2021 may be just halfway over, but it’s safe to say that Mare Of Easttown will go down as one of the year’s biggest TV successes. Written by Brad Ingelsby and directed by Craig Zobel, the series has the kind of singular vision worthy of a film, with a narrative so twisty viewers will be surprised the series isn’t based on a paperback bestseller.
However, it’s all anchored by leading lady Kate Winslet; more than anything, Mare is stunning work from one of the best living actresses.
10 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Features Winslet’s Greatest Performance
Mare Of Easttown wouldn’t be nothing without Kate Winslet, but it would certainly be diminished. To get an even better understanding of Winslet’s talent and range, viewers should check out Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Clementine is an entirely different character from Mare, but Winslet is just as believable as both. More than that, Eternal Sunshine is simply one of the best Hollywood love stories around.
In lesser hands than screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s, it could easily be a “manic pixie dream girl” romance, but Clementine and Joel (Jim Carrey) are afforded equal depth even if the narrative unfolds from his perspective more than hers.
9 The Haunting of Hill House Explores Similar Familial Grief
Another mini-series of comparable quality to Mare is Netflix’s The Haunting Of Hill House. Like Zobel did on Mare, every episode of Hill House is directed by Mike Flanagan, meaning the work feels much more cohesive than series with director swap outs every episode.
At first glance, the two series aren’t that similar; Mare is a crime drama, Hill House horror. However, what makes them comparable is how they use their genre to explore grief. A specific, nightmarish grief—losing a family member to suicide.
8 Mildred Pierce Is Another HBO Mini-Series Led By Kate Winslet
Mare Of Easttown isn’t the first time Winslet has led a mini-series. In 2011, 10 years before Mare, she starred in the five-episode-long Mildred Pierce. Unlike Mare, this is a story that had been told before; Mildred Pierce was first written as a novel by James Cain in 1941, then adapted to the screen by Michael Curtiz in 1945.
Todd Haynes, probably the current male director best at working with actresses, directed all five episodes of the 2011 Mildred Pierce. The novel and film were both set contemporaneously and Haynes doesn’t adjust the time period, turning the mini-series into a period piece. On the acting side, Winslet filled in for Joan Crawford as the title role, while supporting actors included future Mare co-star Guy Pearce and Evan Rachel Wood.
7 Memento Is Guy Pearce’s Finest Moment
Guy Pearce’s role in Mare Of Easttown is Richard Ryan, Creative Writing Professor, and Mare’s love interest. It’s not an insignificant part, but because Richard’s purpose is to provide advice and emotional support for Mare, he does feel ancillary. If viewers want a look at how Pearce can excel, they need to watch Christopher Nolan’s Memento.
It’s one of Nolan’s earliest films and most ambitious; Pearce’s protagonist, Leonard, is incapable of forming new memories. Thus, the story unfolds across two timelines, one chronological, one backward, making the viewer as disoriented as Leonard. If you most liked the mystery aspect of Mare, Memento takes that to a whole other level.
6 Prisoners Is Another Suburban Pennsylvania Mystery
In 2013, Denis Villeneuve made his English language debut with Prisoners. Like Mare, the film is a Pennsylvania-set mystery and has a similar “paperback” feel to its narrative structure. That said, there are some differences; if you want something broadly similar to Mare but not identical, Prisoners is a good pick.
While Mare‘s mystery is a murder, Prisoners‘ is a child abduction. Whereas Mare is clearly the protagonist of her own series, Prisoners divides protagonist duty between Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), father to one of the missing girls, and Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal). Plus, Villeneuve and screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski are clearly more cynical than Zobel and Ingelsby.
5 Sharp Objects Feels Like A Direct Inspiration For Mare Of Easttown
Sharp Objects, Marti Noxon and Jean-Marc Vallée’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel, feels like an older cousin to Mare Of Easttown. Both mini-series are murder mysteries, both are elevated by their pulp trappings thanks to astonishing work by their leads (Amy Adams in Sharp Objects), and both make their settings feel just as vital to the ensemble as any character.
Both the de-industrialized, post-Confederate Wind Gap, Missouri and exurban Easttown, Pennsylvania are so well-defined they feel like places viewers could visit. Without getting into specifics, both mini-series also pull a fake-out regarding their central mystery.
4 The Silence Of The Lambs Is The Woman Detective Story To Which All Others Owe A Debt
Frankly, without Clarice Starling, characters like Mare Sheehan or countless other female detectives wouldn’t exist. Though Clarice is much greener than Mare and her setting more morbid, the influence of The Silence Of Lambs is clear; the climax of Mare Episode 5, when Mare is cornered in the home of an abductor, is clearly inspired by Clarice’s cellar showdown with Buffalo Bill.
Though Hannibal Lecter and his actor Anthony Hopkins have become the star of Silence in the public consciousness, Clarice can’t be ignored. Jodie Foster matches Hopkins at every turn, no small feat, and the reason that Lecter’s scenes are so memorable is because of how they further Clarice’s story.
3 Snow Angels Has A Similar Setting & Themes
Arkansas native David Gordon Green has a clear fascination with small-town America; it’s a theme he’s even explored in his recent Halloween sequels. The one that feels most apiece with Mare Of Easttown is Snow Angels. For one, they’re both set in Pennsylvania, but they share themes in common, not just setting.
Snow Angels has two primary plot threads; the acrimonious relationship between divorcees Glenn (Sam Rockwell) and Annie (Kate Beckinsale), and the High School courtship between Arthur (Michael Angarano) and Lilia (Olivia Thirlby). With these two couples as foils, Snow Angels examines how trauma and problems weave their way through generations, especially when successive generations exist in insulated communities.
2 Top Of The Lake Is Another Gripping Detective Drama
A good mystery is always gripping, whether on the outskirts of Philadelphia or in the mountains of New Zealand. Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake has some of the most direct parallels to Mare Of Easttown, despite their vastly different settings.
For one, the protagonist is a female detective, Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss), investigating the disappearance of young Tui (Jacqueline Joe) just as Mare investigates Erin McMenamin’s (Cailee Spaeny). The series also share a theme of motherhood, with the detective’s own mothers, Jude (Robyn Nevin) and Helen (Jean Smart) factoring in as supporting players.
1 Z For Zachariah Is Another Craig Zobel Effort
Aside from his work on TV, Craig Zobel has a handful of film credits to his name. One is Z For Zachariah, loosely adapted from Robert C. O’Brien’s post-apocalyptic novel. The movie is set in a world that ended with a nuclear fire; Ann (Margot Robbie) lives safe from the fallout in a valley, but her solitary existence is disrupted by the successive arrival of two men: Loomis (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Caleb (Chris Pine).
The three settle into the last Eden left on Earth, but conflict ensues as the men compete to be an Adam to Ann’s Eve. Like Mare, it’s the performances that anchor Z For Zachariah. The film’s greatest flaw is an abrupt ending—it feels almost like 15 minutes were chopped off the movie’s back half and tellingly, the novel ends quite differently.
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