Love & Death: Love & Death - Full Season

May 26, 2023 11:02 AM - Season 1 (Full Season)

Two churchgoing couples enjoy small town family life in Texas - until somebody picks up an axe. Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemmons, Lily Rabe and Patrick Fugit.

Streaming on Max.

This is at least the third adaptation of the Candy Montgomery murder trial. The first "A Killing in a Small Town" (with Barbara Hershey and Brian Dennehy) and second (Candy on Hulu from last year) being based on the book Evidence of Love:A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs by John "Joe Bob Briggs" Bloom

Of the 3 versions of the story, this one strikes me as the most sympathetic to Candy, but is it the script or just the power of Elizabeth Olsen?

posted by drewbage1847 (5 comments total)

I ended up watching this one and the Hulu one almost at the same time, though I was able to finish the Hulu one before the final episode of the HBO version.

This one didn't mention a second affair Candy entered into (with the husband of her friend/business partner) that the Hulu series included, so in that sense it was possibly a little more sympathetic to Candy because according to HBO she only cheated on her husband with Betty's husband. Either way, I thought both series did a decent job of portraying Candy as not homicidal, just briefly acting out on some repressed rage.

I preferred Melanie Lynskey's Betty, in the Hulu series, though.
posted by emelenjr at 12:37 PM on May 26, 2023

I wonder if the gears for this was already in motion before 'Candy' was announced?

Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Olsen are both fine actors, but I agree that Melanie Lynskey is a better Betty (although I didn't recognize Lily Rabe until halfway through the series).

I simply could not buy that Jesse Plemons (in this incarnation) as a man to be attracted to enough to seduce him to cheat whereas I could see Pablo Schreiber.
posted by porpoise at 12:50 PM on May 26, 2023

I mean the actual Allan Gore wasn't the most handsome dude either.

From what I read - Love & Death actually filmed before Candy, but Hulu finished their production first. And also, no disrespect to Lily Rabe who did a fine job of making Betty believably miserable, but I really love Melanie Lynskey as an actor.
posted by drewbage1847 at 1:35 PM on May 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Another difference I remembered: the Hulu version pre-credits info dump indicated Candy moved, changed her identity and started practicing as a therapist. The HBO series pre-credits info dump didn't mention anything about changing her identity and even went so far as to say she practiced with her daughter.

Now that I've remembered I wanted to try it, Googling things that make sense leads to her current situation. (She's not using the name Montgomery, at least not professionally.)
posted by emelenjr at 2:24 PM on May 26, 2023

I finished it, but definitely think they could have trimmed it down - it kinda lagged at the end. I was surprised the prosecution didn't press any charges besides murder (like tampering with evidence).
posted by coffeecat at 12:41 PM on May 27, 2023