Mare of Easttown: terrifying, riveting TV that’s a wonder to witness
Warning: this article contains spoilers to episode five ofMare of Easttownon Sky Atlantic/HBO. Please don’t read on if you haven’t watched
I get through so much television that my twist-spotting abilities are now at full fitness. I am a spoiler athlete, trained and ready for the viewing olympics. I roll my eyes at any “sudden” reveal, groan that it had been so obviously signposted from episode one.
But this week’s episode of Mare of Easttown, Illusions, blindsided me. The Kate Winslet-led thriller took a turn for the even darker by killing off (I assume – he looked pretty dead to me) the puppy-like Colin Zabel (Evan Peters), just as he and Mare found the man who had kidnapped Katie Bailey and Missy Sager. After Line of Duty, a short break from painfully tense, edge-ofthe-sofa, scream-at-the-screen TV was necessary. But from the moment the detectives knocked on the door, and the camera moved slowly towards the Bennie’s Tavern sign, I was terrified. This was horrific and riveting, choreographed perfectly to ramp up the stress. The Silence of the Lambs creepiness that radiated from Potts, in his crumbling old bar, the banging pipes, the realisation that Mare, suspended from duty, did not have a weapon, the loud music, suddenly cut, the chase through the house, the tray to the head … it was a fitting way to end what appears to have been a red herring in the Erin McMenamin murder case, and it all came together as a result of Mare’s dogged detective work.
It became obvious this week that this is a story of grief and how people live with it, of families being torn apart, not just by kidnappings and murder, but by prescription drugs, illegal drugs, affairs and suicide. As a portrait of modern America, it is not flattering, and the series is rarely a light watch. But it does carry itself with a sense of humour, and occasionally tips into the farcical: Mare’s mother, Helen, is knocked over by a screaming teenage lesbian, a cop is scared of blood, Helen (again) finds herself the unwilling subject of an unfortunate eulogy given for