Love & Death is a 2023 True Crime drama miniseries directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, written by David E. Kelley and starring Elizabeth Olsen.
It is based on the true story of housewife Candy Montgomery
(Olsen), who was accused of the brutal murder of her friend (and wife of her lover) Betty Gore with an axe in 1980, in Wylie, Texas (a suburb of Dallas).
The cast also includes Jesse Plemons as Allan Gore, Lily Rabe as Betty Gore, Patrick Fugit as Pat Montgomery, Keir Gilchrist as Ron Adams, Elizabeth Marvel as Jackie Ponder, Tom Pelphrey as Don Crowder, Krysten Ritter as Sherry Cleckler, Beth Broderick as Bertha Pomeroy, Brian d'Arcy James as Fred Fason, Mackenzie Astin as Tom O'Connell and Bruce McGill as Tom Ryan. It premiered on April 27, 2023, on HBO Max.
See also 2022's Candy, about the same story. Not to be confused with the Woody Allen film.
Love & Death provides examples of the following tropes:
- '50s Hair: Betty's mother Bertha Pomeroy wears her hair in a curly pageboy of the 1950s, highlighting her age and that she lives in a rural area.
- The '70s: The series starts in 1978 with Candy listening to disco music, even hitting a disco bar with Sherry, kitchens decorated in warm colors or avocado green, Candy and Pat take the kids to watch Grease.
- '70s Hair: The men wear their hair in the conservative albeit light on product "Dry Look" and long sideburns with the women wearing relaxed versions of '60s Hair, pageboys, the Farrah Fawcett do, or long simple hair.
- The '80s: The event of the murder and court trial occur in the early 1980s, while downplayed, fashion gives way to the trends of this decade with the women wearing their hair a bit teased, brighter colors, and pants slimming in the leg.
- Actor Allusion: According to the newspaper coverage of the case, "She's
suddenly the Scarlet Woman!" - Advertising by Association: The trailer has "From the executive producers of Big Little Lies and The Undoing" (which, in that case, are Nicole Kidman and writer David E. Kelley).
- all lowercase letters: Neither the "l" nor the "d" from the title are in capital letters. The same about the actors' names in the opening credits.
- Based on a True Story: Said verbatim in the trailer.
- Chatty Hairdresser: Candy's supportive yet gossipy friend Sherry Cleckler works at a salon she may possibly own.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Don Crowder is introduced early on as another member of the congregation at the church that the Gores and the Montgomerys attend, during which his occupation as a lawyer is mentioned. Candy hires him to be her attorney when the police begin to view her as the prime suspect in Betty's murder.
- Crash-Into Hello: The inciting incident for the affair. While Candy and Allan are playing on the church volleyball team, she ends up backing into him while trying to hit the ball and gets knocked down. As a concerned Allan helps Candy to her feet, she can't help but think that he smells like sex to her.
- Declaration of Protection: One of Candy's rules when she and Allan are planning their affair is that "We can never allow Betty or Pat to get hurt".
- Good Parents: Pat, who despite struggling with the revelation of his dissatisfied wife cheating on him (much less her murdering another parishioner), never wavers from his duties as a father and comforts his children about why their mother is away.
- Historical Beauty Update:
- Candy Montgomery was noted to be very attractive, but even her looks aren't up to the standards set by Elizabeth Olsen.
- Zig-zagged with Betty Gore, while she was noted to be the prettiest girl in her high school and no less attractive as an adult, she did dress and wear her hair in dowdy styles and put on some weight. This is in contrast to Lily Rabe who wears a simple pageboy and is stylish and slimmer.
- Historical Ugliness Update: Allan Gore was noted to be an average looking man with a fading hairline but Jesse Plemons inverts his good looks to portray Allan as a pudgy and frumpish businessman.
- Housewife: Candy is seen doing various home activities such as cooking and vacuum cleaning, and muses to Sherry at one point about how they're left tending their houses while their husbands go to work.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Betty when it comes to Pastor Ron Adams. Candy states that Betty isn't welcoming to Ron but as we can see he makes no move to ingratiate himself with the congregation, he looks down on the things they do (from singing a rock song in choir, homemade ornaments for the Christmas tree, and Pat using Peter Rabbit for a Sunday School puppet show) and Betty is merely voicing the discontent felt by her fellow churchgoers.
- Lie Detector: Allan is wired to a polygraph while the police are questioning him about Betty's murder. He denies murdering his wife and admits to the affair with Candy.
- Omnidisciplinary Lawyer: Averted. When Candy retains Don Crowder to represent her, Crowder makes note of the fact that as a personal injury lawyer, he's not that versed in criminal law, and as such he brings on Robert Udashen (who has more experience in that field) as co-counsel.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Sadly the Pomeroys, Betty's parents, have to see their daughter be buried.
- Parents as People: Explored with the young parents and couples of Wylie where Candy loves her children but wants something more than the domestic routine she settled into and makes a series of questionable choices, Allan loves his daughter but is dissatisfied with his marriage and sleeps with another wife from church, Pat is a devoted father who adores spending time with his children (more than most fathers of his age group then) but isn't attentive to his wife, and Betty who loves her family but struggles with mental health and isn't regarded as pleasant.
- Race Lift: Pastor Jackie Ponder in Real Life was noted as being not only a woman pastor in 1970s small-town Texas, but also African-American leading a congregation that included white people, she is instead portrayed by the European-American Elizabeth Marvel.
- Suburbia: The show is set in the Dallas suburb of Wylie, a place with big houses and lawns that's inhabited by families with husbands away at work by day and stay-at-home wives.
- Tagline: "Not every dream has a perfect ending."
- Two-Timing with the Bestie: Allan cheats on his wife Betty with her friend, Candy.
- What Does She See in Him?: Sherry wonders this out loud to Candy when the latter tells her she is considering an affair with Allan Gore.
