SEARCH FOR THE HERO (MARE OF EASTTOWN)

It's not that hard to imagine Frances McDormand jumping 10 years ago at the chance to play the lead character of HBO's 'Mare of Easttown.

Mare Sheehan would have been tailor made for the three times Oscar winner.

A grumpy cop in a blue collar Pennsylvanian town, she takes nonsense from nobody - not even her own broken family - and diligently sets about solving a crime that rocks her community.

However the part is in the hands of 2009 Best Actress Oscar winner, Kate Winslet and, boy, does she knock it out of the park.

At the start of Craig Zobel's seven episode miniseries, Mare Sheehan is called by Phyllis Somerville's Betty Carroll to her home amid concerns about a Peeping Tom.

Mare bites her tongue as Betty and her husband, Patrick McDade's ex-cop Glen Carroll bicker over his failure to properly install a security camera on the property and then fret over him getting Sheehan a copy of the local newspaper which celebrates her ternage heroics in high school basketball.

Mare has earned kudos for delivering her high school's only ladies basketball title with an epic shot in the championship winning game.

However the lustre has faded as she juggles local policing issues with raising a family in the wake of her divorce and the suicide of her drug addicted son, Cody Kostro's Kevin.

Living with her whip smart lesbian daughter, Angourie Rice's Siobhan and her mum, Jean Smart's Helen Fahey she is also raising Kevin's four year old son, Izzy King's Drew.

However his birth mother, Sosie Bacon's Carrie Layden, a recovering addict, wants custody of Drew.

Mare's former husband, David Denman's Frank Sheehan lives in an adjacent house and, much to her irritation, is planning to get married to Kate Arrington's Faye.

Meanwhile across town, Cailee Spaeny's teenage single mum Erin McMenamin is living with her father, Patrick Murney's Kenny.

Planning a night out, she leans on her ex, Jack Mulhern's Dylan to provide more financial support for the baby, who needs an ear operation.

However she is threatened by Dylan's new girlfriend, Mackenzie Lansing's Brianna Del Rasso to stay away from him and stop sending him texts.

Erin is excited to be going out and visits her close friend, Ruby Cruz's Jess Riley, showing her a message she has received from a boy she has got to know over social media and who wants to meet up at a gathering which Easttown's teenagers are attending in the woods.

When she goes there, Erin soon realises that Dylan, Brianna and their friends have lured her to the woods under false pretences.

She is assaulted by Brianna and others, with the attack captured on social media but Mare's daughter Siobhan and the members of her band, who are also hanging out in the woods, intervene.

A distraught and embarrassed Erin brushes off Siobhan's offers of help and leaves the woods.

Across town, Mare attends a reunion of the ladies basketball team with her close friend and former teammate, Julianne Nicholson's Lori Ross.

Before they walk out onto the basketball court at a half time celebration, she has angry words with another teammate, Enid Graham's Dawn Bailey whose daughter Katie has been missing for a year and is presumed dead.

Dawn, who had been receiving chemotherapy for cancer, has been critical of the police's failure to make any headway in the case which Mare is a lead investigator in.

Going out for beers afterwards, Mare meets Guy Pearce's one time novelist and creative writing Professor, Richard Ryan and tentatively begins a relationship with him.

However before long, Easttown is rocked by the news that Erin McMenamin's body has been found in a local creek with gunshot wounds.

Mare breaks the news to Erin's father with the help of Lori's husband, Joe Tippett's John Ross and his brother, Robbie Tann's Billy who are Kenny's cousins.

Kenny is convinced Dylan is behind the murder and while speculation mounts in the local media that Erin's murder may be linked to Katie Bailey's disappearance, John Douglas Thompson's Chief Carter engages Evan Peters' Detective Colin Zabel to work alongside Mare.

However Mare's personal connection to many of those under suspicion complicates matters, as Zabel and her try to work out if Erin's murder and the vanishing of Katie Bailey really are linked.

Working from a solid script by Brad Inglesby, Craig Zobel delivers a taut seven part thriller that oozes blue collar authenticity.

With the help of English cinematographer Ben Richardson, Zobel creates a grimy, chilly atmosphere.

Easttown is a tough, working class, Pennsylvanian town whose inhabitants mostly have Irish surnames.

It is a town where Dominique Johnson's opioid addict Freddie Hanlon has his heating cut off in his home and robs from his own sister, Chinasa Ogbuagu's Beth.

It is a town where the local Catholic church draws a decent congregation, as James McArdle's dodgy deacon Mark Burton takes to the pulpit.

It is a town where grudges quickly manifest and violence can easily erupt.

At the heart of Zobel's drama is Mare, with Winslet turning in probably the best performance of her career on the big or small screen.

Prickly, impetuous and scarred by what happened to her son, Mare is as complex a detective as you want her to be.

However Winslet imbues her with enough vulnerability to keep you invested in her ups and many downs.

It is a performance of incredible integrity and a complete lack of vanity, on a par with those delivered over the past decade by Frances McDormand, which deserves awards recognition.

Winslet's isn't the only performance to shout about.

Jean Smart is terrific as Helen, bringing some light relief but also plenty of dramatic heft in her supporting role.

Australia's Angourie Rice is also wonderful as Siobhan, while Evan Peters gels brilliantly with Winslet with an engaging, heartfelt performance as a detective who is in awe of her talents.

Nicholson, Tippett, Tann, Spaeny, Thompson, McArdle, Graham, Somerville, McDade, Denman, Ogbuagu, Johnson, Lansing, Bacon, Arrington, Cruz and Mulhern get a chance to shine.

Cameron Mann and Kassie Mundhenk impress as Lori and John's son and daughter, while Izzy King tugs the heart strings as Drew.

Eric T Miller is good value as Brianna's hotheaded restaurant owning father, while Eisa Davis provides some much needed compassion as Mare's therapist and Neal Huff is effective as Mare's Catholic priest cousin, Fr Dan Hastings who likes to make Manhattans for Helen.

If there is a disappointment - and this really feels like a very minor quibble in a show as impressive as 'Mare of Easttown' - it is that Guy Pearce isn't given more to do in a role where you expect a lot, lot more.

At the end of the day, 'Mare of Easttown' stands or falls on the quality of its writing and the intensity of Winslet's performance.

It doesn't flounder on either score.

Brad Inglesby's gritty screenplay delivers its jaw dropping cliffhangers and earthy humour without ever stretching its credibility.

And Winslet is just a joy to watch as she searches for the hero inside herself - occasionally falling short.

('Mare of Easttown' was broadcast on the UK and Ireland on Sky Atlantic from April 19-May 31, 2021)

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