Four decades later, the anomalous incident remains a morbid fascination. Following a 1990 TV-movie adaptation starring Barbara Hershey and a Hulu limited series last year starring Jessica Biel, Emmy-winning writer and Big Little Lies creator David E. Kelley tackles the stranger-than-fiction story in the HBO Max miniseries Love & Death. The seven-episode project, which premieres on April 27, stars Elizabeth Olsen as Candy, Lily Rabe as Betty, and Jesse Plemons as Betty’s husband, Allan, whose affair with Candy precipitates his wife’s death.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Olsen says she leapt at the chance to explore Candy’s complicated psychology—and to “figure out how to be on her side and the life that leads up to that moment.” Director Lesli Linka Glatter drew from Texas Monthly’s two-part account of the incident as well as Evidence of Love, a book from the same writers, Jim Atkinson and John Bloom. The journalists describe Candy as the kind of type A housewife who meticulously prepared meals, volunteered at church, and enjoyed country-western dancing with her friends. Before embarking on an affair with Allan, Candy had created the family she always envisioned for herself—yet found herself yearning for something more fulfilling.
Speaking about Love & Death, which is set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, director Glatter (Mad Men, Homeland) says, “This is about women and men in this time period—they did everything right. They got married at 20, had kids. [Candy’s husband] Pat was a wonderful supporter and scientist. They moved to the suburbs. They built their dream house. Then why do you feel so profoundly empty inside? Why is there a hole in your heart and psyche a mile wide? She makes a horrible choice how to fill that void.”
