I can’t take my eyes off Jean Smart

Can we talk about Jean Smart for a minute? I never watched Design­ing Women—where she played a leading role for over five seasons in the late ’80s and early ’90s—and until recently I probably couldn’t have put her face to her name. This is my loss, and thanks to her resurgence with leading roles in two new shows—Hacks and Mare of East­town (both on HBO Max)—I can’t stop thinking about her. She has the kind of glamour that makes me look toward my golden years with anticipation. If I can wear a caftan or a bathrobe with the assured elegance of Jean Smart when I am 65, then surely I have nothing to fear.

In Mare of Easttown, her style is all bathrobes. She plays Helen, the mother to main character Mare (Kate Winslet). Mare is a local detective trying to solve several possibly interconnected cases involving missing or dead young women.

Underneath the red herrings and unexpected twists, Mare of Easttown is a show about the threats and dangers of motherhood for Mare and for all the women of her generation in their small, working-class town. Having children, raising them, and protecting (or failing to protect) them from threats inside the home and out form the limits of these women’s lives. Other critics have dissected this and just about every other aspect of the show: whether the ending makes sense, the particular Philadelphia accent the actors try to adopt, White working-class politics, Kate Winslet’s realistic middle-aged body, and even her bad hair dye.