Last week on the Screen Watching podcast you may have heard I'm rather enthused about the new HBO drama Mare of Easttown. Frankly, I'm smitten by it. With shades of Happy Valley meets Broadchurch, this is a great low-fi, earthy police detective drama.

My favourite scene from the first episode is pretty indicative of what the show is like - Mare (played by Kate Winslet) had spent the morning called out to the home of a woman whose brother is always causing the family trouble. Today he stole sports memorabilia. While driving along, Mare spots the brother, pulls over her car, and gives chase to him. It's the crappiest foot chase you'll see on TV, maybe ever. At one point they both jump over the tiniest of fences - he cuts his hand up on the metal wiring, while she lands badly on her ankle, giving her a limp for the rest of the episode. It's so delightfully pathetic. But it's also real.

Mare of Easttown is honest, funny, and altogether involving. I'm a few episodes into it and I can't say that the murder-mystery has its hooks into me anywhere near as much as just enjoying living in the world of the cantankerous Mare.

admin:

Just an FYI - listeners of the Screen Watching podcast - the episode will be out late this evening. It's delayed to accommodate a Falcon & The Winter Soldier finale segment.

ALSO: If you're interested in why I opted to leave Substack, I have written up an essay on the problems I had with that newsletter platform. If you're interested in Substack as a platform, or just want to know a bit more about this newsletter, take a read:

Goodbye Substack - the hows and whys of it all
As of today, the Always Be Watching daily newsletter is being hosted at the opensource newsletter Ghost. For the past 2+ years I was sending it throughSubstack. Substack gave me an easy-to-set-up platform to launch a newsletter. It alsohandled payment from my supporters (via Stripe). And it had…
Always Be WatchingDan Barrett

returning:

Ackley Bridge (s04), American Dad (s18), Call The Midwife (s10), Godfather of Harlem (s02)

new:

Mare of Easttown - HBO Max | Binge

Stars: Kate Winslet, Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice
A detective in a small Pennsylvania town investigates a local murder while trying to keep her life from falling apart.

Rutherford Falls - Peacock | Stan

Stars: Ed Helms, Michael Greyeyes, Jana Schmieding
A small town in the Northeast is turned upside down when local legend and town namesake, Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms) fights the moving of a historical statue.

Shadow and Bone - Netflix

Stars: Jessie Mei Li, Ben Barnes, Archie Renaux
Dark forces conspire against orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov when she unleashes an extraordinary power that could change the fate of her war-torn world.

Zero - Netflix

Stars: Giuseppe Dave Seke, Haroun Fall, Beatrice Grannò
A shy African origin guy, second generation Italian, who has an incredible super power. A modern superhero who, thanks to his power, will learn how to open up to the world and to love.

Cruel Summer - Freeform

Stars: Chiara Aurelia, Andrea Anders, Benjamin J. Cain Jr.
A small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate, is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette, goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town and, by '95, the most despised person in America.

That's it for this week - let's be careful out there.