Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Love & Death’ On HBO Max, Where Elizabeth Olsen Portrays Murdering Housewife Candy Montgomery

The story of Candy Montgomery, who hacked her friend Betty Gore to death in 1980 after having an affair with Gore’s husband, proved to be so salacious that not one but two high-profile limited series were created about it. First was Candy (still streaming on Hulu), starring Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey as the murderer and her victim. Now, Elizabeth Olsen takes her turn as Montgomery, in a series written by David E. Kelley.

LOVE & DEATH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An overhead shot of a small town. “Wylie, Texas.” As we pan to the front door of a house, we see a date, “Friday, June 13, 1980.”

The Gist: After seeing a blood-spattered bathroom in that house, we go back two years, to September, 1978. Singing in the choir of her Methodist church is Candy Montgomery (Elizabeth Olsen). Candy is one of the more popular people in the church, very detail-oriented, fashion-forward for small-town Texas, and very personable. She has three kids with her mainly inattentive husband Pat (Patrick Fugit).

Meanwhile, Allan Gore (Jesse Plemons) and his wife Betty (Lily Rabe) are trying to have a second child, so they interrupt their time at a post-church picnic to go have baby-making sex; Betty barks orders at Allan to go deeper and “squirt, don’t dribble” during intercourse in order to maximize their chances of conceiving. Their marriage in general is a bit tense, with Betty not at all happy that Allan has to travel for his job.

During an inter-church volleyball match, the bored Candy suddenly finds herself attracted to Allan; she tells her friend Sherry Cleckler (Krysten Ritter) that he “smelled like sex,” which blows Sherry’s mind. Candy gets it in her mind that she and Allan should have an affair, and she proposes that to him after they ref another volleyball match.

In about the dullest run-up to an affair ever, the two of them talk about the affair, make pro and con lists, have more meetings. Candy even makes lunch for the two of them when they meet at her house for another planning session.

When Candy’s friend, church pastor Jackie Ponder (Elizabeth Marvel) overhears a call from Allan, Candy readily admits to her that she is going to have an affair without mentioning who she’s having it with. “No good can come from this,” says Jackie, but Candy is matter of fact about it. “I’ve done all the things a wife is supposed to do. Where is the payback.” When Jackie says the payback is “all this”, gesturing at the nice house, it completely rings hollow to Candy.

She arranges the hotel and packs a picnic lunch. When the two of them finally meet up at a motel out of town, they eat then finally do the deed. Both find it as intense as they thought it might. She insists they both shower to get their scents off each other. And as we see Candy shower, we flash forward to her in another shower, cleaning blood off herself, frightened at what she just did.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of?: Remember about a year ago, when Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey starred in Candy? Back then we knew that Love & Death, which is also about the Candy Montgomery case, was coming, but we didn’t realize it would take a year for it to arrive.

Our Take: David E. Kelley adapted Love & Death from a book and Texas Monthly article by Jim Atkinson and John Bloom; Lesli Linka Glatter (Mad Men, Homeland) directed the entire season. While it’s telling the same story as Candy, it’s taking a bit more of a linear approach.

While we see bits and pieces of the aftermath when Montgomery hacked Betty Gore to death — Montgomery supposedly snapped during a routine errand to pick up a swimsuit for Betty’s daughter, who was with the Montgomerys that day — we’re mostly given the story from the beginning, when Candy decided it was high time to have an affair.

By doing things this way, Kelley seems to be positioning both Candy and Betty as just what they are: Killer and victim. Candy tried a switcheroo with the two women, making Betty look unstable and Candy seem put-together and precise. But what Kelley and Linka Glatter do so well in this first episode is show just how bloodless Candy’s mentality really is.

They certainly make her husband Pat look feckless and inattentive, but Allan isn’t made to look like charmer, either. In fact, Plemons seems to play Allan’s dullness to the hilt. No, this is all on Candy, who feels like she deserves this, and Allan is the most convenient person to do this with. It’s cold, it’s calculating, and it’s exactly how Candy wants it.

Olsen plays a more glamorous version of Montgomery than Biel played, and effectively hides her calculation under a façade of smiles and faux warmth. Her reasoning behind her affair almost seems logical, the way Olsen plays it. But we also know that there’s something more sinister underneath this seemingly calm exterior. We’re looking forward to the scene when all of it comes out.

Rabe’s version of Betty is more controlled than Lynskey’s, but we also see her at a time in her life when she’s more concerned with her daughter Alisa dressing like Slutty Sandy from Grease for Halloween than seeing her life falling apart after having her second child. As that time approaches, we’re curious to see how Rabe handles it. At this point, it looks like Betty is more caricature than character.

Sex and Skin: There’s no nudity during the sex scenes themselves, but we get a flash from Candy’s loose negligee as she gets up to take a shower after her three minutes of glory with Allan.

Parting Shot: A closeup of Candy’s eyes as she’s fully-clothed in the shower, blood circling the drain. She’s just killed Betty and is in shock over what she just did.

Sleeper Star: Ritter is in an interesting role as Sherry, who’s single and doesn’t seem to be taken aback by anything Candy says about Allan or having an affair.

Most Pilot-y Line: “The reason why I go silent is that, when you get like this, I don’t know what to say,” Allan says to Betty during the Halloween costume discussion. That’s the sign of a husband who refuses to understand his wife at all.

Our Call: SKIP IT. While Love & Death takes a more relationship-centric approach to Candy Montgomery’s story, Olsen’s performance takes the notorious killer to a different place than we’ve seen in previous shows, a place that’s both more human and more bloodless at the same time. We just wish the rest of the show had a more well-rounded view of the case.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.