As the first episode begins, Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) is awoken by a call from Mrs. Carroll. Moments later, she visits Carroll’s place and tries to get her to answer the door. Betty Carroll (Phyliss Somerville) eventually lets her inside and tells her about the pervert. Mare encourages her to call the station next time, but Betty doesn’t trust anyone else. She reminds Carroll that she is detective sergeant so she investigates all of the burglaries, overdoses, and other really bad stuff going on. Mare gives her the number to the station and encourages her to call there next time. Betty says her daughter was upstairs in the shower when she looked outside and saw a creeper out there. She couldn’t see much but it looked like a ferret. They have a security camera but they haven’t figure out how to use it yet.

As for her daughter, she was scared to death so she fled back to Allentown. Mare agrees to file a report and notify patrol before Betty says she is half tempted to leave too. Glen Carroll (Patrick McDade) enters moments later and tells Mare that the Tribune did a full article about her. They encourage her to see it before she escapes the house. Next, a young girl tells the boy nearby how much she loves him. Mare makes it to the station before receiving a call from Frank (David Denman). She ignores it and heads inside. As she steps in the door, she learns about the article in the Easttown Tribune from Jan Kelly (Patsy Meck). Seconds later, the rest of the force is introduced to the new guy Officer Trammel (Justin Hurtt-Dunkley). Then, Mare tells them about the prowler at 28 Grubb Road.

She shows them a drawing of the cartoonish suspect base on Betty’s description. Chief Carter (John Douglas Thompson) interrupts and asks Mare to enter his office. He shows her a news video about a woman whose daughter went missing a year ago. She accuses the police of doing nothing and not caring. The Chief explains that the Board of Commissioners called this morning and they want to add a county detective to assist with the case. Mare doesn’t want that and reminds him that Katie Bailey was a known drug abuser with a history of prostitution. She suggests Katie could be lying at the bottom of the Delaware River and they’d never know. Mare is forced to sit down before she learns about the Rotary Club increasing the reward money to 15,000 and they’ve been hanging out flyers everywhere.

She is told to go back to the file because they’re starting over. Next, the young girl is forced to give her son over to her former partner. The young girl, Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny), sees his new partner outside and says she doesn’t want her son near him. She follows Dylan Hinchey (Jack Mulhern) outside and gives him the bag before Dylan’s new girlfriend gets involved. She tells Erin to stop texting her man. Brianna (Mackenzie Lansing) threatens Erin but Dylan tries to get her to stop. Erin tells Dylan that they need to schedule their son’s ear surgery because he could experience hearing loss if he keeps getting infections. Dylan doesn’t want to pay more money and says it needs to go through the court. Dylan doesn’t have $1,800 and doesn’t seem eager to want to do anything about it.

Meanwhile, Mare goes to the pet store so she can pick up a turtle tank. She is shown several but doesn’t like the prices and wants something simpler. She admits it is for her grandson who has trouble focusing on tasks. She gets a call from Officer Trammel seconds later telling her about a burglary at 535 Argyle Road at Beth Hanlon’s house. The homeowner came home and found the trophy case smashed. Some sports memorabilia has been stolen and it is believed it was Freddie again. Beth (Chinasa Ogbuagu) found him shooting up last night and kicked him out. Mare buys a much cheaper aquarium for her turtle before leaving. She gets a call from Frank and tells him about the aquarium. They talk about Drew (Izzy King) and the lizard Mare flushed down the toilet. Mare abruptly ends the call when she sees the robbery suspect and calls it in.

She tries to stop Freddie (Dominique Johnson) but he makes a run for it. Both get hurt while jumping over a fence but Mare’s injury is worse. She follows him into a house and an officer joins her moments later but she encourages him to put the gun away. She follows the blood trail and tries to convince Freddie to come out. She soon finds out that the new officer can’t stand the sight of blood. Freddie eventually lets Mare in and she quickly begins asking about the stuff he stole. Trammel isn’t any help. Freddie tells her where the stolen goods are before admitting that the gas company shut him off.

Beth attacks him as he is led outside. Beth says she has had enough because she has lost her job and family because of Freddie but she doesn’t want to press charges. Beth doesn’t want him to stay with her and admits she wishes he would die and get it over with. Freddie is told he’ll have to stay in the shelter. He doesn’t like it, but he agrees to do so. Mare tells Trammel to call the utility company and force them to turn the gas back on. Moments later, Erin’s dad Kenny (Patrick Murney) comes home and complains about work before grabbing a beer. Erin texts someone and asks what time they should meet tonight. She asks her father if she can borrow his truck since some of her friends are meeting at Sharp’s, but he reminds her what happened last time she borrowed the truck. He doesn’t like that she tried to hide the scratches from him. He takes a bite of the food she made and screams because it is too hot.

When her father asks, she pretends Dylan said he would pay for their son’s surgery. He complains about paying for everything for his son and says he isn’t paying for anything else. Erin gets a message telling her they’re going to meet at 10. Mare goes home that night and gives her grandson the turtle aquarium. She puts Siobhan (Angourie Rice) in charge of helping him put it together. She joins Father Dan Hastings (Neal Huff) and tells them about her day and Freddie. Her mom reveals Frank is having them over to celebrate his engagement to Faye (Kate Arrington). Mare isn’t happy that they’ve known about it for three weeks but nobody told her. Frank enters and joins them. Mare argues with him about his relationship with Faye and their relationship. Later that evening, Mare talks to Siobhan about the concert at Drew’s school tomorrow.

Mare makes sure he can play the instrument before learning that her daughter knew about Frank and Faye already too. Mare is upset because nobody is coming to her ceremony but Siobhan reminds her she didn’t want people there. She encourages her daughter to her college applications in on time. Erin leaves on her bike to meet with her friend. She hangs out with her friend and tells him about the boy she has been texting with. The boy told her he wants her to dance again. She admits that almost made her cry before saying she is going to meet him at Sharp’s Woods. They discuss Brianna and Erin admits she texted Dylan one night because Brendan wasn’t texting her back. Erin’s friend tells her mother about Erin’s date so they decide to get her some makeup. Meanwhile, Mare’s family visits Frank’s place. Siobhan stays outside and hangs out with her friends.

They talk about drugs and other things. She tells her friend Becca to calm down. Meanwhile, Mare gets ready for her ceremony. She talks to Ryan about his homework before checking on Moira. She makes sure everyone at school is being nice. Then, John enters and she finds out he knew about the engagement too. She hangs out with Lori (Julianne Nicholson) and they talk about Dawn. Mare admits she doesn’t think they’re ever going to find her daughter. At the high school, everyone at the basketball games celebrates the 25th anniversary of the proudest moment in Easttown sports history which was their state championship season. Mare gets drunk during the event. Dawn Bailey (Enid Graham) shows up and Mare tells her she wishes she’d come to her if she thinks she isn’t doing her job. Mare gets upset and complains about Dawn telling the entire town about it.

Mare steps out and joins the others when she is introduced as Lady Hawk. Later that night, Mare goes to the pub and sits with Richard Ryan (Guy Pearce). Richard tells her he had just moved here from Syracuse a few months ago. He introduces himself but she isn’t impressed. She steps away and runs into Lori. She returns to Richard and they talk about her job as a detective. He reveals he is guest lecturing at Kettleman College and that is why he is in the area. Richard wrote a book once so he got a job like that. He says some people liked it and they made a movie out of it starring Jill Eikenberry in the 90s.

Mare tells him she is called Lady Hawk because she made a shot in a basketball game 25 years ago. Erin arrives at Sharp’s Woods and runs into Shan. She talks to them about her son DJ and admits it is hard being a mom. She checks her phone and learns that Brendan is near the bridge trail. She goes there and waits. Brianna and her friends approach and Brianna tells her she wants her to dance again. Brianna admits it was her and she made up Brendan. She asks Erin if she texted her boyfriend. Dylan tells them what happened in the attic before Brianna punches her. She is beat until Siobhan gets involved and stops it. Erin is allowed to walk away on her own. Meanwhile, Richard’s date with Mare continues. He tells her she is a very beautiful woman.

They agree to go somewhere else and they’re soon having sex. When they’ve finished, Mare has to go because she has to take her grandson to school in the morning. He asks if he can call her lady but she says she thinks it was a one-time thing. They talk about his book and Richard tries to get permission to call her once again. She agrees to call him. He gives her one of the books before she leaves. On her way back, she notices someone who looks like the prowler and gets out. She calls in a suspicious male of watches the description of the prowler. Mare puts up a poster for Katie before returning home to her mother who says her legs are acting up. They chat briefly before Mare finds Drew up using the bathroom. She puts him back in bed and learns he named the turtle Kevin after his dad who also liked turtles.

In the morning, Dylan gets up to care for the kid and Brianna doesn’t seem too happy about it. Dawn prints flyers for her daughter and takes them out. Erin’s father goes for a smoke and finishes. Then, we see Erin’s body left out in a stream. Mare imagines she sees a boy sitting across from her but looks again and he isn’t there. She gets a call as the episode ends.

Mare Of Easttown Review

I’ve seen the excellent reviews for this show so I expected more. At the very least, I expect it to get better as it goes and I hope it does because I could use something halfway decent to watch. However, I wasn’t blown away by the first episode. Although it wasn’t terrible, I can’t say it was spectacular either.

Overall, the acting was pretty good. I didn’t notice anyone doing anything odd that made me want to cringe. We have trusted favorites like Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce and I thought Cailee Spaeny and the others were equally good. The biggest problems were some of the characters, the pacing, and the cluttered story. The first episode was a bit drawn out and lost my interest at times honestly.

I found myself drifting during scenes with Mare, her family, and her encounter with Richard. Those scenes just weren’t that interesting. I don’t care about Mare, Frank, or the stupid turtle aquarium. I want to know more about Katie and especially Erin. I am surprised they didn’t build up the Erin character longer since she was the most interesting and sympathetic.

The episode was already drug out with nonsense that likely won’t make a bit of difference in the long run so I am not sure why they couldn’t have let us develop a deeper relationship with Erin. We only got a glimpse of the character and that might make it hard to keep viewers sympathetic until the finale. I am just going to hope that Mare of Easttown is going to get better with future episodes.

Right now, they’ve killed off the only relatable character that I can remotely sympathize with. I guess I’ll have to wait and see if they can convince me to connect with the other characters, but I am worried that there are too many unnecessary characters and side stories. The opening episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Future recaps of Mare of Easttown will be available on Reel Mockery here.