I’m not sure HBO has ever pandered to my taste so much. Little bit of Broadchurch, a little bit of Happy Valley (or more than a little bit)... you’ve seen this before, yet you haven’t. The surface-level mystery will be quite familiar to most who are at all interested in crime dramas—what makes this special is the underlying character study, aided by Winslet’s performance. There are a number of her films I’ve yet to see, so take this with a grain of salt, but she’s working on a whole ‘nother level here. And Jean Smart. Even with a bunch of loose threads and a couple banal subplots, there’s far too much here to bring the rating down. And I have to be honest about how much I enjoy the thing!
To some it might seem visually mundane, but I got a similar sense with this as Manchester by the Sea. Often cold, analytical cinematography, digital, painful sincerity. The occasional tasteful shallow depth of field (why else use Summilux glass). No trick shots—Euphoria it is, thankfully, not.
Other than that, it’s pretty much impossible to review without spoilers, so I’ll let it be.
Note: I’m so glad the ten-year-spanning collective delusion that was Game of Thrones is over. HBO can focus a bit more on programming like Mare, although it could prove to be only a brief respite depending on the success of the spin-offs. Of course, y’all are welcome to have your games of thrones considering I’ve got my Outlander, but also I feel like HBO and WarnerMedia’s money is more important to the collective value of TV media than Starz and Sony’s (while Sony is both a producer and distributor on Outlander, it is only a producer on something like The Crown while WarnerMedia is the main distributor for any of their original HBO content; at least that’s my somewhat neophytic understanding).
Note 2: Also have to shout out how respectfully the church was used in the narrative. Toward the end, the church even helped guide an important change within Mare’s character (although of course I won’t discount the efforts of the therapist). I just thought that was neat.
Note 3: Please, please don’t make a season two.