Critics and audiences alike are losing their minds over Foxtel’s unsettling new murder mystery TV mini-series Sharp Objects.

Based on Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn’s 2006 first novel, the eight-part psychological drama premiered on Monday and immediately drew Emmy buzz for its multiple Oscar nominee star Amy Adams.

One episode was enough to draw rave comparisons with its 2017 HBO hit stablemate Big Little Lies. The two shows share a director, Jean-Marc Vallee, and the same visual stylings.

And just as Big Little Lies had Nicole Kidman in a powerhouse performance, Sharp Objects has an Australian connection: Sydney’s former Home and Away starlet Eliza Scanlen, 19, plays a central role that is part carnal rebelliousness, part Lux soap purity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgljcMqPG98

Critics – from Vanity Fair, Variety and Entertainment Weekly to Time magazine and Vox – almost unanimously raved about Sharp Objects, with its slow-burn approach seen as its weakest spot.

“Quite simply the programming event of the summer,” said People, calling it “grippingly atmospheric” with “repressed psychological forces that seep and spread like a stain across a plaster ceiling”.

Time described the audience’s reaction during an Austin, Texas premiere: “The applause at the end is thunderous … for the arrival of a twisty, and twisted, mystery to watch on long [northern] summer nights.”

Raved Vox, “Sharp Objects wraps small-town murder clichés in an irresistibly glossy package”.

The Hollywood Reporter called it a “popcorn thriller for grownups”.

To Variety, the show “is dazzlingly itself, a show in thrall to the horror of its premise but one that finds nuance within unremitting darkness”.

https://twitter.com/soniasaraiya/status/1014893151394332673

"Sharp Objects" debuts tonight! I am very much in its thrall, as my review indicates; it's very much in line with a long, worthy tradition of marquee HBO shows that will keep viewers eagerly looking forward to the next Sunday night. https://t.co/5Vhmh7EKtD

— Daniel D'Addario (@DPD_) July 8, 2018

Sharp Objects is all atmosphere, zero momentum. But what atmosphere! https://t.co/g1nqBzz1Eg

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) July 6, 2018

#SharpObjects Review: "Series director Jean-Marc Vallee finds his own visual language that, driven by a ferociously wounded performance by Amy Adams, makes this eight-hour limited series haunting and riveting — both prestige and pulp" https://t.co/ofssWN3g98

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 8, 2018

Review: "It’s hard to watch HBO's new miniseries 'Sharp Objects', and even harder to look away" https://t.co/yJu7GUwbt6

— TIME (@TIME) July 9, 2018

Playing against type, Adams, 43, is “ferocious” in her depiction of disturbed newspaper reporter Camille Preaker, who is sent back to her small home town to cover the disappearance of a young girl.

Camille’s job is to get the story but as things slowly unfurl, it’s obvious she’s also home to cope with a history she’s pushed aside until now – and that she has scars which become more obvious as the show goes on.

“Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming,” said the book’s synopsis from Amazon.

Adams reportedly physically changed for the role, standing naked three to four hours every day to have prosthetics applied (you’ll understand why if you watch).

My aunt asked me what Sharp Objects is about and I said “it’s about Amy Adams getting an emmy”

— howdy bitch (@applessolutely) July 9, 2018

Now that Sharp Objects review embargo seems to have lifted I can scream from the rafters about how good Amy Adams is in it and how she's one of those actors who's good in EVERYTHING and we should give her more awards pic.twitter.com/JHP17uF3OI

— AB (@AlannaBennett) July 5, 2018

She was initially reluctant to sign up “because of my previous relationship with television”, she said – she was in That ’70s Show and the American version of The Office – but Sharp Objects’ writer/creator Marti Noxon and Flynn got her over the line, partly by dangling the carrot of an executive producer’s role.

For Flynn, Camille is an anti-hero like Mad Men’s Don Draper or Breaking Bad’s Walter White. “Not everyone is going to root for Camille,” the writer told Time. “Not everyone will think Camille is likeable. Who cares? She shouldn’t have to be.”

Vallee was “surprised” when Adams sent him the novel and pilot script and said she was interested.

“Amy? Our sweet Amy would like to play Camille Preaker? I called her back and I was like, ‘You sure you wanna do this? I don’t know how to accompany you there. I’ve never met, never seen, never known anybody like this’.”

Sharp Objects kicks off Foxtel’s strategy of seeing a new or returning drama series launch every week.

“We are committed to bringing our customers a diverse range of content, both locally and from around the world,” Stephen Baldwin, Foxtel’s director of channels, said.

Sharp Objects is streaming on demand and screens on Showcase on Mondays at 11am, with an encore at 8pm.