Mare of easttown as a picture of community
The HBO series the Mare of Easttown is a tightly woven thriller that builds a complicated set of scenarios around several teen abductions and a murder. The writers do a wonderful job building and then deconstructing the many layers of the mystery, with satifying and emotional results.
The Mare of Easttown is also, and more significantly, a portrait of mental health and drug addition in America. Mare, played by Kate Winslett, is avoiding any sort of process to grieve her son, who died by suicide two years before the story starts. He had an on again, off again, drug problem, and ultimately hung himself in her attic. She is now raising his son, all while trying her hardest to never mention her son. Mare’s story aplifies what is seen in everyone else she interacts with. All the people in Easttown have been affected by drugs, mental health issues, and broken and abusive relationships. What's remarkable however is how unremarkable these things appear to be in everyday life.
At the begining of the story, we never see Mare with a drink in her hand. She's never really drunk, it never becomes part of the story, but it is as significant as her police badge It is a visual marker of her character. By the end of the story, she says no to what would otherwise be just another procedural beer at the end of a long day. There was no story line about her drinking too much, and it is very much understood that she didn't quit drinking, but its an important symbolism as she works her way through therapy and the processing of her son's death. When forced to deal with her issues, not through a grand story reveal or some dramatic moment, but through working through it with her therapist and taking responsibility for her own decisions, she starts to find some little bit of peace in her life. Not happines mind you, but peace.
Compare that to her best friend, who slowly loses everything. She moves in the opposite direction through the story. Her husbands multiple affairs, her brother in laws unchecked drinking and abuse, her denials, her unresolved grief, all lead to the lose of her son's innocence. We see, in the final moments of the show, Mare, who is on a path forward, consoling her friend who completely breaks down from the weight of all that she is carrying, just to "keep it together". There are lots of examples of this, its the background of the whole town. People enabling each other, fighting with each other, lying for each other just to keep it together. Credit to the writers, editors, and camera operators, because it feels like a very real community. Everyone knows each other and everyone supports each other from one death and tradgedy to another. The fabric of the town is one of helping each other, but not in the ways that the real issues of mental health and drugs need to be addressed.
The character that stands out the most to me in light of this is the daughter of Mare's best friend, who has Down Syndrome. She is the only character with a diagnosed, defined, and obvious mental and physical disability. And she is presented as the most normal, organized, well put together person in the entire show. She is always well dressed, cared for, polite and understood. This feels like a very intentional choice. It feels like the writers want to highlight that when mental health issues are known and accepted as real, there are opportunities to address them, and help the individual succeed. It's the not so obvious issues, the ones most people deal with and never talk about, like depression, anxiety, abuse, alcoholism, suicide and suffering that fester and manifest in ways that can tear apart families and communities.
I just finished all seven episodes, and as I am writing this every thought I have is met with three more examples of how this show told a sophisticated story of every day live in many areas of America. The biggest twist of the show was how riviting the murder mystery was that it kept your attention while telling a more compelling story of everyday people who are supported by each other in everyway except for those they need.
