Kate Winslet Will Always Thrive on HBO

Casting for the third season of The White Lotus seems pretty locked in, but if Mike White needs any last-minute suggestions, then the new HBO farcical drama The Regime is a reminder of Kate Winslet’s impeccable comic timing and ability to ground even the most absurd dialogue. Seriously, book her into the luxe hotel — better still, as the next manager dealing with a coterie of awful guests. And if Mare of Easttown didn’t already exist, there would be a strong case for Winslet in the next rotation of True Detective pairings.

The era of HBO as the leading destination for movie stars looking to scratch that television itch has long passed, thanks to streamers like Apple TV+, Netflix, and Disney+ entering the lucrative fray. Still, HBO retains its cultural caché amid all the competition, including Winslet’s latest in a trifecta of headliner roles. The Regime’s Chancellor Elena Vernham is a sharp turn away from the grounded detective of crime drama Mare of Easttowm, trading cinched suits bearing gold military flourishes and perfectly coiffed hair for Mare’s vape and sensible muted outerwear. Self-doubt ripples through both women, presenting itself in entirely different ways — and accents — that showcase Winslet’s ability to add nuance regardless of the setting. Aside from what these characters share, it is also notable that Winslet’s TV output is as broad as her defining movie roles, tapping into three dominant HBO genres: period, crime drama, and political satire.

The Academy Award winner first dipped her foot in the premium cable waters in Todd Haynes's 2011 adaptation of Mildred Pierce — a part made famous by Joan Crawford in 1945. Haynes sticks close to James M. Cain’s novel in depicting Depression-era California and the turbulent journey of an American housewife-turned-divorcee who strives for more. Winslet abstains from Crawford mimicry as the titular character, and Haynes is smarter than turning in a carbon copy of Michael Curtiz’s film. Over five episodes, Mildred’s personal and professional triumphs and trauma have time to marinate from a troubled relationship with daughter Veda (Morgan Turner and Evan Rachel Wood) to her business success.

Coming three years after Winslet’s turn in Revolutionary Road—in which she reunited with Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio—felt like an organic 20th-century period drama progression as women hampered by the restrictions of the era. Both titles allow Winslet to crank up the fractured marriage dial, and thankfully, Mildred Pierce isn’t quite as bleak as the Sam Mendes-directed movie. Revisiting the Haynes limited series away from the highly-anticipation burden reveals a slow burn that is disorientating if you expect the story to follow the same beats as the movie.

Haynes excels at melodrama and stirring tension in domestic spaces. Mildred’s oldest daughter, Veda — her youngest dies at the end of the second episode — is a provoking antagonist throughout. Winslet wears Mildred’s shame, despair, and anger equally in conversations with Veda, and jealousy bubbling beneath the surface until it explodes. Mildred makes mistakes, but it is impossible not to empathize when the scheming and ungrateful Veda is on screen.

Period dramas with an all-star cast and creative team are an HBO signature, whether a limited series like John Adams or Martin Scorsese’s lavish 1920s gangster drama Boardwalk Empire. A big-name lead bringing additional prestige, eyeballs, and awards attention tends to be part of this winning recipe, and Mildred Pierce received a whopping 21 nominations with five wins (including one for Winslet). The awards landscape has shifted since Mildred Pierce’s haul, and even since Mare of Easttown’s impressive 16 nominations (Winslet was one of four wins), it is crowded. If The Regime was a runway critical hit, I might be more optimistic, but the mixed reception makes it harder to predict — though I expect Winslet to receive a nom still.

Winslet brings gravitas to any project and is not afraid to take on prickly women dealing with the consequences of her actions. Mildred’s unlucky-in-love cycle is impossible to break, but Winslet performs a deft juggling, retaining our sympathies even when she returns to Monty (Guy Pearce). Sex is also on the cards — this is HBO — and these encounters with different men range from disappointing and reluctant to fiery pleasure. Reuniting with Pearce in Mare of Easttown showcased their chemistry in a different capacity, and journalist-turned-academic Richard lacks the charismatic menace of the Mildred Pierce love interest. Viewers couldn’t help but question Richard’s motives toward Mare Sheehan, but that had less to do with the interactions on screen and more with the timing of his arrival in the first episode.

Given this casting, it would be easy to repeat the toxicity of Mildred and Monty, but Richard is the antithesis. Nuance and range are something Winslet and Pearce have in spades, and the Pennsylvania-set murder mystery adds a contemporary grittiness to both their cable TV résumés. HBO has various repeat players who pop up, such as Hope Davis and Paul Sparks in Mildred Pierce and Jean Smart as Mare’s mother, Helen. While this mother-daughter relationship is tense at times, it’s cut by humor, ensuring Mare of Easttown isn’t as miserable as the gray skies of this location. It isn’t exactly a jokes-per-minute extravaganza or as much of a dramedy as The White Lotus, but it isn’t self-serious either.

Winslet dragging on a vape was a gift to meme lovers — one measure of current cultural penetration — but the whodunit element, a stunning lead performance, and a deep bench of great character actors made Mare memorable. No matter the platform, crime mysteries are a cornerstone for network, cable, and streaming, from long-running procedurals to one-offs. While there has been talk of another season, the Big Little Lies debacle is a cautionary tale for a limited series spreading its wings. Not that HBO can’t have more than one whodunit in its arsenal, seeing as The White Lotus and True Detective are variations on this theme.

When recently asked about the status of Mare’s return by The Hollywood Reporter, Winslet (having learned from previous answers leading to conjecture and headlines) pivoted to her current project and her general good vibes toward the premium cable brand she likes to call her TV home: “All that I can say is I absolutely loved playing Elena. I absolutely loved it. I love doing television, I love working with HBO.” Elena appears to be worlds apart from Mildred and Mare in how she moves about her isolated autocratic world, as well as the satirical tone of the series. But while The Regime paints a stylistically heightened landscape, Winslet ensures that even Elena’s absurdity is grounded in recognizable emotions.

Each woman has a different kingdom of sorts to rule over: Mildred has a pie empire, Mare holds a key role in law enforcement, and Elena rules over an unnamed country in Middle Europe. Some of Elena’s problems might be more trivial, but aspects like germaphobia point to her constant need for control. On a larger scale, Elena seems hellbent on taking on the powerful United States, no longer kissing the ring in public or private. Winslet nails the balance between leaning into the ridiculous folk medicine her new infatuation Corporal Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) dishes out. By the end of the second episode, the therapeutic power of potato steam doesn’t come across as too out there. In a negotiation opposite Martha Plimpton’s U.S. Senator, Elena exudes passive-aggressive and aggressive-aggressive sentiments through smiles, offering a masterclass in twisting words to her benefit.

If you’re getting some The Death of Stalin vibes from The Regime, you are not alone, and this type of political farce has Armando Iannucci’s fingerprints all over it. While the Veep, The Thick of It, and Avenue 5 creator is not involved with this series, you can see his influence. The Regime creator Will Tracy has written episodes of Succession and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, as well as the movie The Menu (which was directed by Succession’s Mark Mylod). Thankfully, Elena is not Logan Roy redux, bellowing at every turn. Instead, her inherent femininity in addressing her nation’s people as “my loves” allows Winslet to play a female leader who isn’t trying to do it like a man.

One of the standout moments in the pilot episode is when Elena performs Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now” as part of the country’s annual Victory Day celebration. Unlike Winslet, who can belt out a tune, Elena's singing is painfully off-key. The Chancellor’s relationship with her deceased father — whom she still converses with in the palace mausoleum — is incredibly revealing as her slight lisp becomes more girlish and pronounced. It is another layer ensuring Elena isn’t simply a caricature of current and previous dictators and leaders. Her relationship with Schoenhaerts’ troubled soldier is disturbing yet incredibly alluring, and their chemistry takes this twisted dynamic to places that will hopefully end in the bedroom. Okay, it might be an odd pairing to ship, but that is the power of Winslet and Schoenaerts.

Some of The Regime’s commentary could get a little repetitive after a few episodes, but with Winslet leading the way, there is no doubt it will be engaging at the very least. This is far from the first time the A-lister has tried her hand at TV comedy (her first Emmy nomination was for playing a version of herself in Extras), and her presence elevates the off-kilter mood. While Winslet’s time on television is not as vast as her movie work, this genre-hopping indicates her eclectic choices. She is not averse to big-budget sci-fi or fantasy, as Avatar: The Way of Water demonstrates, so while she hasn’t stepped foot in Westeros yet, there is still plenty of time to tick another HBO box.

Emma Fraser has wanted to write about TV since she first watched My So-Called Life in the mid-90s, finally getting her wish over a decade later. Follow her on Twitter at @frazbelina.