It was way too much, I dont think the general audience is that stupid to not realise she has a drinking problem after the first 20 mins of the show, the way they kept on going deeper to the point of 'hey look drinking at 10am!' was weird and slows everything down. I don't know the book but I assume this is a mystery/murder drama and not primarily a character study and if I'm right about that I'm going to be disappointed if that feels rushed when looking back at this episode.
I don’t know anything about the book, personally. For me, this was great for one episode. It was a different take on the rote alcoholic detective trope, and I felt it spoke to the realities of living with trauma while simultaneously teasing at what that trauma might be. Then we got the biggest tease at the end of the episode. Now, if every episode dedicates this much time to it, I’ll probably feel differently.
The mother, a significant portion of her screentime displays her drinking habits. She’s clearly a different kind of alcoholic. I think the show is saying something there, too, but we really have to learn more about dat enigmatic mother more.
This is clearly going for a Faulkner-ish southern gothic vibe, so I’d expect a lot of unspoken character development and character study-type material in addition to the mystery itself.
