Amy Adams commands in Sharp Objects

HBO’S next orginal series is the eight-episode Sharp Objects based on the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl.

Academy Award nominee Amy Adams ( left) plays reporter Camille Preaker, who is coaxed by her boss to return to her small hometown in Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate what might be a serial killer on the loose after a preteen girl is found brutally murdered, and a second girl has gone missing.

Camille, who obviously has a drinking problem and smokes heavily, has a reason to be apprehensive about leaving her home years ago, but it will take a while before we find out.

As she investigates the case, Camille has flashbacks of her much younger days with her sister (whom we later learn passed away at a young age).

Camille goes to her old home, where it is apparent that she shares an odd relationship with her mother, Adora (Patricia Clarkson), who has a certain way of doing things and does not like the way Camille and the media are reporting the case.

Camille also finally meets her half-sister, the teenage Amma (Eliza Scanlen), for the first time.

Adora is very strict with Amma (who is house-bound most of the time), but Camille is well aware that Amma has a mind of her own and leads a life that her mother does not know of.

Camille also hooks up with a detective (Chris Messina) from Kansas who is trying to solve the case.

As the series progresses, you find that Camille has started identifying herself with the victims, and she has her own secrets to hide.

Adams does a brilliant job playing the protagonist trying to keep herself together. It is easily one of her career-best performances as Camille is a complicated character that one could easily hate.

Another standout is the brilliant Clarkson playing the domineering and controlling Adora.

Sharp Objects will premiere on HBO (Astro channel 411 / 431 HD) the same time as the US on July 9 at 9am (primetime encore at 10pm).