The serious staying power of Mare of Easttown
東城夢魘的綿長餘韻
Led by Kate Winslet, the HBO thriller offered a masterclass in character building
凱特·溫絲萊特主演，這部HBO驚悚片提供了角色塑造的大師級課程
In Mare of Easttown, whose final episode aired on HBO on Monday, everyone feels real. Pitched as a crime drama mini-series, it is an evocation of a rust-belt community, a distinct setting where everyone is connected and relationships are messy, the titular character being at the centre of it all. The show is steeped in the classic hard-boiled world of good old-fashioned policing. But it is the characters we care about, even though they appear deficient when displaying emotion.
在周一在HBO播出的《東城夢魘》的最後一集裡，每個人都感到身臨其境。作為一部犯罪劇迷你系列，它塑造了一個鐵鏽地帶社區，一個每個人都相互聯繫、關係混亂的獨特環境，有名有姓的角色是一切的中心。該劇採用傳統的老式警方世界觀，將警察塑造為經典的硬漢形象。但我們關心的是人物發展，即使他們在表現情感時顯得不足。
For Mare (Kate Winslet), these are complicated years. Obsessed with her work, she is a woman who eats cheeseburgers and withholds facts but her face tells it all: the weariness of life, balancing on one’s breaking point, the cynicism in living that way. We become familiar with the detective partner who had a crush on her, her Manhattan-drinking mother, lesbian daughter, ex-husband, drug addict daughter-in-law, the void left by her son who died by suicide. Even the creative writing professor who keeps asking her on dates.
對Mare(凱特·溫絲萊特)來說，這是複雜的幾年。她沉迷工作，是一個吃奶酪漢堡、自欺欺人的女人，但她的臉說明了一切：對生活的厭倦，在懸崖邊緣保持平衡，因為這種生活方式憤世嫉俗。我們認識了暗戀她的偵探搭檔、她在曼哈頓酗酒的母親、女同性戀女兒、前夫、吸毒的兒媳，以及她自殺身亡的兒子。還有那個不斷約她出去的創意寫作教授。
There are plot twists, red herrings, characters not forthcoming with information erroneously becoming prime suspects. The complexity of these characters grants the show serious staying power, so it is no surprise that so many of us lingered on, waiting for the last episode to arrive. But the series finale did not provide the forced comfort of neat enclosures. Instead, netted with wires, it went straight into the solar plexus and lodged there.
劇中有情節曲折，轉移話題，人物因不提供信息被錯認為主要嫌疑人。這些角色的複雜性賦予了這部劇強大的持久力，所以我們中的許多人為之吸引，期待最後一集的到來也就不足為奇了。但該系列的最後一集並沒有提供一個讓人感覺圓滿的結局。相反，它被鐵絲網網住，梗在心裡。（此處刪減4段）
It was a 19th-century poet and recluse who said it best. 「Nature is a haunted house,」 wrote Emily Dickinson, who had no adventures of her own as she hardly left her bedroom, in a letter: 「but Art — is a house that tries to be haunted」.
一位19世紀的詩人和隱士說得好。「大自然是一座鬧鬼的房子，」從未出門冒險、甚至很少離開臥室的艾米麗·迪金森在一封信中寫道，「但藝術——是一座試圖鬧鬼的房子。」
劇情簡介：
在費城周邊一個虛構小鎮「東城」，梅爾是鎮警局的一名警探。梅爾的日常工作就是應對偏執的老太太對色情狂的投訴以及不幸的鄰居家的癮君子。更讓她棘手的是已經過去了一年卻沒有絲毫進展的不良少女失蹤事件。Katie的媽媽一有機會就會利用媒體指控梅爾和警局辦事不力，這也讓梅爾十分難堪 。
新的風暴又從水平面掀起。在鎮邊的森林裡，一具全裸的女屍被人發現。受害者是鎮上的少女媽媽Erin。Erin和孩子的父親早就斷絕往來，並且和他的現女友關係也並不友好。三人時常會圍繞著孩子的撫養而產生爭吵。同時，她自己的父親也有著暴力傾向。除了這三個明顯的嫌疑人之外，鎮上教會的牧師等一系列人也成為了重點觀察對象，一起引人入勝的懸疑劇就此拉開帷幕。