MARE OF EASTTOWN (2021)

There’s a moment in this reasonably involving, if over-praised and typically over-extended, small-town murder procedural mini-series, heavy on character development & decaying Rust Belt atmosphere, when you know they’re laying it on awful thick.  Not by overdoing some generic NorthEast accent, everybody holds the line there.  No, it’s toward the end of the first episode (of seven!), when a deglamorized Kate Winslet as lead Detective Mare Sheehan gets home from a long day to relax with a brewski and a shot of aerosol cheese from a can.  (On a Ritz®?)  Why not let the poor overworked gal pull a cryovac mini-log of chèvre out of the fridge?  Sure, it’s not at room temp, that’d be part of the characterization.  Instead, even the cheese is full-of-air and a bit of a cliché.  Winslet, letting her hair down, so to speak, though still able to turn heads when they throw a bit of light her way, is generally so down & dour, you can’t imagine why all the decent guys in the cast throw themselves her way.  Her life, nearly as screwed up as the case (drug-induced suicide of her son, custody battle over the grandkid living with her & Grandma, interrelated murder suspects she’s known for decades, multiple fake confessions to hide a loved one’s guilt - times 3!, etc.).  Some good acting carries you thru this, but you’ll be ahead of the script for most of the last four episodes, thinking up better titles.  PEYTON PLACE THRU A GLASS DARKLY?

DOUBLE-BILL: My, what a grumpy reaction!  Maybe it’s because I was alternating between this and Season Five (the best season) of the twenty year old Brit Crime series A TOUCH OF FROST.  Also about a deadbeat town and a dour detective who works around the system.  It felt fresher, more surprising and was better acted, shot, characterized and dialogued than anything found here.  And with a truly devastating ending that’s mirrored in MARE.  (Plus: four rather than seven episodes.)

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Mare’s really a lousy police detective, no?  Hey, there’s an interesting idea to hang an award-winning mini-series on.