How SHARP OBJECTS Pilot Script Tackles Detective Genre Conventions
Sharp Objects is one of the best TV series I’ve watched recently. It’s bleak, dark, tense and I loved it! It has got so many genre elements to it. But in this article, I want to talk about how the pilot script uses the detective genre conventions.
Trying to guess whodunit while watching, paying attention to the other aspects of the story, gathering every detail in mind, reading and suspecting every character that has made contact with the detective. It’s like a game. The detective genre makes you engage more with the story and the characters.
And in Sharp Objects’ case, suspecting even the protagonist (the detective) Camille Preaker herself! It’s madness. And it’s fun!
The detective story, type of popular literature in which a crime is introduced and investigated and the culprit is revealed.
And if we go one step further in the traditional elements of it. There are five basics, the Brittanica says:
(1) the seemingly perfect crime; (2) the wrongly accused suspect at whom circumstantial evidence points; (3) the bungling of dim-witted police; (4) the greater powers of observation and superior mind of the detective; and (5) the startling and unexpected denouement, in which the detective reveals how the identity of the culprit was ascertained.
(1) the violent murder of the two girls in Wind Gap; (2) suspects (John Keene, Bob Nash); (3) the bungling of chief Bill Vickery and detective Richard Willis; (4) the greater powers of observation and superior mind of Camille Preaker; and (5) don’t worry, no spoilers.
So, by all means, I claim that the series is called Detective Camille Preaker’s dark and weird days in Wind Gap.
But she is a reporter you say, and I say hell yeah she is. These days, the detective genre is still alive but it’s hidden inside of the other genres and stories. She is the reporter who investigates the murder in Wind Gap.
The movies draw from so many genres these days. Look at the Upgrade by Leigh Whannel; it’s an action, horror and science-fiction movie. It’s also in so many ways a classic whodunit.
In this video, Truby lays out all the basic conventions for the detective genre. So, let’s test the Sharp Objects.
The detective is a loner. She lives and works outside of an organization.
Camille Preaker. Each episode reveals so many dark corners in her. She is the investigator of this story but also she’s so much more.
(like a cowboy) The detective is in between lawmen and outlaw. She is neither one or the other.
She’s a reporter.
The cost of being a loner in a corporate and organized world — the detective is always morally tainted.
The community in Wind Gap is very crooked but the people mind their own business and go on for their lives. Almost as if Camille is the only one feels bad for what’s happening in town.
She does the dirty jobs. And is always criticized for it.
Camille not only investigates the murder, she also investigates this very bad nature of the town. And everyone goes against her.
The detective may not be the most lawful but she’s the most morally concerned character in the story.
Camille finds a way to talk with the suspects and willing to push her limits against the law to get to the truth.
Detective lives by her wits. She can handle the gun when she needs to but she always outsmarts the opponent/the other guy.
Not only she needs to outsmart the killer. Camille handles her mother, Amma, the detective, the chief, the suspects and the rest of the Wind Gap as well. She has to live by her wits in order to survive in Wind Gap.
Better detective stories have the detective asking herself the question — she says “Am I the investigator guilty or innocent for what has gone wrong.”
Camille feels for this all the time. She almost always questions herself.
The detective story always has the key plot structure — a thread that goes from small corruption to large corruption. The detective starts pulling the thread and reveals the large corruption in the end.
Camille almost immediately feels that the murders have something to do with the town itself. And she starts pulling the thread. It doesn’t lead her up to a large corruption but it leads her to a more personal place.
Negative world — the detective’s job is to trust no one. Everyone is possibly guilty. Which means that no one else in the story trust anyone either. The result is that we end up with a hellish world. Where everyone is isolated and afraid of everyone else. Total opposite of a community.
That’s Wind Gap.
In this dark world, there is an apparent positive. The detective almost always has a final choice. The final moral decision between love and honor. But it’s not a real choice. The detective always chooses honor.
Camille almost always chooses her job over Richard. She even starts flirting with him to get some information in the first place.
Love-side has never been established. They don’t give enough time to love to develop.
Camille doesn’t do love.
Two positives; (1) the power of the human mind. The detective story celebrates the job. (2) the purity of professionalism. It celebrates the value of being the professional. Meaning — they get the job done. You can count on them.
She keeps writing, even in the end. She writes the piece…
I love seeing modern takes on the classical genre structures. Sharp Objects is that and so much more. It converts genres. The horror bits were amazing in it. It’s not a surprise that Blumhouse produced it. They have built an amazingly bleak and hellish world. And it’s an awesome character piece. Great performance by Amy Adams as always.
I tried to be as spoiler free as possible, so go watch it if you haven’t already. And come back to share your thoughts on it.
“Vanish” Sharp Objects Pilot Script [PDF] by Marti Noxon, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn — for educational and research purposes only.
