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Positive:
36
Mixed:
6
Negative:
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Critic Reviews
The GuardianApr 19, 2021
Season 1 Review:
As the twists and turns of the cases are revealed, it becomes a show greater than the sum of its already considerable parts. By the time you get to the revelation at the end of the second episode, you become less stunned by the news itself than you are by the computation of what it will mean for all involved. Everything and everyone is real and you care about every tiny part. Wonderful.
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Apr 16, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Sterling drama. ... A seven-part series whose powers derive as much from its enthralling focus on that town and its society as from the unsteady life and career of its heroine, known simply as Mare, a police detective born and raised there. Kate Winslet’s eloquent command of the role is obvious from the outset. ... It’s a testament to the writing (Brad Ingelsby wrote the script) that no moment in this saga ever feels even remotely unreal.
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RogerEbert.comApr 15, 2021
Season 1 Review:
It’s the first true must-see drama of 2021, an excellent ensemble piece that works as character study, murder mystery, and actor’s showcase. Finely detailed in both setting and character, it’s a tapestry of a mini-series, a piece that centers one of our best living actors while also providing rich, complex characters for an extended ensemble of fantastic performers.
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The PlaylistApr 7, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Winslet is phenomenal at carrying the spirit and theme of the show on her shoulders too. ... This poignant and human drama—compelling as all get out with its murder mystery too—suggests for all the L’s we take in life, we can still choose to live as if the past is the past and small, but meaningful victories are always within reach.
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Apr 6, 2021
Season 1 Review:
As the show progresses, it only gifts viewers more brilliant character moments, shocking reveals, and haunting performances. Clear your Sundays this spring for Mare of Easttown because it’s that damn addicting. ... Mare of Easttown‘s magic is that it evokes these classic crime dramas [Twin Peaks, Broadchurch and The Silence of the Lambs] while bringing something new: a raw authenticity that makes you realize that at the center of every murder mystery are human beings getting hurt.
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ColliderApr 19, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Though it may sound pretty grim, Mare of Easttown never feels like overkill or "tragedy porn," as they say. Instead, sadly, it just feels nauseatingly realistic. ..... It's both a physically and emotionally demanding role, and the certifiably excellent Winslet delivers an Emmy-worthy performance if there ever was one.
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Apr 5, 2021
Apr 16, 2021
Season 1 Review:
In fact, deceptively stodgy title notwithstanding, it is a poignant, richly observed, if occasionally over-the-top HBO crime drama. ... Easttown is not an ideal place. Mare is not an ideal detective or mom. But both have something more compelling than perfection going for them: they’re real.
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The Daily BeastApr 15, 2021
Season 1 Review:
But what starts as the familiar slow burn of those other shows—a close-knit community is rocked by a murder that a hardened local detective must investigate—quickly catches fire, becoming a powerful portrait of grief, trauma, and the devastating secrets buried in this claustrophobic town’s tangled web of relationships.
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TV Guide MagazineApr 9, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Like a blue-collar version of The Undoing, the red herrings and shocking twists pile on relentlessly. ... By the fifth hour, I was left as breathless as Mare. [12 - 25 Apr, p.10]
Apr 16, 2021
Season 1 Review:
"Mare of Easttown" doesn't go so far as to reinvent the detective story, it does offer a version of the tale more nuanced and thoughtful than the vast majority of its peers. ... Its characters are deeply real and expertly drawn, its sense of place firmly established and specific, and its clues genuinely shocking. It's an intense and satisfying to watch, going to places your average murder mystery wouldn't aspire.
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Apr 15, 2021
Season 1 Review:
The series gets off to a somewhat sluggish start but by the end of the first hour, “Mare of Easttown” gets its hooks into viewers, building tension around the murder investigation that engulfs Mare’s life. Episode two ratchets up the mystery further as multiple suspects come into focus.
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The IndependentApr 19, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Mare of Easttown is much easier to watch than I Know This Much Is True, Mark Ruffalo’s joyless HBO miniseries from last year, and much of that is down to its star. Mare’s undimmable despite the encompassing gloom. Thanks to her, Easttown feels surprisingly warm for a town full of dead teenagers.
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Apr 19, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Of the two series, "Happy Valley" is top-notch, whereas this is more of a muddle elevated by superb performances. That shouldn't count out what Winslet, Jean Smart and the other women at the heart of "Mare of Easttown" offer. The characters are the reason to stick with this show as opposed to the murder and missing persons cases, starting with Winslet's performance.
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Apr 16, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Winslet in a rich performance that never lets go. The series, created and written by Brad Ingelsby (“The Way Back,” “Our Friend”) flirts with melodramatic excess at points, as the number of local crises and misfortunes grows. But the acting — by Winslet and the strong ensemble around her — is compelling enough to make it all feel more tragic than soapy, more complex than overcooked.
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Apr 16, 2021
Season 1 Review:
There is nothing sensational here, but I watched five episodes in a row with growing interest and found little occasion to talk back to the screen. ... In a really good mystery, the journey is what matters, the scenery, the people you meet: the detective, the bystanders, the suspects, all but one or two of whom will turn out not to be the killer. And “Mare of Easttown” makes those other minutes feel well spent.
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Apr 16, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Dive bars and broad accents abound. In the midst of unearthing a domestic nightmare, Mare’s courage at confronting the demons of this town offer up a particularly satisfying kind of catharsis, where women paying attention to each other can save each other from the worst kind of bogeyman.
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Apr 15, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Small towns harbor big secrets in prestige TV, and so it is in Mare of Easttown, a showcase for Kate Winslet that resembles "Broadchurch" in the broad strokes, before establishing its own distinct personality. Slow to start, the limited series gains momentum while mostly providing Winslet a fine star vehicle a decade after her Emmy-winning turn in HBO's "Mildred Pierce."
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Apr 12, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Running seven hours, “Mare of Easttown” often exchanges action for atmosphere. A few more cases could have pushed this along, but it does engage. Winslet never falters, making “Easttown” seem like the place she was born, raised and disappointed. Peters and Smart are great sparring partners but Mare is the deserving main attraction. Winslet is the reason.
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Apr 8, 2021
Season 1 Review:
One of Mare of Easttowns’s greatest assets is its thorough attention to detail, but occasionally that also works to its detriment. The show places importance on so many story lines and sidebars that some inevitably get shoved to the side without being satisfyingly resolved. ... But the series is so immersive and well-done in other ways that its flaws don’t detract from the experience.
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Apr 5, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Mare of Easttown is most compelling when it sticks to the Happy Valley model of illustrating how its titular character is both a product of and an outlier in her hometown — and noticeably flags when it hews closer to tropes ... And yet Ingelsby and Zobel eventually manage to cast their spell through masterful cliffhangers and jolting twists.
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Apr 13, 2021
Season 1 Review:
The series regularly introduces suspects and leads—from the short-tempered dad to the shady priest to secret journals—indulging the allure of armchair crime-solving while resisting neat resolutions. But the detective work is merely scaffolding for the show’s beguiling dive into Easttown’s psyche.
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Apr 5, 2021
Season 1 Review:
While it's somewhat exciting to try to guess the killer, the series wastes potential to dig into its characters and their relationships, and the landscape is the more lasting feeling after finishing the final episode. It just leaves you with a noticeably detached feeling of, "Okay, well that's done."
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Apr 15, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Some style in the direction or honest feeling in the screenplay could have mitigated the dreariness, but “Mare” doesn’t offer much beyond Ben Richardson’s burnished cinematography. ... The script doesn’t give Winslet enough to do beyond suffering and lashing out ... [Later episodes] may give Winslet more room to operate, but it probably won’t make “Mare of Easttown” any less obvious or colorless.
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