lot of places, it's not so good for the non-centered adolescents or those with rather incohate ambition to ... Do Something, though they don't, and can't at this stage, know exactly what, generally speaking.  There's a lot of community life, as with the school and sports and family.  The misery is indeed pretty much rooted in that, this is a close knit community, and family is everything and that has an inevitable dark side for many, if not most.

You've gone overboard to a degree, it feels like.

As with Drew.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

He did not "almost drown." He is having swimming lessons as we saw earlier, and he was practicing holding his breath under water.  I did the same thing at his age, and like him I was proud as could be of being able to keep my face under water way longer than everybody else. The point of that scene is that his mom is trying so hard to enable herself to support her son so she can have full, sole custody.  The support for single moms (see Erin for starters!) in this very conservative community is just about zero, so this is the tragedy, that Carrie has to push herself so hard that she can hardly be a mom because she's trying so hard to get the money to be a mom.

And yes, we see social workers, and so on here, though briefly.  Indeed, the Church provides some support, supposedly, as we see, though that didn't work out so well for Deacon. But then, the Church ha more than earned that kind of distrust all over the world, hasn't it?

Ya, there are entire communities in which every family is miserable, especially in racist, tRumpist communities, which the town on which Easttown is modeled, is, and in spaces.

 

Plus, there is another episode to go. 

I absolutely see that, it’s just the degree of it that took me by surprise. And, as I said, it also has to do with watching it in one go. The atmosphere is probably not as intense and miserable if you watch the episodes separately and don’t just follow along 6 hours of misery for characters. 

As for family and the dark side of that, I grew up in place that’s the size of a single neighborhood in Easttown, and went to school to a slightly larger town and it’s a vastly different culture so my reference point and thus perception of Easttown is seriously skewed. I’ll stop with the disclaimers now. It just felt surprisingly dark for me, but I 100% see why that is and it didn’t take away from the entertainment value. 

Spoiler

Yes, I see that, for me the takeaway was that she was trying too hard to accomplish something on her own and it become counterproductive to the point of endangering the child. And yes of course it was clear that the child knew how to hold his breath. It was just filmed in a way that heavily hinted at the potential for tragedy in the situation, with both the water running and the kid ducking forward. I think that was an unnecessary flare to support an already solidly established point. 

As for how the misery and the politics of a town correlate - no clue about and even less interest in that on my part. I applaud the show for staying away from current US politics, in my book that was the right way to go.

Anyway, looking forward to the new episode. 

[Mindwalker]

Episode 5:
 

Spoiler

Ah, the GOT playbook of Shocking Twists and Sudden Deaths, TM!

Oh well, I liked Colin, suspicion or not. I should have known when he told his mother he was done with trying to live carefuly, or something like that. Or when he kissed Mare.

I was right about his famous case, though.
Kudos to the actor; particularly for that drunk scene way back.

I guess now we're sure that Erin's case is unrelated to the two other girls.
Speaking of which, it's great they are safe now, but Mare should be fired anyway. Because her being not legitimately on the case, and thus not armed, probably cost Zabel his life.

The sex worker described her assailant as bearded, but he probably just shaved. If not, there are two possible accomplices with beards: Frank and John.

top baby daddy suspects this episode:
Billy (Erin lived with him)
Dylan's dad (just because he's so nice, but still unlikely)

Kevin

and... my number 1:

John Ross.
Access to Erin at Blily's.

Shifty behaviour, particularly with his son.

Top murder suspect:
John Ross.
Suspicious secret with his son, is it really "only" an affair? Son only nodded to his mom, never confirmed verbally. Also reacted to tv news about murders.
JR gave Frank an alibi - but also himself.

Still not ruling out Siobhan/ Becca because tv lesbians.

(Also, Erin's father is still a possibility. Possible reason: anger at her dong sex work, or lying about real baby daddy, or even... being the father himself, because sexual abuse... I hope not. But his waking up at the crime scene, in Erin's position...)

I think Dylan & Co burning the diaries is another red herring, he probably just wants to destroy evidence for real baby daddy, because ever since he decided not to smother DJ to death, he's all father feelings. Barf.

Dark horse:
Frank's fiancée, just because we know nothing about her and they seem to have problems.

Ofc hey love their red herrings, so at this point I wouldn't be surprised if it was Mare herself, just because it would be the Biggest Twist Ever.
And if she found out it was her best friend's husband... Would she cover for him? We already know she's bent. But she'ss opening up in therapy, so maybe she's getting better.

I enjoyed the funeral scandal and Mare laughing her ass off in the car.

Family, in this show, is more curse than blessing... Will Siobhan be the one who gets away?

 

Will we find out

Spoiler

what happened to Kevin

or are they saving that for a potential second season? Who was with him in the video?

[kairparavel]

8 hours ago, Fury Resurrected said:

I did not expect this episode to hurt my feelings so much

It definitely broke me.

I've always liked Kate Winslet but this really put her up with my Queen Cate Blanchett. 

[Zorral]

Still haven't seen it, due to HBO Max gone kablooey last night just when the finale was to be broadcast.  So retired to bed with a book.  Feh HBO MAX. Such a fail.

[Fury Resurrected]

1 hour ago, kairparavel said:

It definitely broke me.

I've always liked Kate Winslet but this really put her up with my Queen Cate Blanchett. 

She was superb, nobody could have done better

[Mindwalker]

Episode 6:

Spoiler

So, no consequences for investigating while suspended, except for reinstating her... okay.

And dating/ kissing your colleague wasn't very professional.

Houser got fired? He didn't exactly have time to make many mistakes...

Geez, I thought they'd kill off Drew.
If Siobhan moves out, Mare could ask Carrie to live with them.

 still think John asked Billy to take the blame (because he has no family of his own etc), or gaslighted him about it somehow, so he thinks he did it? (Because he was drunk at the time or something like that.)  And now he realizes Billy would break under pressure and tell the truth, so he takes him fishing to kill him off.

And John bought the chain and pendant, but signed as Billy. Or maybe he sent Billy to get it.

Wait for backup Kate, I mean Mare! You barely got away last time you went it alone... (well, with Colin)

 

[Zorral]

16 hours ago, kairparavel said:

I KNEW IT. 

Quite a few people across the internet called this about espisode 4 - 5.

I wasn't among them.  

Nevertheless there are a lot of unanswered questions that bother me, even though I really liked this, and admire its excellences, despite the glaring missing elephant in the town's living room, which is that they are all tRumpists, and there's none of the rabid racism, etc. that is in the real place -- and which would make them not that loving, inclusive community they pretend they are.

I did something I never do -- watched the episode in the middle of the afternoon.  Some work was being done on the apartment today, so I couldn't do anything more productive anyway. That's my story, and I'll stick to it. 

 

[Annara Snow]

53 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Quite a few people across the internet called this about espisode 4 - 5.

I wasn't among them.  

 

They did? I didn't see anyone mention it.

I knew after I saw the beginning of the epsode that there'd be a twist. I figured it out around 30 minutes in - around 10 minutes or less before Mare found out.

[Mindwalker]

Oh well.

It had very briefly crossed my mind some episodes ago but I'd dismissed it.

Some beautiful scenes in the end.

Spoiler

I think t's very unhealthy for this family to raise DJ. Particularly for Lori. And for DJ to grow up with the killer of his mum (rehabilitated, but still), and with a father who was willing to kill his own brother to cover it up.

"We had this connection!"

At least Mare is getting along better with her family and can face her demons now.

I don't think this needed 7 episodes.

Spoiler

I also didn't like the use of thee overused tropes like "suspended cop keeps invesstigating and redeem themselves".

But all in all, good entertainment.

[Annara Snow]

36 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

Oh well.

It had very briefly crossed my mind some episodes ago but I'd dismissed it.

Some beautiful scenes in the end.

  Hide contents

I think t's very unhealthy for this family to raise DJ. Particularly for Lori. And for DJ to grow up with the killer of his mum (rehabilitated, but still), and with a father who was willing to kill his own brother to cover it up.

"We had this connection!"

At least Mare is getting along better with her family and can face her demons now.

I don't think this needed 7 episodes.

  Hide contents

I also didn't like the use of thee overused tropes like "suspended cop keeps invesstigating and redeem themselves".

But all in all, good entertainment.

Spoiler

 

I don't know where Jon is, but he does not live with them and I don't think he will, I can't see Lori taking him back or him trying to live in that town again where everyone knows him and his history.

Things will sure get weird one day when they try to tell DJ what happened to his mom.

 

 

[Zorral]

59 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

I didn't see anyone mention it.

In comments to recaps, as at Vulture.  From the start commentators were calling i

Spoiler

 

t on Ryan, but I thought they were joking!  The joke was on me though.  

 DJ being raised in that family doesn't seem healthy.  Also how does Lori not have any consequences for the cover-up and lies about a murder. Is Jimmy still in prison because he tried to cover it up and lied?  Is John still in prison for the same?  Or -- what about having sex with a minor?  That John, what a POS!  And then Lori blames Mare! There's lots of pieces here that don't quite fit the puzzle, not just these matters.

 

 

[3CityApache]

Come on, man, spoiler tags!