Mare of Easttown had many HBO Max users enthralled for seven weeks starting in April 2021, as Kate Winslet’s character, Mare Sheehan, investigated a murder in the Easttown neighborhood of Philadelphia. The popularity of the limited drama series is already reflected in the Emmy nominations for 2021.

The 2021 Emmy nominations were revealed on July 13, 2021, by Ron Cephus Jones of This Is Us and his daughter, Jasmine Cephas Jones of Blindspotting.

“Mare of Easttown” received 16 Emmy nominations, including one for anthology or limited series and three acting awards.

While Brad Ingelsby, the show’s creator, said shortly after the end that a second season was unlikely, think again.

Kate Winslet’s continued mastery of the difficult “Delco” dialect in Mare of Easttown should be justification enough to bestow all accolades upon her. The actual residents of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, clap whenever her titular local detective pronounces water as “wooder” or rounding out her “o’s” in lines of speech. It’s widely acknowledged as one of the most difficult accents for actors to perfect, which makes Winslet’s ability to do it with ease and, more crucially, authenticity all the more amazing.

Winslet was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, having previously won an Emmy for her lead performance in HBO’s Mildred Pierce. Jean Smart (who played Helen Fahey) and Julianne Nicholson (who played Lori Ross) are both nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress. Evan Peters (Detective Colin Zabel) got a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Coincidentally, costar Guy Pearce, who also portrayed Winslet’s quasi-love interest in “Easttown,” won an Emmy for supporting actor in “Pierce” that year.

In an interview with Deadline today, Kate Winslet didn’t make any promises, but she did say that Season 2 is a “ongoing conversation.”

“I would love to play her again; I believe there are more chapters to her story,” the Oscar winner remarked. “However, just because the story has touched people that doesn’t necessarily mean creatively we can do it again. But it doesn’t mean closing doors; we’re opening doors, exploring what’s behind the doors.”

Winslet plays Mare Sheehan, a damaged, world-weary investigator trying to uncover the disappearance of a teen girl a year after the investigation went cold. While the primary whodunnit mystery is intriguing enough to elicit theories and debate, the true draw of the series is Mare’s emotional difficulties, family issues, love life issues, parenting issues… believe me, she has a lot of them. And seeing Winslet bring Mare’s total fatigue with it all to life is the true treasure, as the Academy Award winner consistently produces magnificent performances.

Mare of Easttown‘s other Outstanding Emmy categories included:

• Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
• Lead Actress in a Limted Series or Movie (Winslet)
• Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (Smart, Nicholson)
• Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Peters)
• Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
• Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program
• Cinematography for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
• Outstanding Contemporary Costumes
• Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
• Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (two nominations)
• Sound Mixing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
• Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
• Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling
• Oustanding Contemporary Makeup

In the limited or anthology series category, “Mare” competes against “The Queen’s Gambit,” “The Underground Railroad,” “WandaVision,” and “I May Destroy You.”

Winslet discussed how people from all over the world identify with the mystery set in working-class Pennsylvania about a divorced police investigator who is trying to solve the abduction of one girl and the death of another in a community where she knows and is linked to everyone. “At the end of the day, when the chips are down, it’s community and family and the sense of belonging, no matter where you come from, that means everything — especially at a time when we’ve experienced this seismic event in the pandemic,” she said. “I think [the miniseries] has that sense of looking out for one another against all odds; it’s something that everyone can relate to.”

“Brad Ingelsby wrote this middle-aged heroine; not many writers have written this before, and I felt so honored and excited when he asked me,” Winslet said.