Love & Death

Three episodes in, and I am hooked on the show. I will certainly keep watching.

Elizabeth Olsen is just delightful and within this particular role she plays a wide range of emotions. This is her best acting work of her career.

The supporting characters are also outstanding. Krysten Ritter steals every scene she's in and Lilly Rabe plays so well perhaps one of the most dislikable female characters ever written, Betty. Neurotic is an understatement, and her intense neuroses undermines her marriage.

Candy (Liz Olsen), is charismatic and socially confident, a true pillar of womanhood within her social circles. Incredibly friendly, even flirty, and nearly impossible not to like. She seemingly has everything, but she wants more. She seeks intimacy, a connection, something beyond marriage that will fill her heart. But there's trouble brewing in paradise because someone she loves "shushes" her and her emotional slide begins.

First off, I am a bit impressed and encouraged by television offerings lately. ...Well okay, two or three series come immediately to mind.

Love & Death is one of them.

At first, my husband and I weren't too interested in watching this perhaps because neither of us knew much about the case it is based on. After seeing it pop up as a choice a few times, however, we figured 'what the heck', and began watching. While parts of Episode 1 actually felt a bit "icky" (for lack of a better term), I am so glad we stuck with it, and by the next day, I couldn't wait to get home in order to to pick up where we had left off at episode three.

To begin, the soundtrack at least for the first half or more of the series, is a MASTERFUL collection of tunes from the 70's and 80's, and which work perfectly to add to the feeling that you are watching this dark series unfold firsthand. In fact, IMO, the only thing within Love & Death that rivals how excellent the music is for most of the first few episodes, is how exceptional Elizabeth Olsen is in her riveting portrayal of Candy Montgomery. That is not to say that rest of the cast's acting was not top-notch or that the rest of the series is not good, it is just difficult not to notice how much Elizabeth Olsen stands far and above here. This Elizabeth Olsen is tiers from the one you may have seen in anything else. To say her range is incredible, would be an understatement. Not too far behind in accolades, should be Lily Rabe who it was nice to see again, and who also wonderfully, convincingly, and definingly portrays the role of Betty Gore. Jesse Plemons as a love interest is the only casting choice I found a bit problematic.

In as far as the story, it unfolds ... engagingly. What's funny (strange), not funny (haha), is that while the episodes are an hour long, each felt much longer. This normally happens when something isn't paced well or isn't interesting enough to keep one's full attention, but neither was the case here. The series, which revolves around what occured before and after a certain true-life incident, is both compelling and flows well.

A recommended watch.

7.4 / 10, but a 7 just seemed too low.

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Encouraged by reviews here which mentioned the Hulu version, we thought: "GREAT! Something BETTER than Love & Death?!? Let's see it!" Well ... don't fall for the hype. It was very nonlinear, and quite dull, both in color and story progression.

I think this program would have been good no matter who played the starring role. Based on a true story, great acting, directing, cinematography, and music. I loved the music.

But I agree with other reviewers here at IMDB, I can never take my eyes off the screen when Elizabeth Olsen is on. I've only seen her in Avenger movies, Wandavision, and now this. She even plays a bad person in this. But still, she is gorgeous and a great actress. She has star power.

I binge watched all the episodes from beginning to end. I was riveted. I don't see how it could have been done any better.

10 out of 10 for me.

Based on the true story of '1980 Axe Murder Case' of Betty Gore, Love & Death is totally driven by Olsen's riveting performance.

A second adaptation of the incident (following Hulu's Candy starring Jessica Biel), Love & Death felt a bit overstretched with 7 episodes, instead 5 episodes seemed enough to cover the whole story of the incident that took place on that fateful Friday.

Refraining from the fact that whether the storytelling was apt or we can sympathize with the culprit for the heinous act she did, Love & Death is still an intriguing exposure of a human psyche and what it deals with, directed in a docu-series style with an amazing performance by Elizabeth Olsen.

My Rating : 7.5/10.

10 thousand times better than Wicker Tree that I just finished on starz avoid that movie! Anyway this is really good I even watched Candy on Hulu I'm pretty sure that was last year so this is similar I'd say Love & Death is even better. Elizabeth Olsen is most known in the marvel universe and I very much enjoy her in Ingrid Goes West. Been meaning to watch this mini series a couple months I just kept having health complications, lately I've finally felt amazing this is amazing too all around with directing, astonishing acting and intriguing throughout. On top of everything else this great mini series about Candy, affairs and crimes is nominated for a couple Emmy's, I love catching up on worthy nominees.