Task, The sequel to Mare of Easttown, HBO 2025

[daemonova]

June 4, 2021 12:13pm PT
HBO Chief Casey Bloys on ‘Mare of Easttown’ and WarnerMedia-Discovery Shakeup: ‘We Just Keep Doing Our Thing’
'Mare' creator Brad Ingelsby sets exclusive overall deal for TV
By Cynthia Littleton

“Though all the mergers and reorganizations, the HBO team has stayed steady together. A lot of us have been together longer than 15 years,” Bloys tells Variety. “We just keep doing our thing trying to deliver on that brand promise for HBO. When a show like ‘Mare’ comes along and feels like it’s hitting on all cylinders, it’s really gratifying.”

HBO was so impressed with “Mare” that it has set a three-year exclusive overall deal for TV with Brad Ingelsby, the veteran screenwriter who created the series and served as showrunner and executive producer. Ingelsby brought the project to HBO with Winslet on board. Bloys hadn’t worked with Ingelsby before but the experience on “Mare” was so strong that they were eager to keep him in the fold for TV.

“Mare of Easttown” creator Brad Ingelsby Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
“Brad just did a fantastic job on ‘Mare,’ “ Bloys said. “It was a great collaboration.”

The new deal is sure to whip up more speculation about a possible second installment of “Mare,” which features Winslet as a police detective working in a small hardscrabble town in Pennsylvania. The series was conceived a one-and-done limited series, and Bloys is doing his best to temper expectations for a Season 2, but there’s also no question that the door is not firmly shut, either.

 

[daemonova]

“If Brad felt like he had a story to tell that felt like it would be at the same level, I think everybody would be open to it,” Bloys said. “Right now, he doesn’t have that story. Who knows? We’ll have to wait to see if they come up with something they’re dying to tell.”

Bloys reinforces when pressed again : “I don’t even have any idea that there’s going to be a timeline” for making a Season 2 decision. “Usually we take the lead from our creators,” he said. “There’s been no real conversations about what a Season 2 would look like.”

Winslet previously worked with HBO as the star of the 2011 miniseries “Mildred Pierce.” Bloys allows that the finely drawn character of Mare Sheehan (and her Pennsylvania accent) was a special undertaking for the Oscar-winning actor.

“I think Mare got her claws into Kate – she has been open about that,” Bloys said. “But there’s a long way to go between that and ‘Let’s do it again.’ The story has to be there and the reason to do it has to be there.” HBO has been down this road before with “Big Little Lies,” the 2017 Reese Witherspoon-Nicole Kidman limited series that packed such a wallop that a second season was assembled in 2019.

“Mare” adds to a strong roster of shows that HBO has fielded in recent years, at a time when competition for talent and prestige TV projects has never been fiercer. HBO also was the subject of a slew of “What Now” headlines when “Game of Thrones” signed off the air in 2019. But Bloys’ team by any measure have nurtured a high volume of buzzy hits including “Succession,” “The Undoing,” “Euphoria,” “Watchmen,” “Lovecraft Country,” “I May Destroy You,” “Chernobyl” and “Big Little Lies.”

Moreover, Bloys was pressed into service last year to oversee original content for the HBO Max streamer on top of his HBO duties. HBO Max had a slow start in the height of the COVID lockdown, but this year so far it has proven to be a viable launchpad for series with the heat behind original “The Flight Attendant,” “Hacks” and “Made for Love.”

The momentum for HBO Max is gratifying for Bloys because there has been so much discussion of the expansion into streaming and the potential for it to hurt the gilded HBO brand. The corporate move to have Warner Bros.’ entire 2020 theatrical slate have day-and-date premieres in theaters and on HBO Max also became a dominant topic.

“There have been a whole lot of conversations about things other than the programming around HBO Max,” Bloys said. “The focus on the shows got somewhat subsumed by the conversation surrounding other areas of the business.”

 

[daemonova]

“For ‘Flight Attendant’ and ‘Hacks’ to have been incredibly well received critically and to have two shows in awards contention at that level – that feels really impressive,” he said. (Noting that “Hacks” star Jean Smart also had a role in “Mare,” Bloys quips, “I’m going to put Jean Smart in every show.”)

Now that HBO Max has passed its first birthday (the service bowed on May 27, 2020), Bloys feels the concerns about brand confusion between HBO and its Max sibling have eased, especially for industryites.

“As people get to interact with HBO Max and understand that HBO is one of the programming services there, they’re understanding how it lives within HBO Max. The messaging is getting easier.”

The distinctions between an HBO and HBO Max series are hardly etched in stone, Bloys said, but Max is aiming for more broad-appeal and younger-skewing stories a la “Flight Attendant” while HBO remains the home of shows that highlight “different voices than you hear elsewhere and shows that are very risk-taking in their own way,” Bloys says. “Having that north star for us is really helpful.”

“Hacks,” which features Smart as a veteran standup comic on the downside of her career, is one that could have gone either way. “Of course ‘Hacks’ could have been on HBO,” he said.

Getting HBO Max off the ground was the overriding priority for the AT&T regime. With the corporate picture is about to change again, Bloys sees no signs that this will change with Discovery coming into the mix – far from it.

Bloys met with incoming Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav on June 1 after the longtime Discovery leader held a town hall for WarnerMedia employees. At this early stage, there’s not much detail that they are allowed to discuss according to Securities and Exchange Commission rules. (After a two-year slog through the AT&T acquisition from 2016-2018, Bloys knows this drill well.) But Bloys said he was encouraged by Zaslav’s palpable enthusiasm for the business of making content.

“He’s very excited about the complementary nature of the programming that each company will be bringing” to the enlarged Warner Bros. Discovery. “We don’t know exactly how (Zaslav) plans to put it all together – all of that will come later. You really can’t get into that level of detail.”

Bloys allows that many HBO and WarnerMedia insiders are on edge again about the coming transition. “It can be scary,” he acknowledges. But he also points to the gyrations across the media and entertainment landscape as an indication that it’s not just a WarnerMedia problem.

“It’s across the industry. The upheaval is not limited to us,” Bloys said. “Any company making programing is going to be going through this. The only thing we can control is putting out the best programming that we think is worthy of the HBO brand. Change at this level and at this speed across the industry can be unsettling. We have to accept that the industry is in a historic period of change and focus on doing what we’re here to do.”

 

[calh45]

Let's be real. Lori knew Mare would have done the same thing if it was her son. None of this would have happened if her husband didn't fukk her niece.

Based on what? Her own son was a crackhead and she wasn't arresting his ass at every chance even though she was a cop. She was always ok breaking the rules for her benefit and shytting on everyone else.

She started a fight with Dawn at their celebration.

She arrested the red head in the middle of the restaurant instead of coming at her chill and finding out what happened.

She took advantage of Zobel multiple times.

She blew up her ex husband marriage just based off a rumor.

She tried to frame her dead son's baby mom and did absolutely nothing to help her through out the whole ass series.

Mare wasn't a rule follower or morally sound person. She was someone who did want she wanted and everyone else be damned. If it was her daughter she was covering it up, but because it was her friend's it didn't matter. We know this because unlike everyone else's children, when she found out her daughter was potentially involved, she went to her quietly and tried to make sure she understood the story and her involvement first.

Lor husband was fukked up, but Mare in every instance didn't go by the book until it came to arresting Lor's son.

 

[PoorAndDangerous]

Based on what? Her own son was a crackhead and she wasn't arresting his ass at every chance even though she was a cop. She was always ok breaking the rules for her benefit and shytting on everyone else.

She started a fight with Dawn at their celebration.

She arrested the red head in the middle of the restaurant instead of coming at her chill and finding out what happened.

She took advantage of Zobel multiple times.

She blew up her ex husband marriage just based off a rumor.

She tried to frame her dead son's baby mom and did absolutely nothing to help her through out the whole ass series.

Mare wasn't a rule follower or morally sound person. She was someone who did want she wanted and everyone else be damned. If it was her daughter she was covering it up, but because it was her friend's it didn't matter. We know this because unlike everyone else's children, when she found out her daughter was potentially involved, she went to her quietly and tried to make sure she understood the story and her involvement first.

Lor husband was fukked up, but Mare in every instance didn't go by the book until it came to arresting Lor's son.

Mare was depressed and fukked up and never dealt with her son’s suicide. Just look at how she looked in the final episode. Drinking water (instead of beer) looking good with some makeup on etc. she was a broken person for most of the season.

 

[calh45]

Mare was depressed and fukked up and never dealt with her son’s suicide. Just look at how she looked in the final episode. Drinking water (instead of beer) looking good with some makeup on etc. she was a broken person for most of the season.

That's fine, but her catharsis came at the expense of the person who stood by her the entire time through all of the insanity and the therapist low key called her out on it. Literally said, "NOW are you ready to go actually deal with your grief?" She literally only had the job as a cop because the Chief didn't punish her for breaking the rules by the way......and when she kept breaking the rules it led to Zobel's mom coming across her face. Think of how many families she blew up in the process while protecting her own. fukk Mare. I'm not doing the high ground talk about that person.......Zobel couldn't call for back up, in the way he normally would've, because Mare was there with him. Think about that! And she became the HERO. How fukked up is that?? She didn't wait for Lor to come to her. She just barged up in her house just like she came up to Zobel's mom. Zero awareness. Only cared about her side of it. fukk Mare.

I was HOT at the last 10 minutes of this fukking series. The gave her happiness at the expense of literally everyone else.

 

[mastermind]

They said that she had the baby while she was HS? I don't remember that.
Actually I remember Mare's ex helped her with diapers as a student my bad.

Incest, bredrin

 

[BXKingPin82]

That's fine, but her catharsis came at the expense of the person who stood by her the entire time through all of the insanity and the therapist low key called her out on it. Literally said, "NOW are you ready to go actually deal with your grief?" She literally only had the job as a cop because the Chief didn't punish her for breaking the rules by the way......and when she kept breaking the rules it led to Zobel's mom coming across her face. Think of how many families she blew up in the process while protecting her own. fukk Mare. I'm not doing the high ground talk about that person.......Zobel couldn't call for back up, in the way he normally would've, because Mare was there with him. Think about that! And she became the HERO. How fukked up is that?? She didn't wait for Lor to come to her. She just barged up in her house just like she came up to Zobel's mom. Zero awareness. Only cared about her side of it. fukk Mare.

I was HOT at the last 10 minutes of this fukking series. The gave her happiness at the expense of literally everyone else.

Mare just out here ruining lives.

Is what it is.



Neccessary evils.




white women.

 

[R.E.N. Spells Ren]

That's why John was like "I need to hear you say it out loud!!"

He was trying to force Billy to go through with a false confession, and make sure he wouldn't back out and get his son in trouble.

He's probably been forcing Billy to cover for him their entire lives. But he wasn't sure his bullying would work this time.

Again, I understand, and I’d accept that on its own but with all the other flimsy stuff it doesn’t ring true with me.

The other stuff includes.

• Frank lying to Mare about knowing Erin. Other than to provide the red herring, what good reason would he have to lie about knowing Erin?
  
• Erin’s friend (what the hell is her name? ) going from bestie to fraud back to bestie for no good reason at all. The explanation for burning the diaries was flimsy af and I don’t even why they said she was acting all buddy buddy with Dylan...for one episode. Her wanting to burn the diaries cuz that’s what Erin would have wanted is flimsy af especially knowing how two faced she is.
• Dylan really risked a felony and risked having the heat thrown his way (knowing he snuck out that night) just to ‘prevent’ the cops from knowing who the real father was? Not only is that a ridiculous risk to take for a baby that’s not his, a baby he practically disowned when he first got the news it wasn’t his, it didn’t even close to guaranteeing that his parents would keep the baby or even that the real father wouldn’t have been found out anyway. Dylan didn’t know the real father raped her. The real father could’ve been another teenager; one of Dylan’s friends even. Cops could’ve determined the real father from other evidence. Furthermore, even if the real father is never found, Erin’s blood family would have a pretty strong case towards getting custody of the baby. Flimsy af to risk such a serious crime for that gain and those odds.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show, don’t get me wrong. Kate Winslet did a phenomenal job. It’s the first HBO Max Era show to feel like the real HBO imo. I just didn’t like the ending. Felt they got too cute trying to chase the twist. Kinda validates True Detective season one’s decision to not chase the spectacular twist people had built up in their minds

 

[AnonymityX1000]

Again, I understand, and I’d accept that on its own but with all the other flimsy stuff it doesn’t ring true with me.

The other stuff includes.

• Frank lying to Mare about knowing Erin. Other than to provide the red herring, what good reason would he have to lie about knowing Erin?
  
• Erin’s friend (what the hell is her name? ) going from bestie to fraud back to bestie for no good reason at all. The explanation for burning the diaries was flimsy af and I don’t even why they said she was acting all buddy buddy with Dylan...for one episode. Her wanting to burn the diaries cuz that’s what Erin would have wanted is flimsy af especially knowing how two faced she is.
• Dylan really risked a felony and risked having the heat thrown his way (knowing he snuck out that night) just to ‘prevent’ the cops from knowing who the real father was? Not only is that a ridiculous risk to take for a baby that’s not his, a baby he practically disowned when he first got the news it wasn’t his, it didn’t even close to guaranteeing that his parents would keep the baby or even that the real father wouldn’t have been found out anyway. Dylan didn’t know the real father raped her. The real father could’ve been another teenager; one of Dylan’s friends even. Cops could’ve determined the real father from other evidence. Furthermore, even if the real father is never found, Erin’s blood family would have a pretty strong case towards getting custody of the baby. Flimsy af to risk such a serious crime for that gain and those odds.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show, don’t get me wrong. Kate Winslet did a phenomenal job. It’s the first HBO Max Era show to feel like the real HBO imo. I just didn’t like the ending. Felt they got too cute trying to chase the twist. Kinda validates True Detective season one’s decision to not chase the spectacular twist people had built up in their minds

I wonder why that Black dude wanted to burn the journals?
The entire scene with the Black dude and Dylan chasing Erin's friend and sticking a gun in her face saying they were all in this together or some shyt was just an illogical red herring.

 

[Foxmulder]

Just finished watching this. Knew it was the kid when they had dudes confession and their was still almost an hour left in the finale.

 

[Fade Runner 2049]

That's fine, but her catharsis came at the expense of the person who stood by her the entire time through all of the insanity and the therapist low key called her out on it. Literally said, "NOW are you ready to go actually deal with your grief?" She literally only had the job as a cop because the Chief didn't punish her for breaking the rules by the way......and when she kept breaking the rules it led to Zobel's mom coming across her face. Think of how many families she blew up in the process while protecting her own. fukk Mare. I'm not doing the high ground talk about that person.......Zobel couldn't call for back up, in the way he normally would've, because Mare was there with him. Think about that! And she became the HERO. How fukked up is that?? She didn't wait for Lor to come to her. She just barged up in her house just like she came up to Zobel's mom. Zero awareness. Only cared about her side of it. fukk Mare.

I was HOT at the last 10 minutes of this fukking series. The gave her happiness at the expense of literally everyone else.

And you would think that if she was going to continue to investigate the case, she would bring her personal gun with her, she’s a cop , she has other guns. Instead she was whispering to Zobel to shoot

 

[WhoShotCha]

Kate Winslet was outstanding.

Enjoyed the show a lot, but too many red herrings. True Detective Season 1 set an unreachable bar when it comes to detective shows.

 

[pete clemenza]

Two episodes to go and this shyt is good asf. Everybody has problems galore and is fukked up in the game
That young detective Colin, who seems like he should be living the life, is living at home and is attracted to nasty azz Mare

 

[Silver Surfer]

What a great mini series.....felt like True detective first season...