HBO Max outage mars Mare of Easttown 'masterpiece' finale

Fans eagerly awaiting the final episode of Kate Winslet's acclaimed drama Mare of Easttown were made to wait for even longer when streaming service HBO Max crashed just as it was due to start.

Winslet plays a detective in the murder mystery, which has been one of the most talked-about TV shows of recent months.

But many US viewers trying to watch on HBO Max had to wait several hours.

The finale was praised by critics, though, with The Telegraph hailing it as an "absolute masterpiece".

"The whodunit has always been only one element of Mare of Easttown," wrote the paper's reviewer Anita Singh. "What unfolded was a compendium of all that made the show great."

Soon after episode seven was due to be made available on Sunday, HBO Max tweeted that it was aware "some customers may be experiencing issues streaming".

Two and a half hours later, the company tweeted again to say it had "resolved streaming issues", although many users replied to say they still could not access it. It was also shown on the HBO TV channel.

More reviews of the concluding episode suggested it may have been worth the wait for HBO Max subscribers.

Thrillist's Esther Zuckerman wrote that it was a "devastating, graceful finale".

"Where another show would lean into ugliness, Mare of Easttown chose beauty," she said.

Variety's critic Daniel D'Addario praised the series for "delivering an ending both of narrative wholeness and of real emotional power".

And IndieWire's Ben Travers said it "managed to tie up far more of its loose ends than I ever expected" and had an ending that "avoided going off the rails".

Many critics said it had avoided the disappointing climaxes of recent shows like The Undoing, another HBO thriller, which "turned laughable" according to Thrillist's Zuckerman; and the BBC's Line of Duty, which The Telegraph's Singh lamented as "underwhelming".

Mare of Easttown is available on Sky Atlantic and streaming service Now in the UK.