Candy

It's hard not to compare and contrast 'Candy' with 'Love and Death', they are about the same crime and were released within (essentially) the same year.

From what I have read, I believe Candy was focused more on the actual facts of the case and recreating history. In Love and Death, I believe it was more based on the emotional side of it.

Many will disagree, but I ate with Elizabeth Olsen, I found her strange portrayal of Candy amazing. The perfect amount of church lady and devil. Plastic and very real.

Jessica did a wonderful job, and this might be awful to say - who am I to judge anyone - the IRL Candy or Jessica freaking one of the prettiest women in the world Biel? But I found Jessica's intense life like portrayal made it almost hard to watch.

Both did a great job. Wish I could switch out some characters for others!

I watched this last year and thought it was good but after watching love and death which did a great job of really showing the human side and had a lot more emotion this doesn't seem like a good representation. In this version Candy seemed cold and calculating, in love and death you could see how the murder could be more impulsive and emotional, maybe it's to do with the writing and maybe it's to do with the actresses playing Candy, Elizabeth Olsen seemed much more well rounded and showed a human side that I think is more relatable and Jessica Beal's Candy seemed cold and narcissistic. It's pretty weird they did two versions of this story so close together, both are good but love and death was the winner for me.

There is an epidemic of streaming crime docudramas, they are inexpensive to make - a prewritten relatable narrative, a preexisting cadre of voyeurs and prebaked external tension. Often these preordained advantages breed laziness and produce sloppy television.

This, though, is a strong setup, introducing the key characters and quietly building Hitchcockian suspense towards the revelation of this heinous murder. The cast is strong and Jessica Biel is fabulous, leading the line as the eponymous character. Candy is superficially a suburban supermom, but also a passive-aggressive charred-martyr who courts adulation.

After one outing, Candy is entertaining and enjoyable, raising anticipation for the second instalment. The consecutive-day episode-delivery compromise is good, minimising the wait without the daunting one-day dump.

I was pleasantly surprised with this limited run series. The story was told purposely slow, which actually pulled you in. The acting by all accounts was excellent and the direction was very good.

Jessica Bill seems to have found her niche in playing "off-balanced" characters. She did a great job in the Sinner and even better in Candy. The rest of the cast were also a little off but the director was very good at not turning this into a comedy. The ending was a bit of a shocker.

As the opening credits state, this show is based on actual events. Usually I research the story while watching shows like this. Fortunately I did not make that same mistake this time and I believe I enjoyed the show a lot more as a result.

It's a quick binge watch. Enjoy.

First episode: wow very well made.

Biel is good, I like her here more than in 'Sinner' I must say, Melanie Lynskey had my heart since "Heavenly Creatures' and Pablo Schreiber surprised & convinced me in 'Lorelei'. Super cast so far.

I'd binge if they were all out.

(The 90s movie "Killing in a small town' is also recommendable btw!)

7 stars for now - could turn into 8 after Friday.

What I find confusing is a second mini series with Olsen as Candy coming out this year. Aren't there any good scripts anymore?