by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m making my way through Mare of Easttown and the last episode I saw, “Poor Sisyphus,” really kind of rocked my world. I was NOT expecting that ending. Given that there are half a dozen Era of Great TV shows I haven’t watched, should I ever get around to watching them I’m going to be a bit forlorn because I won’t have anyone to talk to them about them.
Anyway, I’ve seen enough of the show to be able to deconstruct who its audience is.
It seems as though there are maybe three core groups the producers are tyring to appeal to.
Middle Aged Women
It took me a little bit to figure it out, but all the adult women in Mare of Easttown are very relatable if kind of drab. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of male eye candy for middle aged women. And there are a lot of Every Mother’s Nightmare scenarios in the show, too.
Middle Aged Men
This is more difficult to pin down, but maybe the fact that there’s girl-on-girl action between attractive young women is a downlow pander to middle aged men? Maybe?
“Woke Twitter Users”
There’s an amusing overlap, in this specific situation, between middle aged men and “woke” Twitter who generate buzz. The subplot about the lesbian daughter is red meat for the buzz-generating Twitter users.
