Good detective show: HBO’s Mare of Easttown

Quick follow up on the accents thingy.

I grew up in Maryland, but was never a fan of Baltimore accents, residing closer to DC. As a youngin, I saw my home turf and Balmer as different worlds, almost. The relatively small state of Maryland runs the accent gamut too, from its Western region, to the Eastern Shore, from Bal’mer to the suburbs of DC, etc. We don’t sound alike in general.

Looping back to Mare: There’s an interesting similarity between Baltimore and Philly, and I don’t know exactly why it exists. Fairly close, of course, as metro areas go. But there must have been fairly similar patterns of settlement, from relatively similar ethnic groups, over time. Pretty close in “class” divisions, too, though this seems to be changing.

Even though, as mentioned, I was never a big fan of the Baltimore sound, I want TV and movies to be as authentic as possible. So if they set their work in X city, it should use the sights and sounds of that city, not some place else. verisimilitude, etc.

joemad wrote:

i’ve been to the mid atlantic, DC area for business (Gaithersburg / Rockville)

I didn’t realize how much traffic there was in the DC area and I didn’t realize how beautiful it was.

i remember stopping at a convenience store…..i saw hats for the Steelers, Ravens, Eagles, Jets and Giants…lots of football markets clustered in that area, no wonder the Colts left……

Best of all, I loved the crab cakes…..

i’ll need to check out that HBO show.

Hey, fellow Giants fan!

The traffic is crazy. I definitely don’t miss that since I moved a bit to the south. But I do miss the diversity there, which was dynamic, exhilarating. People from all over the world, a true mosaic.

Fandom was odd, but in the DC suburbs, the Skins mostly ruled. Baltimore should have had more pull than it did, but post-Unitas, it just couldn’t muster much beyond the immediate environs of Balmer. So they took the show to Cleveland, which was an odd choice, IMO. Baltimore ended up with a better franchise than they lost, but the old folks are still pissed off about the midnight theft.

Crab cakes are the best on the Eastern Shore, and damn good in Annapolis and even Baltimore too. Gotta be called “hon” by the waitresses too. Lotsa fond memories about that. Ocean City used to be a lot of fun as well. Haven’t been there in ages. A ton to do all around.

Again, for such a small state, it packs a wallop when it comes to culture, diversity, history, etc.

Mare is definitely worth checking out.

That’s pretty funny, Joe.

;>)

Again, it’s always bothered me that Hollywood couldn’t be bothered in the past to do the accent with any care. Just get the actors to go with a generic NYC accent and be done with it, even though the sound couldn’t be more different. Mare changed that.

Wish Nittany and PA Ram would weigh in here. I’m just a Maryland kid, not a Pennsylvanian, but I think I have a good ear for ’em, and, well, Baltimore.

It was also the case when I went to the University of Maryland, we used to joke that it should have been called the University of New Jersey or Long Giiland. Seemed that we had more kids from New York and Jersey than Maryland.

:>)

And a side-side-note: I watched a classic last night, How Green Was My Valley, which I loved. John Ford was the director. Yes, it had bouts of too much sentimentality, and its share of cliches and “stage Welshmen,” but I still thought the story of a Welsh coal-mining town wonderful. But it was weird that Ford had so many Irish actors trying to play Welshmen, and from that angle, it didn’t work. One of the sons in the protagonist family, well, I had no idea where he was from. Scandinavia, perhaps?

I’d imagine most viewers couldn’t care less about that kind of thing. It’s just one more aspect of “willing suspension of disbelief.” But authenticity all around matters to me. Which is also why I cringe whenever someone does yet another movie about Greek Myths and screws with the ancient sources.

Hope all is well.

joemad wrote:

BT, good episode this week, came at steep price for the momma’s boy detective…

Hey, Joe. I’m going to have to wait a bit before I finish the series. Stumbled onto it via a free premium week on my cable service. Will probably wait for its finale, and another series I like, The Nevers, before turning it back on.

I was feeling kinda guilty for having too many streamers, so I cut most of them. Had Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and HBO all at the same time — and felt decadent. Got a good (yearly) deal on Hulu, so kept that and shut down the rest.

To make a long story short, am postponing the enjoyment of seeing what happens to Mare and her town for a coupla months, most likely.

Hope all is well.