Amy Adam’s acting is on par with the best acting I’ve seen on TV recently (Elizabeth Moss in the The Handmaid’s Tale), the writing feels good so far and the editing is beyond gorgeous. Invisible when it needs to be, haunting and evocative when it is allowed to fly.
I have not read the original novel, so I have no idea what’s going on, except that the mother, or maybe her partner, is probably involved? it’s a stretch but it would fit.
Anyways, so far a pretty solid recommendation. Anybody else watching?
It’s terrific. Amy Adams is great, and everyone else in the cast is just nailing it. It’s also bleak enough to make The Handmaid’s Tale look like a Disney release. But I’ll definitely stick with it.
Caveat to anyone else starting the series – this is not something you can watch while browsing twitter or texting. There is a whole lot of plot happening in one-second glimpses of her memory, written words barely glimpsed and mumbled asides. It’s not at all friendly for casual viewers.
I have not read the books, but I think the mother is too obvious for the killer. My bet is on Camille’s screwed up little sister.
I wasn’t sold on Amy Adams at first. She wasn’t really convincing as a hard-drinking, cigarette-smoking, living-on-candy, Zeppelin-listening, tragically haunted figure. At least physically. She’s just so, I dunno, cute and princessy. Which is maybe the point. But she’s carrying it well enough as the show goes on. The minimal make-up and unruly hair help.
I’m mostly watching for Jean-Marc Vallee’s direction. And editing, as Juan points out. Vallee does his own editing, and it’s a really distinctive way to represent the perception of a character, her memories, her thoughts, her associations. The way he cuts without sound cues, and also the way he plays with music. He did the same things in Wild, which was obviously less insidious than Sharp Objects, but similarly haunting.
As for the serial killer drama, I find it pretty rote. I’m hoping there’s some sort of larger corruption or noir angle that involves the main character’s family or even weird supernatural element. But given that it’s a story by Gillian Flynn, I suspect the plot is just a rote serial killer potboiler.
This looks like a study of a mother’s screwed up relationship with her badly damaged daughters. I don’t expect much from the underlying murder mystery.
Comments I’ve read elsewhere suggested that the actual killings aren’t really a focus of the book, but I haven’t read it.
The show is absolutely gorgeous. And I cringe whenever I see Adams’ bare skin, which is not something I would write in any other context. Those scars. Holy shit.
Which makes me wonder why the serial killer stuff is even in there? I mean, yeah, I get it, you need a reason for the woman who escaped her stultifying hometown to return. But as near as I can tell, it’s a serial killer mystery because Gillian Flynn. I’ve only read Gone Girl, but ugh.
My wife and I have discussed getting into this show based on the commercials, which are intriguing enough but don’t provide any real indication of what the show is about.
My bride has a problem with “rapey stuff” in her entertainment. Do we have to worry about that here? Strangely, she loves Handmaid’s Tale, and you don’t get much more rapey than that. Though I think it’s the violent, Jody-Foster-on-a-pinball-machine type of rapey stuff that really bothers her.
I can’t speak to where it might go, but the killer is specifically not a rapist and there’s been nothing like that explicitly called out in the protagonist’s backstory. (There’s a flashback that’s kind of disturbing around finding some porn in a cabin but it’s not clear what happened there yet.)
I’m pretty sure there’s an implied sexual assault on the main character in one of the flashbacks. It’s vague, but I think it’s there (the subtext of many conversations also point there). Along with the killer plot, it’s one of the most cliched elements of the show.
I said there’s nothing explicitly called out and I’ll stand by it. There are elements that definitely seem to hint in that direction but so far it’s just been ominous imagery with a sexual edge.
My wife and I have been watching this and are pretty disappointed. It should be the type of show I enjoy, but I find it just mind-numbingly boring most of the time. I enjoy Amy Adams character and the coping with her past trauma and alcoholism - but I find the story to be too disjointed most of the time and would enjoy it more with more focus on the murder mystery (although it seems to be working towards that).
Heartily seconded. We’ve been watching and every episode feels like an exercise in minor detail observation. The editing style is almost frenetic in those scenes, with flashes of past and present mixed into a confusing quick take that can make you need to rewind and watch again to sort out the important bits. Binge watching this show would be difficult, as it demands your constant attention on the screen.
That said, it’s pretty good thus far. As others have noted, the plot often seems rote and it telegraphs a few “twists” pretty obviously, but the acting is fantastic, the music hauntingly appropriate, and the images of small town America waver between nostalgic and heartbreaking. I would give it a strong recommendation so far.
The death of the younger girl in the clinic was so obviously telegraphed that it was anti-climatic when it did finally happen. Obviously that event, and it’s similarity to the death of her sister, is what led Camille to her recent breakdown that she and her editor have spoken of. There is something not quite right about the death of the sister as well, and I’m willing to bet the mom is involved somehow. I’m also willing to be the little sister is involved in the town killings, as she’s simply psycho. What the hell was she doing with the pig at the plant?
The direction, cinematography, editing, and the leads’ acting are all top-notch. I would also call out the stellar sound design. Definitely a show that benefits from close listening as well as watching!
I do feel it’s 4 or 5 episodes worth of stuff stretched out into 8, though. Neither the thriller plot nor the brooding themes benefit from being spread so thin.
(This seems to be a common blemish in the golden age of TV - the networks are all so desperate for content that they’re asking creators to pad, and it shows. E.g. Errol Morris’s Wormwood on Netflix, which is pretty much a standard Morris doc expanded out to six hours by adding a bunch of dramatic re-enactments that adds … not much.)
Another great episode. Among a variety of absolutely brutal moments, there’s an instant where Jackie, sitting in the audience, notices that Amma is high. I loved that. There is so much great stuff in this series that’s only on screen for half a second.
I don’t care about the murder mystery, and I’m not sure the author does either. This is about the characters, not the killing.
I read the book, and enjoyed it. I really wish that they had gone this direction (adult miniseries) with Gone Girl rather than trying to condense it into a movie.
I’ve been enjoying the series, but my LG free Sling + HBO expires before the series ends. Grr.
