Love & Death: Everything We Know About the HBO Series So Far
Candy Montgomery is getting quite the Hollywood treatment these days, even if she’d prefer to have nothing to do with it. Mere months after Jessica Biel played the real-life Texas housewife in Hulu’s Candy, WandaVision actress Elizabeth Olsen is stepping into the same role, albeit with a tamer hairstyle and a different team supporting her. In an adaptation of two acclaimed 1984 Texas Monthly articles—and the book that later sprang from them—HBO Max is launching Love & Death, based on the true story of Montgomery, her lover, and the axe murder that shook their small Texas community.
Written by Big Little Lies and The Undoing’s David E. Kelley and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter—known for her work on shows including Homeland and Mad Men—Love & Death stars Olsen as the charismatic Candy, who embarks on an affair with fellow church choir member Allan Gore (Jesse Plemons). What begins as a careful, well-orchestrated rendezvous ultimately ends with murder, igniting a case that thrusts Candy into a strange spotlight. Ahead, everything we know about the series so far.
Is Love & Death based on a true story?
Love & Death debuted its premiere episode at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, where it received a raucous reception in the Paramount Theatre. During a post-screening panel moderated by ELLE, Kelley explained why the very true story of Montgomery and Gore caught his attention. “If I had written this stuff and made it up, they would have revoked my writers license,” he said, before joking, “which has been taken away before, but this time it would have been for good.” He added, “I really felt more like a stenographer than a writer in this one. The story was so juicy and the characters were complex and human. It’s not often you find a nostalgic, warm community series that ends with an axe murderer.”
To avoid spoilers, we won’t get into the intricacies of how, exactly, that axe murder went down. But if you’re curious, pick up Evidence of Love for the most in-depth accounting, or read the two-part Texas Monthly series for a shorter summary.