Starting Tuesday, March 5, 2024, M6 will broadcast the crime series Easttown featuring Kate Winslet in the lead role. In this gripping social thriller, the actress, who won an Oscar for the movie The Reader in 2008, plays a police officer tasked with investigating the murder of a teenager in a small American town.
A seemingly ordinary story
The miniseries Easttown, available from March 5, 2024 on M6, is presented as a classic police investigation.
The series takes its name from the town where it is set, a small Pennsylvania town shaken by the gruesome death of a teenager. A local police officer, Mare Sheehan, played by Kate Winslet, is tasked with solving this murder case.
Throughout the episodes, we follow this detective who juggles a complicated personal life and faces increasing pressure. But she does not give up on her obsession to deliver justice in this town where everyone knows each other and all are potential suspects.
A critically acclaimed miniseries
This mini-series, released in 2021 under the title "Mare of Easttown," has been hailed as one of the television events of the year. Featuring Kate Winslet in the lead role, this detective drama certainly made headlines in the media. However, the quality of acting is not the only reason for its success.
This crime fiction has also made a lasting impression with its writing and disturbing realism. It stands out from other crime series by the importance it places on women, and more specifically on mothers within the narrative.
A superbly portrayed complex heroine.
The great strength of the Easttown series is to place women at the heart of the plot, starting with the character of Mare. This policewoman is not defined solely by her profession and by her investigation into the disappearance and death of a young girl.
She is also portrayed as a divorced woman who has remained very close to her ex-husband. In fact, he lives with his new partner on the same street as Mare. And most importantly, the heroine of the series is a mother wounded by the suicide of her eldest son.
She lives with her own mother, her teenage daughter, and her grandson, whose custody she refuses to give up to her mother, a former heroin addict. In short, Mare is a woman first and foremost, a woman who has suffered but relies only on herself to get through it.
A Portrait of Deep America
Through its heroine and an entire gallery of complex and extremely well-depicted characters, the series Easttown paints a striking portrait of rural America.
We meet ordinary women and men often forgotten in TV shows: Lori, Mare's best friend whose marriage is faltering; Erin, a young single mother with a tragic fate; or Colin Zabel, a young detective seeking recognition who comes to assist the heroine with her murder caseā¦
In this America neglected by politicians, Kate Winslet portrays an ordinary woman who takes her job very seriously and puts the welfare of others before her own. The actress, who is a beauty brand ambassador, appears without makeup, and her hair and clothes are unkempt. This unvarnished performance is probably one of the strongest roles of her career and earned her the 2022 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Miniseries.
Her performance is an additional reason that should compel you to discover this dramatic series of 7 episodes, each lasting 60 minutes. This HBO thriller is a real gem, with an appeal that goes far beyond the police investigation.