Mare of Easttown wasn't "copaganda," but it ultimately still was a cop show

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"For decades, many TV police procedurals and crime dramas valorized and glorified police officers and the system of policing, which has come under renewed scrutiny since last summer’s racial uprisings," says Marina Fang. "To be clear, Mare of Easttown is not a show that falls under 'copaganda.' It pulls off the trick of being both a whodunnit crime drama and something else entirely. Much of the show isn’t about the police or the crimes at the center of the show’s twisty plot. It’s about its tremendous performances, especially from Winslet as Mare, Julianne Nicholson as Mare’s best friend Lori and the indefatigable Jean Smart as Mare’s acerbic mother Helen. It’s about grief, trauma, parenting and female friendship. It’s about what happens when being an authority figure in a close-knit community, where you know everybody and everybody knows you, can be complicated and agonizing. A lot of Mare’s work as a detective involves investigating cases in which her decisions could ruin the lives of her family, friends and neighbors. Most standard cop shows historically have not questioned the flaws in the system they portray. Some are now trying to, in fits and starts. At times, Mare of Easttown does gesture at those flaws. Mare makes some pretty questionable choices that the show does not cast in a positive or generous light, and there are no easy answers or solutions to anything, especially in the way she handles the events of the final episode. At the same time, the show doesn’t interrogate that broken system enough. For instance, Mare is briefly suspended from her job after she steals drugs from the police department’s evidence room and plants them on Carrie, the mother of her grandson, in order to jeopardize Carrie’s chances at gaining custody. But before long, Mare is back on the case and given a pass when, in reality, so many people (particularly if they are not white) would not be allowed another chance. And at the end of the day, the cops — even though they are complicated and not unequivocally good characters — get to be the heroes. They find the answers and crack the case, and we root for them along the way. Every time Mare achieved a major breakthrough in one of the investigations, part of me couldn’t help but notice how badass she looked."

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