As No Film School's resident southeastern Pennsylvanian, I feel obligated to share any and all Mare of Easttown news. From writer, executive producer, and showrunner Brad Ingelsby, this insanely popular crime drama showed us what it was like to deconstruct a community facing a tragedy. We saw the best and worst in people. We followed clues and chased them through plot twists and turns.
The show's seven episodes were all sorts of fun and grueling. At times, tragedy overcame us, and then we'd laugh at a Jean Smart quip and all would be better. It was almost like real life, although we saw some justice in the end.
Still, it all started with the pilot script.
You can read and download the Mare of Easttown pilot script here!
What I loved about reading the pilot was how well it built out the world and the characters. The character introduction of Mare is something special. It tells us exactly who she is and how we see her.
Recently, some people on Twitter have taken issue with the way Mare is described because it goes on for a paragraph. These people are wrong.
Screenplays have no set rules. Your job is to tell the story and to get the actors interested. The Mare pilot does that and gives us a full look at who Mare is, and gives Kate Winslet an indication on how to play her as a person.
Credit: HBO Max
Another thing the pilot does well is showcase Ingelby's voice. Now, he's a very successful Hollywood writer, and you can see why. His voice is here, not just because this was a show set near his hometown, but in the way the words flow and the world is built. He's clear, concise, and deliberate in every paragraph.
It's no surprise Ingelsby can nail a script about a place he knows. He got the idea by chatting with a local cop and realizing the area was rife with many different dramatic elements that would lend themselves to an engrossing mystery. He was able to make the location feel like a character.
What were some of your favorite parts?
Let us know in the comments.
