The final episode of HBO’s limited series “Mare of Easttown” scored a Live+Same Day viewership high of three million viewers.
The Kate Winslet-led series grew its audience with every episode following its premiere, a rare feat seen in shows like the first season of BBC America’s “Killing Eve” and more recently HBO’s own “The Undoing”.
HBO adds that four million people watched the finale over the Memorial Day weekend and is the most-watched episode of any HBO or HBO Max original series in its first 24 hours on the streaming service.
The success of the series, which has also scored critical love, has led to speculation about a possible second season despite being billed as a limited series. Speaking with THR, creator Brad Ingelsby says there are no plans or commitments for one as yet:
“It was written as a limited, and it ends – there’s no more mystery to be solved. Kate and I, if we could crack a story that we were really proud of and felt like it was a deserving second chapter in Mare’s journey, then maybe. I haven’t cracked that yet; I don’t know what that is, honestly.”
Winslet has been wonderfully honest in interviews for the show, telling The New York Times she had to fight the director and the marketing department multiple times to make sure they didn’t do any fancy editing or touch-ups on her look in the series both in the episodes and marketing material.
For example a promo poster sent back multiple times because it was being retouched too much. Another issue came when director Craig Zobel told her that he would cut “a bulgy bit of belly” in her sex scene with Guy Pearce to which she replied: “don’t you dare!”.
