Don't take candy from strangers.
Candy is a Hulu crime drama series with a release date of May 9, 2022. The five-episode series stars Jessica Biel, Melanie Lynskey, Pablo Schreiber, and Raúl Esparza.
Candy tells the story of Texas suburbanite Candy Montgomery (played by Biel), who was accused of the brutal murder of her friend Betty Gore (Lynskey) on June 13th, 1980.
See also 2023's Love & Death, about the same story.
Tropes present in this series
- '60s Hair: While the action runs from the late 70s, Elaine's teased bob and Betty's mother's own bob show the influence of bouffant hairdos from the 60s bouffants. Older pictures of Betty and Candy show them with 60s hairstyles as well (Betty's simple but poufy pageboy and Candy's longer hair).
- '70s Hair: The action starts in 1978. Betty sports a wedge cut, the men have sideburns and full hair, Candy sports the then-trendy tight perm, and a parishioner at church wears an Afro.
- A Deadly Affair: Candy begins an affair with her friend Betty's husband Allan. The affair ends in Betty's brutal murder after an altercation after Betty confronted her.
- Agony of the Feet: The fight with Betty leaves Candy with a cut on her toe, in addition to one on her head. Plus her inability to wield the ax safely leaves her feet all bruised up, forcing her to exchange her flip-flops for sneakers.
- Animated Credits Opening: The sequence features things falling apart: dominoes falling, the last one the 'l' in Jessica Biel's name; the thread going through a sewing machine needle becomes the cutting guide to cut apart a female figure; and the lines in a measuring cup falling.
- Awful Wedded Life: A few marriages are like this.
- Candy and Pat. He prefers a monotonous time at home but fails to give Candy proper attention; she wants to have more fun and finds their sex life wanting. At the end, after patiently supporting her, he is fed up when he learns she has had more than one affair.
- Betty and Allan. She is needy and clingy (due to her depression) and almost never leaves the house while he wants to go out and about in his social life and at work.
- Many of the couples at their church; some of whom have attended Marriage Encounter to help improve their relationships and many of the women are sex-starved. At the end when it's implied Candy is sleeping with another friend's husband, a few of the church women give side-eyes to their husbands.
- The Cameo:
- Jason Ritter (Melanie Lynskey's husband) appears briefly as Sheriff Deputy Denny Reese.
- Justin Timberlake (Jessica Biel's husband) appears in the last two episodes as Deffenbaugh, the sheriff deputy who gets the call when the neighbors discover what has happened. His role is
uncredited.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Given this series is set in pre-Reagan Texas, it runs into this trope.
- The scandal over the pastor getting divorced from her husband, with Candy's friend Sherry Cleckler hissing that "it never happened here".
- Elaine monitoring and controlling young Christina's food intake because she'll "thank me when you are older".
- Betty's strict, even hard, demeanor with children (like foster kid Davey and her students) was standard when she was growing up (in the 1950s) but by the 1970s, it was falling out of favor.
- The lack of understanding around mental health, especially for women and mothers, like Betty being mocked or dismissed as "needy" when she is depressed and lonely.
- Destroy the Evidence: The sheriff and deputies comment on the "half-assed" clean-up job the murderer did, leaving a clear bloody footprint on the floor and bloody fingerprints on a refrigerator handle, and then taking a shower, leaving the bathmat covered in blood. Played straight when Candy chops up the rubber sandals she wore to Betty's house and throws them away.
- Emasculated Cuckold: Pat is snooping through his wife Candy's belongings and finds a stack of love letters and cards he had sent to her in the past... and a card from neighbor Allan, alluding to his secret encounters with Candy. This clues in Pat about Candy's infidelity. When she comes home, he finds him sitting in bed... with flowers and a card for her. In his testimony during her trial for murder, he blames himself for her affair. But when he learns that Candy had another affair after sleeping with Allan, he is not OK with it.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: The story starts out on 1978, with Candy's hair in short, tight permed curls. By the time the case goes to trial in 1980, the perm is gone, and her hair is about chin-length, indicating the passage of time.
- Fan Disservice: The first episode gives us a shot of a naked Candy, played by the gorgeous Jessica Biel, with fairly generous shots of her from the back. Except it's while she's scrubbing off blood and getting rid of the evidence from her brutal murder of Betty.
- Fashion Dissonance: Unlike most periods, the costumes scream "1970s Fashion" in all its garish yet dull, polyester-covered glory. Some of the hairstyles and clothing are enough to be considered Beauty Inversion for their leading stars of attractive actors, with even Ms. Fanservice Jessica Biel appearing dowdy in Peggy Hill-style glasses and a tight perm resembling a Chia Pet.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Before the church service, Betty comes up to a group of women to propose a children's choir but none of them are very enthusiastic. Candy appeases her with a "We'll think about it." After Betty walks off, one says out loud, "Ugh. Sweet Betty of Perpetual Distress". When Candy calls her out about it, she's all, "What? I said she was sweet," but can't keep a straight face.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Played straight in the first few episodes, where viewers are shown Betty's bloody limbs lying still, but we don't get a good view of her body. Averted in episode 5, where Candy testifies and the events are dramatized. Betty attacks Candy with the ax, they struggle for the ax, and finally, Candy strikes Betty multiple times. Plenty of shots of Betty's mutilated body appear.
- Jaded Washout: Betty, as in Real Life and according to Betty's father, she was the prettiest and most popular girl in her rural Midwestern high school and was noted to be something of a success due to heading to university and becoming a teacher along with marrying a successful businessman like Allan. In Wylie, Betty is regarded as a depressed and gloomy frumpy housewife.
- Protagonist Title: The series's title is the same as that of the main character's first name.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Betty's father to Allan, where the older man tells his son-in-law that Betty was a wonderful young woman who was beautiful and well-educated and could have had her pick of men but she chose Allan.
- Refuge in Audacity: The prosecutors and the deputies are discussing Candy's likely strategy, figuring she will either plead guilty or plead not guilty, in which case the evidence is enough to convict her. One deputy brings up that she could claim self-defense but they dismiss the possibility as too far-fetched. To their surprise, she does exactly that.
- Stern Teacher: Betty was this, giving her whole class detention after a few students egged her house, she even extended it at home to her foster son Davey.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Brought up by the deputies when they bring up that they learned how to use an ax safely while they were Boy Scouts. Candy does not have the skill or the strength to use the ax safely and ends up leaving herself with nasty bruises on her legs and feet.
- Betty learns that her inflexible, stern attitude and methods with children don't stick, not even in suburban Texas.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Per the sheriff deputies, Betty Gore was struck with the ax 41 times total, 28 times on the head alone.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Pat and Candy take the kids to see The Empire Strikes Back. Afterwards, Candy sees her daughter and Betty's play-act Luke Skywalker getting his hand cut off, and has to run between two cars to throw up.
- Weight Woe: Betty learns she is pregnant with her second child and stresses out out about not having lost the weight she gained when having her first baby. She also calls herself a "tub of lard".
- Wham Line: In Episode 3, "Overkill", Allan's response to Candy's questions about the marriage retreat he attended with his wife, Betty:The only affair that came out in Marriage Encounter was Betty's.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Don Crowder, Candy's attorney, goes on to run for Governor of Texas in 1986. Allan eventually married Elaine. Candy moved out of state, changed her name and works as a mental health therapist. note
- Workout Fanservice:
- Candy is asked to stop by the sheriff's office for questioning about Betty's murder. Afterwards, she stops by a lawyer's office and walks in on him on the floor, shirtless and doing sit-ups. On a second visit, she catches him shirtless again, under a tanning lamp.
- While playing volleyball at the church, Candy checks out how the men look in their tight shirts and short shorts, especially her pastor's hunky and muscular boyfriend and Allan.
- Candy and some of the women don't do so shabby, especially when Candy wears short shorts and halter tops that showcase her long and lean toned figure.
