Then I hunkered down and finished Mare of Winningham. I know that I'm in the minority here and maybe I would have liked it better had I not seen superior shows like Happy Valley, which is clearly the role model for this show. But I've seen four or five like this and they're all exactly the same - dreary, depressing, unhappy people doing bad things to each other, family woes, and a murder to solve that becomes almost silly in its three twist reveal that simply defies credulity. The last two episodes were especially illogical and most of the last episode is endless yakking, and then we get the final third twist (if you can call it that) and it's just, for me, not believable at all. There's no question that the actors do a fine job, but the truly awful characters, especially the surly ex-boyfriend of the murdered girl and his gal pal - horrible, both - never pay the price or face anything. Winslet is excellent, though, but it's the structure, which borrows heavily from the Swedish and Danish similar series, where every episode has to end with a cliffhanger development, a new possible killer, etc. However, for me, the worst thing is the music, by some composer I never heard of - it's literally all wallpaper, sound design, and droning. At the end, we get some piano octaves before the final fadeout. I mean, it's so ludicrous and one can only hope that there is a sea change at some point.
