Love & Death Review: A Brilliant Black Comedy

Like so many movie or shows, when one script is tossed around Hollywood about a true story, there’s a race to get production started. So it’s perfectly natural that there are two recent shows about Candy Montgomery’s smalltown Texas axe murder in 1980.

Last year, Hulu was the first to make it to air, bringing Candy with Jessica Biel in the lead role, primarily focusing on the days leading up to Candy murdering her lover’s wife. 

Now showrunner David E. Kelley’s version for HBO Max is set to unveil deeper moments of Candy’s (Elizabeth Olsen, Wandavision) life along with the other half of her affair, Allan (Jesse Plemmons, Game Night) in the years leading up to the infamous murder that captured America’s headlines.

For as serious as the subject matter is, the SXSW screening of the first episode revealed a surprising amount of comedy. And maybe that shouldn’t be much of a surprise considering Kelley’s shows like Big Little Lies have always walked that line.

And his style works perfectly here being directed by TV giant Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland, West Wing) as the two place this stranger than fiction story into the context of families with real struggles and desires. People are funny. They’re insecure. They’re impatient. Sometimes they’re just awkward. 

Love & Death captures all of those beats, focusing on the little things- never afraid to peel back the curtain for a moment of quirky insight. Yet it never felt mundane.

Kelley and Glatter also waste no time getting into the story everyone is signing up for, as Candy’s arc is immediately set up, and shows how quickly she and Allan began their affair to spice up their love lives while stuck in picket-fenced dreams. That’s all to set up insights into their relationship that provided an emotional escape in the only way they knew how. We’ll have more on that deeper meaning in an interview with the cast once the show premieres on April 27.

So far, Olsen’s the main driver of the story, coming through with clarity and charm. She completely nails the Texas accent, once again showing she’s one of her generations best actresses. It’ll be exciting to see how this performance evolves once Candy and Allan start getting closer together emotionally, not to mention, how Olsen manages the threads coming undone. The same goes for Allan’s trepidation that is slowly starting to turn into confidence from Plemons in this arc.

And playing their opposites, Patrick Fugit and Lily Rabe are on the same wavelength. It’ll be interesting to see how their arcs unfold while Candy and Allan make their bi-weekly getaways to the motel. Add in some great bit turns from Tom Pelphrey and Elizabeth Smart, there hasn’t been a false move yet from the cast. 

Through one episode, it’s hard to judge just how deep this will all go. But from the jump, Love & Death looks like another hit from Kelley. Just don’t be afraid to laugh – that’s a part of the charm.

Love & Death premieres on Thursday April 27 on HBO MAX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z778sJGKB3E