This show has been pretty damn riveting. It's not perfect but it sure hits on the emotional points. When Dylan grabbed the pillow my heart just sank. Jean Smart is amazing in this and I'm glad they put in a character like hers for some comic relief. Her playing fruit ninja in earlier episodes is just comical.
Also her hiding the ice cream in the bag of frozen veggies was pretty great.
That part was amazing. I actually laughed out loud when she pulled out the ice cream. And her hurrying upstairs after letting in the ex girlfriend to get back to her ice cream was pretty good too. I though maybe she was going to contact Siobhan to give her a heads up but nope... Just really wanted her damn ice cream.
This show is going to win all of the awards. Holy fuck.
I had no expectations coming into this show, just when I thought it couldn’t get better. I also love how Mare’s therapy is very productive, and she doesn’t maintain the stoic front. When you’ve been theough what she’s been through, you open the fuck up. The revelation of her Mom’s affair and her reaction was unexpected and hilarious. If I had one nit picky thing its how the killer was holding his weapon. It just seemed to Jack Bauer-ish, very pro like. I dont think some rando depraved rapist who imprisons teenage girls would have such proficiency with a firearm.
"If I had one nit picky thing its how the killer was holding his weapon.
It just seemed to Jack Bauer-ish, very pro like. I don't think some rando
depraved rapist who imprisons teenage girls would have such proficiency
with a firearm."
The whole thing was made for TV. He has this huge secret, all these cameras, a gun, and yet he answers the door unarmed? Doesn't make sense except in TV land, so at least he didn't hold the gun sideways.
I wonder if Erin's killer is revealed next episode and the last episode is repercussions.
ETA: I greatly appreciated how the show showed just enough of the kidnapped girls situation and no more.
Ive heard this show compared to British crimw drama like Broadchurch, which I haven’t seen but seems to imply a dreary heaviness. Imo, this show has the perfect amount of levity, to make it go down smooth and I love the restraint of the performances, no scene chewing, plus that shot of the bridge where Zobel tells Mare about the case he didn’t solve, really beautiful. I ised to visit my sister in Bucks county Pa, and I remember such scenery.
This show just gets better every week. Sad the guys aren’t watching. I’m not sure why not. It’s released once a week. I hope they start covering new shows soon. I don’t really re-watch the old movies they cover and I can’t Twitch during the week because I’m work.
Anyway Joanna Robinson does a solid podcast if you’re looking for one
This show just gets better every week. Sad the guys aren’t watching. I’m not sure why not. It’s released once a week. I hope they start covering new shows soon. I don’t really re-watch the old movies they cover and I can’t Twitch during the week because I’m work.
Anyway Joanna Robinson does a solid podcast if you’re looking for one
A. Ron watched a few episodes for OTC but really sandbagged it which I thought was weird. I would have figured he would really have dug it.
A. Ron watched a few episodes for OTC but really sandbagged it which I thought was weird. I would have figured he would really have dug it.
Lol when he opened with "it's a true crime movie" (????), but I have seen sort of a backlash to the show recently at least on twitter. I think people might be coming into it with expectations that this show is a very serious prestige drama, which it sort of is but it's got a lot of trashy elements and comedy and probably a predictability that watching it through that lens is probably not the way to do it. Hearing here about how it's basically a British crime show with all the tropes that come with that really helped me enjoy it.
Anyway Joanna Robinson does a solid podcast if you’re looking for one
She did a great interview with Evan Peters this week, he seems like a genuinely super nice guy. Loved him in this show (especially good work in his last episode) - he was able to do a lot with not a ton of screen time.
Also: There’s a great article out there about how Evan broke down inconsolable and almost wanted to quit / question his acting career apparently after that one drunk scene from earlier. I thought he nailed it. Many did even before this recent story broke. But he thought he ruined the whole shoot that day and they didn’t get the scene because of him. Did it sober drinking apple cider. That guy is a trip; love it.
A couple more episodes on OTC this week and it got even worse somehow. Don’t understand the disconnect at all but it seems like this is going to be the #1 candidate for the Baldies category of Biggest Miss.
We got a cameo from new character Reformed Soapbox Jim this week too, who apparently finds it bizarre that anyone wants to watch or hear about anythint that isn’t “fun” or “light-hearted” all because we went through a pandemic, which is weird since this is the most fun I’ve had with a show since about a year before that.
A couple more episodes on OTC this week and it got even worse somehow. Don’t understand the disconnect at all [...]
As @bizmarkiefader said, it can help to appreciate the show if you know the tropes. Otherwise a show where Everyone Has Secrets can be annoying: somehow this little town managed to keep going as a complex puzzlebox of interconnected lies and crimes until one event causes everything to start coming apart in conveniently episode-sized chunks?
Mare stole heroin from the police evidence room, planted said heroin on someone, IIRC lied about what she did, acted like a cop when she was suspended, and probably other things but she'd have been fired/arrested 10-15 words ago. [One of the reasons I watch British crime shows is it bugs me when police on American shows break the law; it's easier to pretend what the police are doing is OK when it's set in another country.]
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I wanted to mention I'm still enjoying the Mare of Easttown segments on The Watch podcast from The Ringer.
A couple more episodes on OTC this week and it got even worse somehow. Don’t understand the disconnect at all [...]
As @bizmarkiefader said, it can help to appreciate the show if you know the tropes. Otherwise a show where Everyone Has Secrets can be annoying: somehow this little town managed to keep going as a complex puzzlebox of interconnected lies and crimes until one event causes everything to start coming apart in conveniently episode-sized chunks?
This might be the most hilarious stripping down to pure structure of a story I’ve ever seen. Do people do this with everything?
“Oh how convenient that all the events of this book that I’m reading would take place in these chapter-length chunks.”
“It’s a little annoying how the entire runtime of this movie is dedicated to telling the beginning, middle, and end of this one particular story.”
Where is a story supposed to start, at the beginning of time?
This might be the most hilarious stripping down to pure structure of a story I’ve ever seen. Do people do this with everything?
“Oh how convenient that all the events of this book that I’m reading would take place in these chapter-length chunks.”
“It’s a little annoying how the entire runtime of this movie is dedicated to telling the beginning, middle, and end of this one particular story.”
Where is a story supposed to start, at the beginning of time?
Glad you found that throw-away comment at the end so amusing. As opposed to the style of storytelling where everything extraneous should be removed, there is a style where 'irrelevant' details are included, situations are more complex, to make the story more naturalistic, more true to life. If A. Ron was expecting a true crime story, he might have been expecting the latter. Stories can be about one thread in a complex tapestry where lots of threads were already going when the story starts and leave lots of threads continuing after the story ends. With Everyone Has Secrets, it can feel like all these secrets are artificially hidden until the inciting incident happens which causes everything to come out (in convenient chunks). :-)
Did you ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark? If so, did you not briefly wonder how the temple in the jungle still had functioning traps after many, many years? That's the artifice of the story interfering with one's enjoyment, just as can happen with an Everyone Has Secrets trope.
There’s a great article out there about how Evan broke down inconsolable and almost wanted to quit / question his acting career apparently after that one drunk scene from earlier. I thought he nailed it. Many did even before this recent story broke. But he thought he ruined the whole shoot that day and they didn’t get the scene because of him. Did it sober drinking apple cider. That guy is a trip; love it.
What in the world? That was one of the most convincing drunk scenes I've seen in anything in a long time. Like they said on The Watch, usually "drunk" on TV means they're taking a bunch of sips out of a glass and maybe eventually break a plate or yell too much. I really appreciated the bar feeling like the actual end of the night at a lot of dive bars where a decent amount of the people are sloshed and making plans with random people they just met.
This might be the most hilarious stripping down to pure structure of a story I’ve ever seen. Do people do this with everything?
“Oh how convenient that all the events of this book that I’m reading would take place in these chapter-length chunks.”
“It’s a little annoying how the entire runtime of this movie is dedicated to telling the beginning, middle, and end of this one particular story.”
Where is a story supposed to start, at the beginning of time?
Glad you found that throw-away comment at the end so amusing. As opposed to the style of storytelling where everything extraneous should be removed, there is a style where 'irrelevant' details are included, situations are more complex, to make the story more naturalistic, more true to life. If A. Ron was expecting a true crime story, he might have been expecting the latter. Stories can be about one thread in a complex tapestry where lots of threads were already going when the story starts and leave lots of threads continuing after the story ends. With Everyone Has Secrets, it can feel like all these secrets are artificially hidden until the inciting incident happens which causes everything to come out (in convenient chunks). :-)
Did you ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark? If so, did you not briefly wonder how the temple in the jungle still had functioning traps after many, many years? That's the artifice of the story interfering with one's enjoyment, just as can happen with an Everyone Has Secrets trope.
This show is going to win all of the awards. Holy fuck.
The kicker is that this show will have to go up against The Queen's Gambit at the Emmy's. I honestly couldn't tell you which I would prefer to win because they are both amazing in vastly different ways.
There’s a great article out there about how Evan broke down inconsolable and almost wanted to quit / question his acting career apparently after that one drunk scene from earlier. I thought he nailed it. Many did even before this recent story broke. But he thought he ruined the whole shoot that day and they didn’t get the scene because of him. Did it sober drinking apple cider. That guy is a trip; love it.
What in the world? That was one of the most convincing drunk scenes I've seen in anything in a long time. Like they said on The Watch, usually "drunk" on TV means they're taking a bunch of sips out of a glass and maybe eventually break a plate or yell too much. I really appreciated the bar feeling like the actual end of the night at a lot of dive bars where a decent amount of the people are sloshed and making plans with random people they just met.
I know, right!? Same. The best “drunk acting” I’ve seen in a while. So on point that it was making me uncomfortable and cringe, and get kind of angry. That’s exactly how someone gets when they’re fucking gone but still on their feet. I HATE fucking babysitting people when they’re that way. And I have some of those in my past too. I guess an actor could just slam 4 bourbons and say “let’s do it!” but I bet trying to act super drunk while being just sorta drunk would come out awful. I need to listen to The Watch you mentioned and Joanna Robinson - Evan Peters podcast @Teresa from Concord mentioned.
I was very surprised by A_Ron’s review and Jim’s comments. Jim says he doesn’t want to deal with this kind of story after Covid and then talks about video games with children and parents souls and resident evil‘s. Did I miss something? And I know the guys are definitely missing something not watching and appreciating this show
Just be aware the first few times they talk about they show they are rather fixated by the regional band referenced in the show which has a funny name. Once they get over that the quality of the discussion is much better.
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I am glad Line of Duty s6 episodes are starting to come out on Britbox and my Unforgotten s4 DVDs arrived so I have more to watch once Mare ends.
Do any of you have British crime shows lined up to watch next?
Comments
Anyway Joanna Robinson does a solid podcast if you’re looking for one
Lol when he opened with "it's a true crime movie" (????), but I have seen sort of a backlash to the show recently at least on twitter. I think people might be coming into it with expectations that this show is a very serious prestige drama, which it sort of is but it's got a lot of trashy elements and comedy and probably a predictability that watching it through that lens is probably not the way to do it. Hearing here about how it's basically a British crime show with all the tropes that come with that really helped me enjoy it.
She did a great interview with Evan Peters this week, he seems like a genuinely super nice guy. Loved him in this show (especially good work in his last episode) - he was able to do a lot with not a ton of screen time.
There’s a great article out there about how Evan broke down inconsolable and almost wanted to quit / question his acting career apparently after that one drunk scene from earlier. I thought he nailed it. Many did even before this recent story broke. But he thought he ruined the whole shoot that day and they didn’t get the scene because of him. Did it sober drinking apple cider. That guy is a trip; love it.
We got a cameo from new character Reformed Soapbox Jim this week too, who apparently finds it bizarre that anyone wants to watch or hear about anythint that isn’t “fun” or “light-hearted” all because we went through a pandemic, which is weird since this is the most fun I’ve had with a show since about a year before that.
Tropes are tropes.
With or without tropes - 1 on the trope scale or 11 on the trope scale, this is still GOOD.