Find Out All About Hulu's Candy Limited Series, Including the Real-Life Inspiration Behind Jessica Biel's Character
‘Tis the season for true crime miniseries. If you’re a fan of the genre, well, your TV viewing schedule must be pretty full—you have a lot of options these days. But if your craving has yet to be satiated, there’s good news: Hulu has another one for you. Their latest miniseries, Candy, stars Jessica Biel and tells the true story of Candy Montgomery, a housewife in small-town Texas who in 1980 killed her friend Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey) by slashing her 41 times with an ax, but was later acquitted of murder. The series is “inspired by” the true events and over five episodes, attempts to explain what drove Montgomery to such violence and how she got away with it. Looking to know more about Candy before diving in? Read below for more details about Candy's release date, cast and more.
What is Candy on Hulu about?
Candy is inspired by a true life, grisly murder from the 1980s. On June 13, 1980, Texas housewife and upstanding member of the community Candy Montgomery brutally killed her friend Betty Gore with an ax in Gore’s home. Montgomery is presented as a disillusioned housewife, feeling trapped by her life, who enters into an affair with Allan Gore (portrayed in the series by PabloSchreiber). Montgomery was the last person to see Betty Gore alive, thus becoming a suspect and was eventually arrested and charged with the murder. Despite Gore having been slashed an estimated 41 times, Montgomery was eventually acquitted and let go. The five-episode series will not only show the events leading up to the murder, but also Montgomery’s trial in an attempt to make sense of the tragic event.
What is the Candy release date?
Billed as a “five-night event,” Hulu’s Candy will premiere on Monday, May 9 and drop a new episode each day until the finale on Friday, May 13. Watch each episode as it’s available or wait until May 13 to binge it all at once—the choice is yours.
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Is there a trailer for Candy?
Yes! It gives you a glimpse into Candy’s unraveling and the tension building in a small Texas town, as well as a chance to behold the wigs that await us. The hair on this show is wild!
How many episodes will Candy have?
The limited series consists of just five episodes, all premiering the same week on Hulu from Monday, May 9, through Friday, May 13. Executive producer Michael Uppendahl explained the decision to only have five episodes in an interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet: “We wanted to distill it to its most majestic form. I felt like it needed to really sing and have a real vitality to it. The compression of the amount of time that we have to tell, it really helped that because there are some elements of the mundanity of their existence that fueled the episode—the crime. But I didn’t want to dwell in it and linger on it.” Nick Antosca, co-creator (along with Robin Veith) and EP on the project explained further: “Each episode has a discreet vibe. It’s like a day in the life. Here’s the affair, and here’s the investigation. Here’s the trial. We felt there were five acts to the story.”
Who is in the cast of Candy?
The cast of Candy is full of familiar faces — even underneath those 1980’s costumes. Biel plays the increasingly bored and unhappy Texas housewife who has an affair with her friend’s husband only to later slash her friend with an ax 41 times. Biel previously played, to critical acclaim, a similarly rageful woman in the first season of The Sinner. You might also recognize Biel from her days as Mary Camden on the WB family drama Seventh Heaven. Biel has two children with her husband, musician and actor Justin Timberlake.
On the other end of the ax is Lynskey in a sweet bowl cut as Candy’s friend and eventual murder victim, Betty. Lynskey’s probably best known now for her standout turn as Shauna in Showtime’s creepy stranded-in-the-woods thriller Yellowjackets, but before that, you could see the New Zealand actress in films including Heavenly Creatures, Ever After, and Away We Go as well as additional TV shows like Two and a Half Men, Castle Rock, and Mrs. America.
Elsewhere in the series, you’ll find Orange is the New Black’s Schreiber as Beth’s husband and the man who has an affair with Candy, Allan. Candy’s husband Pat Montgomery is played by Timothy Simons, who you’ll recognize as Jonah on VEEP, or more recently from Station Eleven. Finally, Tony-award nominee Raúl Esparza plays Don Crowder, Candy’s defense attorney. Esparza has won acclaim for his various roles on Broadway, including the lead role in the 2006 revival of Company, and the Boy George musical Taboo, but you may also recognize him as that other lawyer he’s played — ADA Rafael Barba on Law & Order: SVU.
What is the show Candy based on?
There was a lot of information to mine for Hulu’s true crime series Candy. The creative team behind the show even hired Jim Atkinson and John Bloom, the journalists who literally wrote the book on Candy Montgomery’s story, Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs, as consulting producers. Much of the story is pulled from their book. But there was also a lot of information and documents from the actual case to pour over: In an interview with The List, Esparza notes that to prepare for his role as Montgomery’s defense attorney he had “trial transcripts and photographs of the crime scene, and we had interviews with the people who were involved and in attendance in the courtroom or at the police station.”
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