Sharp Objects
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Sharp Objectsis, in a word, bruising.
TheGillian FlynnbasedandJean Marc-Valleehelmedseries doesnt have the hard-bitten noir manner I expected.
Its something more beguiling instead, like the dark turn from some lost fairy tale.
But the damsels and villains arent so easy to parse out.
Vanish begins with what seems, at first, to be a hazy childhood memory.
Feeling the wind against them as they race down an empty road.
This isnt a memory; its a dream.
This is terrain in which every moment holds either the potential or promise of violence.
Her apartment is cluttered and disorganized.
She works at a forgettable newspaper in St. Louis.
Basically, shes a glorious and aching mess of a woman.
Amy Adams lends her a dry wit and hard gaze.
But there is a brief scene in Franks office that gives insight into what ails Camille.
Its population has held at 2,000 people.
Without missing a beat, Camille puts it bluntly, Trash from old money.
If that isnt evident, all you better do is track her drinking.
When on her way to Wind Gap, Camille stops at a dreary motel.
Its like an alcoholics travel kit.
When she makes it back home, she trades this in for vodka hidden in an Evian bottle.
Vanish makes evident thatSharp Objectsis a show dictated by memory more than anything else.
(Whether she does so out of actual attraction or a desire to get information isnt wholly clear.
But, lets be real, its a detective played by Chris Messina so probably both.)
You moved away, Vickery says as if she committed a great sin.
At times, she seems lost in some other world.
When youre here, everything you do comes back on me, you understand?
Adora asks pointedly later in the episode.
Camille bristles and cowers under the harsh gaze of her mother.
Amma has been on the edge of various scenes, pretending not to know Camille.
(She was the obvious leader of the gossipy girls at the search party.)
Inside, shes dressed delicately and childlike.
Bright bows in her hair, a dress below the knee, a dainty sweater.
And she plays the part.
In its second season,The Handmaids Taleis a particularly excruciating example of this trend.
Its keener than that, choosing to understand these specific, brittle, multi-faceted women.
It hinges on a place and its people.
The first revelation is violent: the discovery of Natalie Keenes body.
But the blood on her lips and discolored limbs tell a more harrowing tale.
The second is less immediately gut-wrenching.
Words etched into her skin, including the episodes title.
Some small, others blaring.
Camilles scars arent just emotional, theyre physical and inescapable.
Camille is clearly filling an emptiness, numbing a hurt, blotting out some gnawing tragedy through alcohol.
At the end of the episode, Amma with bouncy glee tells Camille that now we can be sisters.
Its meant to be sweet, but it has an undercurrent of menace.
Im curious to see how the shows relationship to music develops through Camille.
As we saw inBig Little Liesbefore this, Jean-Marc Vallee has a very particular approach to creating a soundtrack.
