TV PICK OF THE WEEK
Based on actual events that took place in a small Texas town in 1980, this darkly compelling drama tells the story of Candy Montgomery, a middle-class wife and mother who brutally murdered her friend and neighbour Betty Gore.
Elizabeth Olsen plays Montgomery and it is an extraordinary performance. We first meet Candy as she and her husband Pat (Patrick Fugit) chat with friends at a church social. Candy is an active and well-liked member of the choir and among their close friends are fellow Methodists Allan and Betty Gore (Jesse Plemons and Lily Rabe).
Seemingly out of boredom with her humdrum domestic life, which is a whirlwind of housework, baking, school runs and church events, Candy decides she is going to begin an affair with Allan.
She confides in her beautician best friend Sherry (Krysten Ritter) whose advice to leave well alone she ignores and goes ahead with her plan. Candy is the kind of woman who gets what she wants. She and Allan play alongside each other on their church’s volleyball team and after a match one night, she propositions him.
Allan is confused and reluctant at first, but his marriage is going through one of its apparently frequent rough patches. Betty is anxious and prone to depression which affects her mood and makes her sometimes difficult to live with. Besides, he finds Candy’s interest in him flattering. So begins an affair that is very well organised by Candy – she books the motels and prepares lunch for them, which she brings in plastic containers, to be consumed before their assignation.
They agree on the rules – no-one must ever find out, they don’t want to cause any hurt or upset for Pat or Betty. And neither of them must become too involved. Needless to say, all those intentions eventually go by the wayside. Allan feels guilty, then Betty falls pregnant and they go on a church-sanctioned married couples retreat which brings them closer together. Allan ends the relationship with Candy, and Candy doesn’t take it very well...
Olsen is mesmerising in the central role – her Candy is chilling, calculating, manipulative and complex, whose motive for the killing still remains a mystery.