‘Love & Death’ Review: Elizabeth Olsen Gets Lovely and Bloody in This New HBO Drama

Every once in a while, it seems like the creative gods join heads at the same time, which results in similar stories or even the same story being told multiple times very close to each other. We got the case of Deep Impact and Armageddon, and in some other cases, when we are dealing with the exact same story, it becomes quite an exercise in filmmaking to see how the same story can be approached from different angles. Love & Death, the new HBO drama, falls into the latter category, and the result is somewhat sketchy.

Love & Death is an HBO drama written by David E. Kelly and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter. The miniseries consists of seven episodes, and it is set to premiere on the HBO streaming service HBO Max. The miniseries stars Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemmons, Patrick Fugit, Lily Rabe, and Krysten Ritter. The miniseries tells the story of Candy Montgomery, a disillusioned housewife who looks for a new purpose in life and finds it by having an affair with one of her neighbors. The case ended up in murder and became quite famous during the 1980s.

Last year, Hulu released a similar show adapting the same case. The series’ name was Candy, and Jessica Biel played the role of Candy. It was a very good show, and it approached the story as more of a mystery that needed to be solved by the audience and the characters inside the story. Love & Death takes a different approach, which is nice, but at least for me, it is an approach that is less compelling and less entertaining, as the writing is on the wall, and you are just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Candy, the show was done in such a way that the motivations behind Candy becoming a murderer remained a secret during the first couple of episodes, and they became clearer and clearer as the story progressed. Candy showed the normalcy of these people’s lives first and then destroyed that illusion by making us see who these people really were. The power of the unveiling stays with you, making you think that almost everyone you know has secrets and can do things you could never imagine.

Love & Death drops that progression, revealing everything we need to know about these characters in the first episode. They are disillusioned with their lives, disappointed in their partners, and have no shame in getting into sketchy situations only to appease their deeper needs. It is quite 180º in contrast to how Candy approached the story. You could say it allows the characters, and especially the character of Candy, to be more unhinged from the get-go, which for Elizabeth Olsen is a blessing as it will get her some nominations, no doubt about it.

However, I wouldn’t say this approach is the best for the story. So, what is being told here, a story about how social norms and expectations can hurt and destroy a person’s life? That is what is being told in Candy. Here, it is something else. That lack of progression just tells us that our main character would always do something bad against someone else or herself. It certainly tells us that there is something dark within ourselves, but that is being told in almost every single story ever. There is really nothing here that makes the series stand out.

While Candy approaches the case as a mystery, Love & Death focuses more on the relationship between Candy and Allan Gore. This relationship is quite important for the story to work. It is the main source of conflict, of course. However, the relationship, how it begins, and how it ends feel very TV soap opera-like, which is strange as that is definitely not something that HBO boasts itself of doing. On the contrary, their entire brand is identified as not being normal television but something else. This looks and feels very much like a soap opera.

Lesli Link Glatter is certainly a veteran TV and film director, and she brings her expertise to the project, but it all feels very subdued and just standard fare. There are a couple of shots here and there worth mentioning, but nothing else. It all feels not cinematic enough to be categorized as “Prestige Television.” The problem is not only the visuals but also the pacing. The editing is quite strange in each episode, and the cuts don’t flow well into each other. Some minor scenes in each episode feel like total padding.

The acting, and Elizabeth Olsen’s performance, will give the press and the audience the most to talk about. Olsen is certainly a heavy talent; she doesn’t only have the looks but also the chops to make you believe almost everything. Almost is the right word here, as Olsen paints Candy as a very unhinged person who is about to explode at any minute. We are just watching the fuse consume itself. Olsen certainly does well at playing the real Candy and the persona she uses to interact with others, but the latter is not that convincing.

It might sound strange, but I believe that Jessica Biel did it so much better at playing both sides of Candy and transforming into that person. The costume and makeup department did a fantastic job of transforming Biel and the rest of the actors into real versions of these people who lived this situation firsthand. Love & Death doesn’t have much interest in making the characters look like their real-world counterparts, which is fine, but there is definitely something missing. It makes everything seem more Hollywood. Or, in other words, faker.

Love & Death might make for a good new interpretation of the events of this tragic case, but something is missing. The miniseries has an amazing cast and very talented people behind the cameras. However, the approach taken in the story feels dated and sometimes very boring. Having another angle on the events is nice, but this is the least compelling of the two we have had in the last couple of years. It is also a rare slip for HBO, which has been killing it recently. It will find its audience and be praised for being HBO and Olsen, but at least for me, it is the inferior version.

SCORE: 6/10