Mare Of Easttown is stunning as it is – let's avoid a half-hearted sequel

No sooner had viewers emitted contented sighs at this week’s note-perfect Mare Of Easttown finale than speculation began mounting about a potential second season of the hit Pennsylvanian police procedural. To my mind, though, trying to recapture the Mare magic would be a mistake.

Unfolding over seven slow-burning weeks to become one of the standout dramas of 2021 so far, Mare Of Easttown was indisputably great. There’s only one way to ensure it stays that way - and that’s by it never returning.

Dramatically and emotionally satisfying, Monday’s killer climax made for a pretty definitive denouement. We discovered the devastating truth of who killed Erin McMenamin and why. It was 13-year-old Ryan Ross (Cameron Mann) who accidentally “murdured Kenny’s durder” in a desperate bid to keep his own family together.

Plaid-clad divorcee Detective Sergeant Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet, surely an Emmy shoo-in) not only cracked a career-defining case but confronted her personal demons. The embattled, hoagie-scoffing sleuth salvaged her reputation in the rustbelt community which had started to doubt her.

By the end, we saw her returning to the humdrum realities of Easttown law enforcement: investigating prowlers, lost property and local oddballs urinating through car windows or filling sock drawers with cat litter.

Sure, Mare could fire up her vape stick and tackle a whole new murder-mystery. Let’s face it, though, it’s unlikely to be anywhere near as convincing.

“Miss Lady Hawk herself” wryly remarked that the only reason she was still lauded for scoring the winning points in a high-school basketball game 25 years ago was because nothing else happened in sleepy ole Easttown. Let’s allow the slowly recovering community to do so in peace and not torment it with implausible amounts of added trauma. Both Mare and her hometown deserve a break after all they’ve been through.

Since its mid-April launch, Mare Of Easttown has often been compared to its closest home-grown equivalents, Broadchurch (which similarly followed the ripple effects of a child’s murder on a tight-knit community) and Happy Valley (which similarly portrayed a police sergeant still coming to terms with her own child’s suicide), alongside Nordic noirs like The Killing. It’s instructive to remember what happened to those shows when they tried to repeat the trick.

Broadchurch delivered a flop sequel which saw the killer’s conviction overturned in court, leaving viewers furious that the gut-punch first series had all been for nowt. Happy Valley’s second run was fine but forgettable (come on, can you remember what happened?). Likewise The Killing, which found itself overshadowed by rival Scandi-series Borgen. Recent TV history suggests that Mare: The Sequel would be doomed to disappoint.

“Difficult second series” syndrome is real. Going back to the well rarely works. Never again will we experience the thrill of arriving in the vividly realised, opioid-ravaged suburb of Easttown. Never again will be blindsided by the sudden death of a central character, as we were with the shock shooting of Mare’s endearingly goofy sidekick Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters). Never again will we be so moved by the resilient bond between best friends Mare and Lori Ross (Julianne Nicholson).

Writer Brad Ingelsby - a local lad who drew on his upbringing to ensure Mare Of Easttown’s earthy authenticity (and convincing Delco accents) - has told the story he always burned to tell. His creation being billed as a “limited series” strongly suggested that he only ever intended for Mare’s tale to be told over a single miniseries.

"We didn’t ever talk about returning," Ingelsby told Esquire last week. "It’s very much a closed story. All the loose ends were tied up. If we could ever crack a story that was as emotional and surprising, maybe there’s a conversation to be had, but I don’t have that in my head right now."

He later added to the Hollywood Reporter: "It was written as a limited series and it ends. There’s no more mystery to be solved." Everything else Ingelsby has written, mainly film scripts, has been a one-off. The 41-year-old doesn’t do sequels. Let’s leave him be and not push our luck.

Remember what happened to True Detective and Stranger Things, to Homeland and The Handmaid’s Tale, to Killing Eve and Mr Robot. All delivered damp squibs with an underwhelming second season that the narrative didn’t demand but the greedy network did.

Mare-makers HBO have recent form in this area. Big Little Lies was originally billed as a limited series, like Watchmen or The Undoing, but unwisely made a return trip to the tiger moms, picture windows and vast kitchen islands of Monterey, California. Despite screaming Meryl Streep’s best efforts, season two was a stinker.

The US production powerhouse is bound to make similar overtures to Ingelsby, waving a fat cheque to conquer any creative resistance. By all means, throw money at him to write something else. Whatever it is, we’ll watch the hell out of it. But why tarnish Mare’s legacy with a mediocre follow-up? And what might a second season even look like?

Well, there are a few dangling plot points which could be picked up again. We never understood the gun-waving, journal-burning motives of Erin’s charmless ex-boyfriend Dylan Hinchey (Jack Mulhern). We were never quite sure whether seedy predator Wayne Potts (Jeb Kreager) was working alone or had an accomplice in some sort of sex ring. We never discovered the corpse of the third “gone girl”, the still-missing Hillary Cassel. Mare’s tentative mid-life romance with roguish author Richard Ryan (Guy Pearce) was left tantalisingly open-ended.

Yet if any of those questions truly demanded answers, Ingelsby would surely have thought of them already. Even most of the extended Sheehan clan’s stories felt resolved. Daughter Siobhan (Angourie Rice) has taken her film-making skills, indie singing and cool undercut off to university in California. Ex-husband Frank (David Denman) has remarried with Mare’s blessing (albeit not of his “blackjack dealer” tuxedo).

OK, so Mare’s scene-stealing mother “Gramma Helen” (Jean Smart) is still around, sipping Manhattans, wearing squeaky shoes and being all-round brilliant. Together the women won custody of young Drew (Izzy King). His drug-addicted mother Carrie (Sosie Bacon) could get clean in rehab (again) and resume the battle over who raises Drew but that would feel wearingly repetitive.

The best stories have a beginning, middle and end. Let’s leave Mare Of Easttown at the peak of its powers, rather than hauling the reluctant Ingelsby back to square one. To do so would drain his profoundly moving debut series of its power and potency. It would turn his masterpiece into chapter one of another franchise with diminishing returns, rather than a self-contained story. Better to preserve it as as neatly wrapped-up, single-series drama.

It’s human instinct to want more of a good thing. One last drink, another slice of cake, oh go on then. But why make ourselves feel faintly nauseous and risk a hangover by insisting on second helpings?

Mare Of Easttown is stunning as it is. Half whodunit, half multi-layered study of grief. A second season is neither needed nor wise. If Ingelsby stands firm, we’ll raise a respectful Rolling Rock to him and Mare alike.

Mare of Easttown is available to watch now via Sky and NOW. Visit our Drama hub for the latest news or check out our TV Guide for more.