The Best Mini-Series I've Seen in a While - Mare of Easttown.

I recently saw 'Mare of Easttown' on a whim, and I have not seen something done so brilliantly in a while-- at least not since 'Sharp Objects' and 'Fleabag' for me.

There is something so refreshing and incredible about flawed female characters and flawed characters in general--when they're done RIGHT.

Oh and goddamn was this done well.

Kate Winslet's performance is phenomenal, along with the rest of the cast. But the performances are so multi-faceted and real. I cried when I finished the last episode. It's been a while since I've seen a show capture crime, love, family, mental health, the toll being human takes, and just people in all their gross and gorgeous realities--alongside being aesthetic and just so WELL DONE.

Especially in how the show captures family dynamics and how mistakes lead to trauma and how coping with that trauma is gruesome, gritty and generational.

Another thing I fucking loved about it was the humour wrapped in it, the kindness, the love, the healing and just... the compassion. Also, THE FRIENDSHIP.

We see Kate Winslet thriving in what is a male dominated profession, but she doesn't lose her femininity and kindness, and gives respect and the aforementioned things to those who deserve it. Her character is one of those characters I would love to meet in real life, because of what she represents. So uniquely her own.

There are so many more things I want to say but I am stunned, every once in a while, like this, I come across a piece of cinema that just makes it all worth it and reinstates my faith in art and how it can heal the soul. I don't give a fuck about the amount of bad films people make because I love finding gems like this through it. This is why making bad films is just as essential as making good ones.

Since 'Revolutionary Road' I have learned not to underestimate Kate Winslet's performances, but for fucks' sake she's blown me away again. This has to be her best performance and I don't care for awards but I hope she knows she's worthy of so many of them. There are so many characters that I loved on the show, ones that were mean but good, naive but kind, angry but helpful. Every single character was so multi-faceted, the entire show sparkled enough for me to be enthralled throughout. I looked forward to every single episode, and the series was done so right, I cried when it ended but I didn't mind it ending because it was THAT WELL DONE. So bittersweet.

Kate's character Mare (Marie Anne) subverts your expectations in the workplace but every where else too. Every time I expected her to act a certain way, in how I've been fed with stereotypes of 'female' detectives, she swerved my expectations and there was a thrill in the air after the first three or four times of this. How she treats her friends, the people she doesn't like, the ones who do her wrong, the ones trying to help her, the ones trying to love her, the ones who don't understand her.

Also, it's sad how there are very rare instances in film that showcase female friendship as it progresses over the years. 'Thelma and Louise' shouldn't be the only cultural moment of the female friendship showcase. 'Mare of Easttown' does it so fucking right.

But god I'm a fan of women in fiction written like women in real life, flawed, trying, multi-faceted, with sides to them that exist in multitudes. Unlike the subservient expectations of the world of women to be either 'good' or 'bad'. No in between. A Wife or a Whore. Single or Taken. Daughter or Mother.

I'm so fucking tired of every single swearword stemming from us, every insult revolving around rape. Don't worry, I don't take it literally every single time before you get mad at me for being too 'sensitive'.

I have so much rage in me because of all that women have to be 'okay' with. I don't know where to put this anger.

I guess this is why it is so calming for me to watch murder mysteries. Women are born with a penchant for violence that we don't have the luxury to let out.

But 'Mare of Easttown' has been the only mini-series I've seen in a long time, that has such brilliantly written characters that all do their part perfectly. It was so well done, the catharsis I felt when I finished it was something I don't experience that often--it was almost euphorically tragic.

I don't know how, but I want the writers, producers, and actors to know what a phenomenal show this was--well done in ways that can only be described as EPIC. It has healed a part of me I didn't know was bruised and hurting. It reassured and reminded me of my own humanity. No matter how many times social media expects me to weigh in facets of me into tiny packaged nuggets of pictures and share them in accessible, digestible bits--nothing is going to change the fact that I'm human... and being human is messy, and ugly. I'm learning to be okay with that.

It's a tough thing to come to terms with--being a woman in all its ugliness. We're taught to embody beauty in every single thing we do. It's our ugliness we have to learn and come to terms with as we age. All of us have that ugliness in us, it's not got anything to do with the physicality for many.

Oh but there's such a stunning feeling of freedom in being what the world could and would call an ugly woman. I'm learning to love it. I can't help but do it and love doing it, especially when the world expects the opposite.