HBO’s “Sharp Objects” brought its drama to life with painstaking care.

The HBO limited series “Sharp Objects” played like a novel come to life on the small screen. Working from Gillian Flynn’s moody 2006 bestseller, Director Jean-Marc Vallee and creator Marti Noxon took their time in adapting the prose, laying out the story and characters with care, precision, and an unhurried pace. On the surface it was a murder mystery, but it really was a mood piece. They put the audience in the mind of Camille (Amy Adams), the reporter who returned to her hometown to investigate a pair of murders. Her memories, guilt, and pain drove the plot more than the procedural aspects. The images in her mind made for an exquisitely haunting and intimate study of terror, both in the past and present.