HBO’s 7-Part Crime Masterclass Is Anchored by a Career-Making Performance

Sometimes there’s nothing better than a one-off. A limited series, or miniseries, can tell a complete story without worrying about setting up another season, and HBO’s Mare of Easttown is one of the best examples of just how effective that approach can be. Led by Kate Winslet as Detective Mare Sheehan, the seven-episode crime drama takes what initially looks like a small-town murder mystery and slowly reveals something much more complicated underneath. The series is also newly relevant again, with Julianne Nicholson set to reprise her role as Lori Ross in Season 2 of Task, confirming that both Brad Ingelsby dramas share the same world.

Cailee Spaeny is the centerpiece of the series’ tragic plot as Erin McMenamin, a young, struggling teen mom who becomes the subject of Mare’s latest investigation when she’s found dead, alone in the woods. In seven gripping episodes, Mare of Easttown throws tragedy upon tragedy at its small Pennsylvania community, where everyone knows each other, to both their benefit and exhausting detriment. Also starring Jean Smart, Julianne Nicholson, Angourie Rice, Guy Pearce, and Evan Peters, Mare of Easttown uses its murder investigation to dig into grief, motherhood, family, and the damage that can ripple through a community long after a crime has been committed. Five years later, it’s still a crime masterclass that’s incredibly difficult to top.

What Is ‘Mare of Easttown’ About?

Marianne “Mare” Sheehan (Winslet) is a renowned local figure in Easttown, largely due to winning a high school basketball game over two decades prior. Excitement of that sort comes few and far between in Easttown. She’s a skilled and devoted police detective, but her status in that regard has come into question recently, as the case of a missing girl has gone unsolved for a year. Mare lost her son to suicide, and she’s since divorced from her husband, Frank (David Denman). Her daughter, Siobhan (Rice), grows distant, and her mother, Helen (Smart) is always critical.

To make things worse, Erin McMenamin (Spaeny) turns up dead, and she’s no stranger to Mare’s small circle, causing further strife. Erin’s father, Kenny (Patrick Murney), is the cousin of John Ross (Joe Tippett), who is the husband of Mare’s closest friend, Lori (Nicholson). Easttown is a small, tightly-knit place. When things seemingly couldn’t be worse, the county sends Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters) to aid in Erin’s murder investigation, despite Mare’s protests.

Cailee Spaeny Is the Emotional Core of ‘Mare of Easttown’

Image via HBO

Even with limited screentime, Spaeny leaves her mark on the series, affecting everyone through the ripples of tragedy. It’s not just because she’s the victim of a murder, either. That kind of horror is terrible no matter the victim, but Erin contrasts the rest so starkly that losing her leaves a glaring, unmendable hole. Spaeny’s performance makes the impact even greater. Her eyes somehow tell several stories simultaneously, at a level so convincing you think Erin must be someone you’ve known.

Winslet’s Mare is a hardened single mother, burdened by the weight of loss and the unshakable sense that further loss is inevitable. Her daughter grows more distant every day, her career is becoming increasingly scrutinized, and the troubled mother of her grandson is actively attempting to reenter the picture, threatening to take another child from Mare. Spaeny’s Erin sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. Similarly, she’s a single mother, but hope and perseverance haven’t left her, despite consistent abuse from her father and ex-boyfriend — two debilitating factors among more awful circumstances than any child should endure.

The unsolved case of Katie Bailey (Caitlin Houlahan), a young girl who went missing a year ago, has loomed over Mare, and she’s reminded of her failure every time she encounters Katie’s persistent mother, Dawn (Enid Graham). The senseless loss of Erin (and, with her, another piece of Easttown’s innocence) seems to spur Mare into action, undeniably through more than a mere sense of duty as a detective. Mare surely sees her daughter in Erin, but she sees a version of herself, too — a version of Mare before the miseries of life in Easttown piled higher, year after year.

‘Mare of Easttown’ Mixes Family Drama With a Detective Mystery

One of Mare of Easttown‘s most skillfully played hands is the ever-shifting suspicion it places from one character to the next. You’ll consistently think you’ve figured it out, with Mare’s intuition running alongside you, only for the entire case to crumble at the next turn. It teeters on the edge of True Detective‘s style but never strays too far from being a family drama at its core. Following the horror to which several young girls in Easttown are subjected always comes alongside witnessing the effect it has on the victim’s loved ones. The interpersonal drama would rival the most far-fetched of novellas, but Mare of Easttown never feels unreal. If anything, you feel like you’re encroaching on a town that could be your own. It’s the type of nerve-wracking character study HBO does best, and it’s in excellent hands with Winslet and Spaeny at the helm.

Mare of Easttown is streaming on Max in the U.S.