Love & Death - Season 1

Texas housewife Candy Montgomery becomes embroiled in a deadly affair in Love & Death. Is she the perpetrator or the victim in this true story and what prompted this horrific murder?

True stories turned into fictional series (or movies) are an interesting phenomenon. In a somewhat dramatized way, you step into the lives of people who (have) really existed and find out what kind of suffering they have experienced. Love & Death on HBO Max is a miniseries that falls under this category. The series was created based on the book Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs and various newspaper articles.

The structure is very well done and the viewer is never bored for a moment due to the way of telling.

Candy Montgomery (Elizabeth Olsen, Marvel's WandaVision) is a Texas housewife with a quiet life. She has a few children, a husband, is committed to the church, and gossip with the other women in the neighborhood. She seems to lack nothing but still misses something and finds her life a bit boring. She decides to start an affair with the main aim of having fun. She doesn't need another relationship, there is no place for feelings, it's purely about the physical connection and the social aspect of the adventure.

The person Candy chooses for her affair is Allan Gore (Jesse Plemons, Fargo). He is the husband of Betty (Lily Rabe, American Horror Story) and the families know each other through their daughters and the church community. At first glance, Allan's marriage is a bit more troubled than Candy's. Betty struggles with depression and anxiety, finds it difficult that her husband is away so much for work and has difficulty maintaining a passionate relationship with him. Yet there is also a lot of love between the couple and this is even sealed with the birth of their second daughter during Allan and Candy's affair.



Last year, a miniseries about this case was already released, namely Candy on Disney +. According to the makers, it came as a surprise when they found out that both parties were working on a series adaptation of this story. I haven't seen Candy, but I did understand that the atmosphere and way of telling is different from Love & Death. After seeing Love & Death I also understand why there is so much interest in this story. It can be called bizarre in one word and the intense details of the eventual murder are difficult to comprehend.

Love & Death is set between 1978 and 1980 and consists of seven episodes. The structure is very well done and the viewer is not bored for a moment due to the way of telling. The series has a clear beginning and end and most questions are answered as the story is told. The sets where everything takes place really seem to come from that time. In addition, the acting of all actors is very strong.

The quality of everything is so good that for that reason alone Love & Death is a viewing tip as far as I'm concerned!

Because I don't want to give too much away I avoid big spoilers. Of course, it is easy to look up what happened online, but personally, I liked going into this series with a blank slate. This really took me into the story and was I surprised when certain facts came to light. Love & Death is, in my opinion, also recommended if you already know the outcome. Because a lot of background information is told, you get the idea that you really get to know the people involved. Although this does not make everyone sympathetic, it does provide the depth that these types of series need.

The only real flaw I can mention about Love & Death is that it's not an innovative series. It is a crime story as so often told. The way in which this crime came about is a bit strange, but otherwise, you don't have the idea of ​​looking at an exceptional case. Today, there are so many ways to see these kinds of stories, if only through channels like Investigation Discovery. Still, I think Love & Death is highly recommended for people who like mystery, crime and well-made drama series. The quality of everything is so good that for that reason alone Love & Death is a viewing tip as far as I'm concerned!