sharp objects (2018) tv mini-series

DIR. jean-marc Vallée | usa

REVIEWED BY Daniel Lazzam

Synopsis: After being discharged from psychiatric hospitalization, troubled reporter Camille Preaker returns to her Southern home town on assignment investigating the murders of two young girls, only to become re-ensnared in her abusive family dynamic and the toxic small town culture of Wind Gap. As Camille digs deeper into her story, she becomes more and more embroiled in her past traumas and exhumes elements of her family history she never expected to face, unearthing more skeletons than just that of her sickly younger sister.

Stylistic Elements: Jean-Marc Vallée evokes the oppressive humidity of Wind Gap with dreamy editing, the camera languishing equally on the opulence of Adora’s antebellum manor and the squalor of the town’s abattoirs. Taking us even further into the claustrophobia of Camille’s PTSD, he intercuts split-second flashbacks into the narrative, occasionally rendering the past and present indistinguishable and showing hallucinatory flashes of the words carved on Camille’s skin printed on every available surface. His use of sound is especially notable; while the music in the show is exclusively diegetic, it permeates almost every scene, from Led Zeppelin blasting hauntingly from Camille’s cracked phone to ghostly strains of Debussy wafting throughout Adora’s ghostly home. 

Characters: Amy Adams is brilliant as the tortured Camille, scrambling to keep afloat in every scene yet constantly struggling for decency. Patricia Clarkson is malignant as Adora, dripping venom with the poise of a classic Southern belle, every inch a fairy tale witch and yet terrifyingly believable as an abusive mother. Finally, Eliza Scanlen is somehow both predatory and babyish as Camille’s sister Amma.  

Narrative Quality: The languid editing and constant flashbacks invoke Camille’s spiralling mental health more than any linear storyline, yet the effect is nonetheless gripping. Far more than anything else, Sharp Objects portrays the terrifying reality of PTSD and its sequelae; in Camille, self-harm and alcohol use disorder. 

Emotional Impact: Sharp Objects is terrifyingly immersive; watching the show is positively stifling. Camille’s struggle with addiction and self harm are portrayed with empathy and brutal honesty, and the claustrophobia of the show traps the viewer in her perspective, heightening the emotional impact. Even supporting characters struggle with grief in devastatingly realistic fashion.  

Educational Score: 10/10; not only a thrilling Southern Gothic narrative, but a gutting portrayal of addiction, self-harm, and the perpetration of intergenerational trauma (and forensic psychiatric pathology).