S01.E01: Miss Lady Hawk Herself

[Meredith Quill]

Quote

After answering a call about a neighborhood prowler, Detective Mare Sheehan shoulders her chief’s directive to revive an unsolved missing person’s case amid increased community pressure. Later, while her loved ones celebrate her ex-husband Frank’s engagement, Mare attends a celebration for her legendary high school basketball win and connects with Richard, a professor who’s new in town.

Premieres April 18 on HBO.

[preeya]

Big fan of Winslet. Looking forward to this one.

Just wondering: will she have an accent or not?

[paigow]

She was constantly rehearsing the Philadelphia accent... should be authentic

[preeya]

44 minutes ago, paigow said:

She was constantly rehearsing the Philadelphia accent... should be authentic

Interesting. I hope she nails it.

[topanga]

I enjoyed this premiere. The characters are pretty authentic to working-class Philadelphia-area people.

Mare is not very likable, but it it’s Kate Winslet, so I still like her somehow. And when did Guy Pearce get so hot?

The mystery took a while to develop, but I figured it would involve the young mom. She had tragedy written all over her face from the start. And I couldn’t believe that her baby daddy watched while his friends assaulted her. Whatever your relationship is now, she is still the mother of your child. He’s such a piece of crap. So is his current girlfriend. They deserve each other. 

[SeanC]

Seeing Winslet and Pearce onscreen together reminded me that somehow it's been a decade since Mildred Pierce.  Sigh.

Solid so far, even if so far it's pretty standard HBO detective drama.

[preeya]

29 minutes ago, topanga said:

Mare is not very likable, but it it’s Kate Winslet, so I still like her somehow. And when did Guy Pearce get so hot?

Yes, it is Kate Winslet and even as an unlikable character she nailed it. I'm in for the duration.

[Irlandesa]

I found myself liking it too even though nothing much really happened in the first episode.  But there are a lot of characters so I guess we did need time to get to know who everyone was.

And there was a lot of exposition  about relationships and where people lived.  And cliches--oh look, the creative writing prof is at a bar on a Friday night with a book/journal.  Yeah.  Right. 

[JeanJean]

That was a LOT of exposition, but I dearly love Kate Winslet. I just hope the murderer turns out to be the awful girlfriend of Dylan the baby daddy. Or that somehow, at least, she gets Karma-slapped.

[aghst]

I liked it, guess they wanted to establish how much she is a part of the community, as she's about to investigate another murder of a young woman in the community.

But the mother of the missing girl in cold case from a year ago was her teammate on the high school basketball team?

Mare is a detective but she's also mother and counselor to a lot of the people.  She's usually dealing with petty problems, though maybe the peeping tom thing may turn out to be significant.

I don't know how typical Kenny, Erin's father is in this community.  First thing he grabs when he gets home is a beer and then starts complaining about having to support his grandson.  But he hates his job and now he's got to support his single mother daughter and her infant son so there's resentment there.

Spoiler

Wouldn't surprise me if in a drunken rage he hit Erin, killing her.

So in a way, the town kind of looked bleak.  I don't know much about PA but in the western part of the state, there are a lot of rust belt towns, long abandoned by steel mills, with high unemployment and high opioid addiction.

I don't think this place was that bad but still maybe a working class small town where things aren't booming like they did decades ago.

Inside the Episode the creator was rhapsodizing this small town, with salt of the earth people, kind of like a place out of Springsteen, except of course, these small working-class towns are never as idyllic as they seem.

It's not a new TV idea though, a murder that rocks a small community.  Except there won't be supernatural events as in Twin Peaks.  Instead of whimsy and homeyness of Twin Peaks with Agent Cooper going on about coffee, this show is going for more grit.  Mare is eating snacks with cheese whiz while downing some beers, after she gets home, after she goes over to Lori's and then at the little party commemorating her game-winning shot.

Between the exhausting job and town, she needs some drinks?

[Cheezwiz]

Well, I'm officially hooked, and glad I have something new to watch on Sundays for the next few weeks.

When I first started reading about this series, and that Kate Winslet along with some other Brit & Aussie actors starring, I honestly thought it would be set in Britain. But reading that Jean Smart was playing her Mom threw me - not sure why I was surprised, as Winslet has played many American characters before. To me, so far, the show is very reminiscent of Happy Valley, which was set in Britain.

They've done a great job establishing a sense of place, as well as Winslet's position in the community in the first episode. I've never been to Pennsylvania, but anytime I see it depicted on film or TV, it just looks incredibly bleak.

What really confused me at the beginning was the young teen mom, because I honestly thought they were setting her up as Winslet's daughter. It took me awhile to catch on that she wasn't related at all and was from a completely different family. The rest of her story this episode was incredibly sad - poor girl.

I guess we will find out in later episodes what happened to Winslet's son.

Guy Pierce - hmmm.... bad news, or red herring?

[preeya]

12 minutes ago, Cheezwiz said:

What really confused me at the beginning was the young teen mom, because I honestly thought they were setting her up as Winslet's daughter. It took me awhile to catch on that she wasn't related at all and was from a completely different family. The rest of her story this episode was incredibly sad - poor girl.

I guess we will find out in later episodes what happened to Winslet's son.

Yes, it was difficult putting the characters relationships together. I wasn't able to figure out who goes with who. For that reason I'm going to re-watch the episode. 

[Cheezwiz]

2 hours ago, SeanC said:

Seeing Winslet and Pearce onscreen together reminded me that somehow it's been a decade since Mildred Pierce.  Sigh.

Ye GODS! Has it really been that long? I loved that mini-series, and totally forgot that Pierce was also in it. I've never been a fan of his, but he totally suited the caddish role in MP. We'll see what he gets up to in this one.

[kieyra]

Hi folks--just a reminder that there is no need to spoiler-tag speculation. 

Since it seems like it's going to be that kind of show, I've created a separate spoilers and speculation topic as well. 

[cardigirl]

Well ... I was not too impressed by this first episode, given all the hype the series has received. It kind of felt like a British person's idea of what life in a poor Pennsylvania town would be like.  Unending gray.  Very grim. 

I felt so sad for the sweet little young mother. Trapped by her abusive father, and having to share custody with someone who also abuses her, or allows her to be abused. She was truly an innocent. So of course she's going to end up dead. 

Hopefully I'll get more engaged as the series continues, and as someone said ahead of me, I hope someone visits some strong karma on that redheaded biotch. I'll probably hold on just to see that. Kudos to the actress for making me hate that character so much. 

I really want this series to sweep me up.  C'mon HBO, it's been awhile. 

[Pop Tart]

This was certainly a slower start to a series than we've seen recently, but I'm in. The character beats all felt like they will have a point as the series goes on. And the acting was stellar throughout - with special props to the young woman playing the eventual murder victim, Erin (Cailee Spaeny), who conveyed so much in her brief scenes. Kudos too to the writers for those scenes. I felt like I truly knew Erin and thus can feel heartbroken for her and be angry about her murder. 

Though I know Mare is a bitter pill much of the time, at least what we've seen so far. I did think it was kind of shitty that her ex and his fiancee planned their engagement party the same night as Mare was to be recognized for her past accomplishment. Yes, Mare had said that she didn't need her family there. But there wasn't a reason that the engagement party had to happen that night. It seemed like a fairly impromptu party, just a bunch of friends and family invited over, so could have happened anytime. 

 

 

[paigow]

There was an after party for the engagement??? Not enough booze at home?

[EtheltoTillie]

I thought this was terrific, and I can't wait for the next episode.  I hope this doesn't let me down like Perry Mason, where it went downhill midway.  I have been to various parts of Pennsylvania that are like this.  It seems realistic. 

I always find it disturbing that kids go to these out of the way places in small towns and get high when they must be driving impaired.  I grew up in NYC, so this never happened (the driving part).

[hoodooznoodooz]

I haven’t read the other threads yet, so I apologize if you already discussed this.

How startling to watch Phyllis Somerville as Betty Carroll calling in detective Mare Sheehan about a sex offender, after I just watched “Little Children” four days ago. PS played the mother of the SO in LC.

Edited April 19, 2021 by hoodooznoodooz

[ShadowHunter]

This is already better than The Undoing lol.

Kate Winslet was good but I knew she would be. 

14 hours ago, topanga said:

I

The mystery took a while to develop, but I figured it would involve the young mom. She had tragedy written all over her face from the start. And I couldn’t believe that her baby daddy watched while his friends assaulted her. Whatever your relationship is now, she is still the mother of your child. He’s such a piece of crap. So is his current girlfriend. They deserve each other. 

Those characters are trash.  All I could think when the assault was happening was you all suck!

While this seemed slow I was not bothered. I felt like we got some good character development.

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by ShadowHunter

[EtheltoTillie]

29 minutes ago, ShadowHunter said:

This is already better than The Undoing lol.

 

That's a very low bar LOL. 

[ShadowHunter]

21 minutes ago, GussieK said:

That's a very low bar LOL. 

True lol. 

[BingeyKohan]

If I'm going to watch a squalid crime drama for some reason it's easier for me to get into it if it has a Southern setting, like Sharp Objects, or S3 of True Detective - but I liked this. I'm surprised they went with such a pretentious and old-fashioned sounding title. And Easttown inevitably makes me think of Eastview, from Wandavision. Maybe the turtle is secretly a spell-casting witch!!

Lots of guys in hoodies, I notice - probably at this point to make us think any of them could be the ferret-faced peeper. And I would imagine Mare's insistence that the original missing girl (Katie?) absolutely never being found means she absolutely will be.

[monakane]

23 hours ago, paigow said:

She was constantly rehearsing the Philadelphia accent... should be authentic

I'm from Philly and I noticed that too.  Some of the words were overexaggerated, but I'll give her a pass because it's Kate.

[monakane]

14 hours ago, aghst said:

So in a way, the town kind of looked bleak.  I don't know much about PA but in the western part of the state, there are a lot of rust belt towns, long abandoned by steel mills, with high unemployment and high opioid addiction.

 

It appears to the be set in the Delaware County suburbs of Philly.  There are a lot of working class suburbs outside of Philly with high unemployment and opioid addiction.  

[tennisgurl]

I am always here for Kate Winslet, so I am all in for this. Even beyond Kate, who was great as always, it had a really strong sense of place and the mystery has been well set up. It was a slow build, but unlike a lot of shows it really seems to be heading somewhere and isn't just spinning its wheels. I guessed that poor Erin would meet a bad end, but it was still so sad to see. She just had this feeling of tragedy all around her, stuck with abusive father and a useless horrible baby daddy and his sociopath of a girlfriend who has it out for her, struggling to take care of a baby but trying to do right by her son, I am already invested in finding out who killed her.  Mare isn't the easiest character to like, but I want to know more about her. She's not the nicest person, but her prickliness seems to hide something really sad and weary. 

They certainly did a good job of creating an atmosphere of this working class rustbelt town in Pennsylvania, one those towns where no one ever moves out and few new people move on, high levels of unemployment, spend a lot of time talking about past glories, huge issues with drugs, it all just seemed so bleak. I hope that the video at least gets the horrible baby daddy and his evil girlfriend and their cronies in trouble, but I don't think either of them killed her. My first guess is her bitter alcoholic father, resentful of Erin and her baby, possibly killing her in a rage while drunk, but its still too early to make any real guesses.  

Great to have another Sunday night mystery show. 

[kieyra]

35 minutes ago, monakane said:

I'm from Philly and I noticed that too.  Some of the words were overexaggerated, but I'll give her a pass because it's Kate.

(I kept trying to dig up material for the media thread last month, and I swear every article was about how hard she worked on the accent. HBO apparently didn't give the press much else to work with ahead of time.)

[EtheltoTillie]

I wonder why Mare and Frank broke up.  May have something to do with the deceased son.  It's often difficult for couples to stay together after losing a child.

I personally don't find Mare unlikable.  I think she is sad and burdened.  She is kind to many people.  For example, how she helped the drug addicted brother of her friend and the new cop who was ready to faint. 

[Chaos Theory]

A lot of mysteries have an “outsider” come in to solve a terrible crime.   I like that Mare is from the town so she will more then likely know everyone.    

I don’t find her unlikable.  Just deeply unhappy about how her life turned out.   She was a high school star who more then likely got pregnant pretty quickly and her life got derailed.   Now she is a police detective in a small town.   

[gesundheit]

15 hours ago, aghst said:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

I don't think this place was that bad but still maybe a working class small town where things aren't booming like they did decades ago.

Inside the Episode the creator was rhapsodizing this small town, with salt of the earth people, kind of like a place out of Springsteen, except of course, these small working-class towns are never as idyllic as they seem.

 

That Inside the Episode thing was cute -- I love how people with TV careers are always so enamored of small-town people who "go to jobs every day that they don't necessarily love, but they get up every morning." So like most humans who have bills to pay? No need to romanticize, it's just... you know, how we survive in most small towns, big towns, huge cities, small cities, etc. It must be weird to have a dream job and look at all us normies and think, "Wow, there must be some noble driving force inside them going to that shitty job daily."

18 minutes ago, GussieK said:

I wonder why Mare and Frank broke up.  May have something to do with the deceased son.  It's often difficult for couples to stay together after losing a child.

I personally don't find Mare unlikable.  I think she is sad and burdened.  She is kind to many people.  For example, how she helped the drug addicted brother of her friend and the new cop who was ready to faint. 

Agreed, I liked her just fine! (Seriously, what was with that new cop? I know some people have trouble with blood, but he was swooning up in there.)

 

I wonder where the mother of Mare's grandson is.

[hoodooznoodooz]

I was so happy to realize that there will only be seven episodes, because I would not be able to watch a full season, waiting to find out the outcome.

They did a fantastic job, making several gorgeous actresses look haggard.

[gesundheit]

6 minutes ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

They did a fantastic job, making several gorgeous actresses look haggard.

That was a real rude awakening for the folks on my couch, looking at all these actors who are roughly our age and normally look so young. Because oh right, this is actually how we look. D'oh.

[hoodooznoodooz]

8 hours ago, gesundheit said:

I wonder where the mother of Mare's grandson is.

I was wondering the same. It’s unusual for a parent to have full custody especially if 

 

Spoiler

he suffers from a mental health issues and might have committed suicide. (I’m not sure if the show implied that. I was falling asleep. I have to rewatch.)

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by hoodooznoodooz

[EtheltoTillie]

32 minutes ago, gesundheit said:

That was a real rude awakening for the folks on my couch, looking at all these actors who are roughly our age and normally look so young. Because oh right, this is actually how we look. D'oh.

They made Kate Winslet look kind of tired, shall we say, but Guy Pearce thought she looked hot.  Guy Pearce looked a bit haggard, and I didn't recognize him at first.  I had forgotten he had been in Mildred Pierce. 

[gesundheit]

12 minutes ago, GussieK said:

They made Kate Winslet look kind of tired, shall we say, but Guy Pearce thought she looked hot.  Guy Pearce looked a bit haggard, and I didn't recognize him at first.  I had forgotten he had been in Mildred Pierce. 

Yeah, I thought Guy Pearce looked rough. Everyone else just looked like normal humans their age (so not at all how they usually look). He was the only one I was really startled by.

[BingeyKohan]

His haircut was pretty unflattering. I was glad he buttoned up his shirt before I had to see the chest that I imagined him having these days. (Sorry, Guy!)

[paigow]

Surprised that there was no Ladyhawke joke...

Edited April 20, 2021 by paigow

[EtheltoTillie]

I caught what might be an anachronism.  Is this supposed to be taking place in present day?  How old is Guy Pearce supposed to be?  He mentioned having had a TV movie made of his book, starring Jill Eikenberry.  She was on LA Law in the 80s and 90s.  He would have been awfully young when his book was published.  Or maybe fictional Jill Eikenberry starred in this vehicle in the 2000s?  She wasn't a big star then.

Edited April 19, 2021 by GussieK

[preeya]

2 hours ago, GussieK said:

I personally don't find Mare unlikable.  I think she is sad and burdened.  She is kind to many people.  For example, how she helped the drug addicted brother of her friend and the new cop who was ready to faint. 

This ↑ because she's not the bubbly type female cop. She's portraying a seasoned "don't give me any shit" type of detective who's been "around the block" which obviously includes some tragedy. My wonderment is why she is so put off by her mother. Also, living adjacent to an ex is not conducive of the norm. Divorced people should have as little contact with each other as possible (preferably none).

[Cheezwiz]

2 hours ago, GussieK said:

I personally don't find Mare unlikable.  I think she is sad and burdened.  She is kind to many people.  For example, how she helped the drug addicted brother of her friend and the new cop who was ready to faint

She just seemed exhausted to me, and cranky for probably a lot of good reasons. Her decency as a person came through in spite of her grumpiness. I wonder how long it will be before her son's and the mother of her grandson's fates are revealed.

On a completely unrelated note: you know you're getting old when people a bit younger than you are suddenly playing grandparents. Jesus.

[gesundheit]

45 minutes ago, GussieK said:

I caught what might be an anachronism.  Is this supposed to be taking place in present day?  How old is Guy Pearce supposed to be?  He mentioned having had a TV movie made of his book, starring Jill Eikenberry.  She was on LA Law in the 80s and 90s.  He would have been awfully young when his book was published.  Or maybe fictional Jill Eikenberry starred in this vehicle in the 2000s?  She wasn't a big star then.

I think that was the idea -- actors were usually in TV movies after their careers started to taper. (Obviously it's different now with HBO and Netflix movies, etc.) She was certainly still working well into the 2010s. 

Guy Pearce is 53, though, I could very easily see him writing one hit book out of his MFA or something in his 20s and it being adapted to a TV movie.

[kieyra]

(Good grief. I just finally settled in to watch this, and I’m having a massive struggle trying to go into it completely blind/no expectations because “bleak cop drama with cynical, midlife female lead detective” has been my bread and butter show since ... The Killing, I guess. And one of my top ten all time shows is Happy Valley (UK), which this is already superficially reminding me of. Can’t stop comparing every single beat to some other show. Hopefully my brain will shut off soon.)

[meep.meep]

22 minutes ago, Cheezwiz said:

On a completely unrelated note: you know you're getting old when people a bit younger than you are suddenly playing grandparents. Jesus.

There's a movie starring Sean Penn where his actual mother was cast as his grandmother.  Hollywood hates the actually old with a few exceptions.

So Roy from The Office is Mare's ex?

[Snazzy Daisy]

This 1st episode is boring as hell, almost the entire episode is devoted to introducing the large cast of characters, I wish this “table setting” is done in a more creative manner. Am not a fan of Kate Winslet, am here for the murder mystery. With too many characters, am just waiting for one of them to drop dead, just to kick the plot into motion and this only happened towards the end of the episode. Many of us can tell that Erin the teen mom will end up dead. I also know that the killer will not be Brianna the b*tchy gf or Dylan the dbag baby daddy because it’ll be too easy. So, no mystery here. 😵

I really hope that Detective Colin Zabel who will be introduced in next episode will bring more colours & interesting dynamic to this show. 

I also hope that this show will not make mistake like many small-town mysteries show made, thru casting. You can guess who the real killer is when one character is played by a well known/accomplished actor, especially with less screen time (in earlier episodes).

I want to see Mare & Colin solving the murder cases, not focusing too much on her personal dramas. Backstory of her son’s death and her divorce are acceptable but not her drama with ex hubby’s fiancée or custody battle with her son’s wife/gf.

[kieyra]

Ok, yeah, that was a lot of character setup, and slowly building dread once you realized poor Erin was a goner. 

If the formula for this kind of show holds, whoever killed Erin is the same person who killed the girl who has been missing for a year. That’s if we’re going serial killer. We might not be. I could see the show doing some trope busting. But I don’t see it being Erin’s father, or her noxious baby daddy and lowlife girlfriend. I do hope they get arrested, though. 

The Sheehan household’s dietary habits were something else. PB and Cheez Whiz for dinner. I mean, no judgement but yeah.

I liked Siobhan and coveted her haircut. Actress reminds me of a young Brie Larsen. I’m not sure why she was quite so mean to Mare, though, regarding the ex’s engagement. I also lost track of how she ended up where she did (in the woods?) in order to intervene for Erin, but the fact that she was there and witnessed the beatdown will drag her right into the case. 

Writer dude: get a haircut, please. The pandemic doesn’t appear to be happening in this universe. There’s no excuse. 

There are quite a few parallels to Happy Valley, but I don’t want to derail the thread. Might make a new thread for comparisons. One big one is that Happy Valley’s lead character is raising her young grandson because her daughter (rather than son) died young. The dead daughter also appears to her, vision-like, the way the son did to Mare. And like Mare, HV’s lead knows everyone in town on a first name basis, criminals and victims alike, and is able to show sympathy for the addicts. (Ok, I’m stopping now, I guess that last one is a pretty basic cop trope.)

Looking forward to the season. I’m starting to enjoy this “limited series” format a lot. Remember slogging through 26 (!) episodes of The Killing before we found out who killed Rosie Larsen?

[Cheezwiz]

1 hour ago, kieyra said:

Looking forward to the season. I’m starting to enjoy this “limited series” format a lot. Remember slogging through 26 (!) episodes of The Killing before we found out who killed Rosie Larsen?

God YES. That thing seemed to run for an absolute eternity, and the killer's ID STILL wasn't revealed at the conclusion of the first season. Plus the interior sets were always so dark, that I wanted to buy cartons of lightbulbs for the entire cast. Such a maddening series!

I'm glad this one is limited to seven episodes, and that I'll have something to distract me from my usual Sunday back-to-work dread for the next few weeks. Although a part of me also wishes I could just binge the hell out of this.

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, Cheezwiz said:

God YES. That thing seemed to run for an absolute eternity, and the killer's ID STILL wasn't revealed at the conclusion of the first season. Plus the interior sets were always so dark, that I wanted to buy cartons of lightbulbs for the entire cast. Such a maddening series!

I'm glad this one is limited to seven episodes, and that I'll have something to distract me from my usual Sunday back-to-work dread for the next few weeks. Although a part of me also wishes I could just binge the hell out of this.

Me too!  It's tempting to wait several weeks to watch.  But no . . .

[hoodooznoodooz]

I rewatched. I thought it was funny when Mare hurt her ankle after parkouring the chain link fence and says, “F- - -. F- - -.
F- - -ing thing.”

Edited April 22, 2021 by hoodooznoodooz

[peachmangosteen]

13 hours ago, kieyra said:

The Sheehan household’s dietary habits were something else. PB and Cheez Whiz for dinner. I mean, no judgement but yeah.

Well, they were going to the ex-husband's house for his engagement dinner, so that was more of an appetizer lol.

Quote

There are quite a few parallels to Happy Valley, but I don’t want to derail the thread. Might make a new thread for comparisons. One big one is that Happy Valley’s lead character is raising her young grandson because her daughter (rather than son) died young. The dead daughter also appears to her, vision-like, the way the son did to Mare. And like Mare, HV’s lead knows everyone in town on a first name basis, criminals and victims alike, and is able to show sympathy for the addicts. (Ok, I’m stopping now, I guess that last one is a pretty basic cop trope.)

OK wow, it sounds like this show is basically just a US remake of Happy Valley.

I wasn't going to watch this because like I'm not sure I'm really in the mood for a bleak murder mystery with a focus on cops, but I was bored so I watched it. It was fine so I will keep watching lol.

[MaggieG]

I enjoyed it. Definitely lots of setting up for all of the characters. I feel like Guy Pearce being new in town makes him suspect but it's early to tell.

I felt so bad for poor Erin, thinking she had met a nice, cute guy only for it to be a trick by the awful baby daddy and his even worse girlfriend. And she gets beat up. Can those two please get hit by a bus?

13 hours ago, kieyra said:

Looking forward to the season. I’m starting to enjoy this “limited series” format a lot. Remember slogging through 26 (!) episodes of The Killing before we found out who killed Rosie Larsen?

Haha, I remember! I'll always be thankful for that show for introducing me to Joel Kinnaman 😍 If anyone is interested in rewatching, it's on Hulu now.