You can’t spell “prestige TV” without “Jesse Plemons” (and it’s also becoming increasingly difficult to spell “prestige movie” without “Jesse Plemons”), so HBO Max has chosen to surrender to the current by casting none other than Jesse Plemons in upcoming original series Love And Death. The show comes from David E. Kelly, who is producing and writing, and it will also star Elizabeth Olsen. The official logline, which is extremely snappy, says Love And Death is about “two church going couples, enjoying small town family life in Texas, until somebody picks up an axe.” That’s the kind of axe that someone would use to chop down a tree—or, more relevantly, kill a person—and not an axe like a cool electric guitar, but that would also make for a very exciting TV premise.
The show will be based on John Bloom’s Evidence Of Love: A True Story Of Passion And Death In The Suburbs, which means it’s based on a true story, so any character or plot details (beyond someone picking up an axe) run the risk of spoiling what happens in the series. So maybe don’t Google these names if you want to go in fresh, but Plemons is playing someone named Allan Gore and Olsen is playing someone named Candy Montgomery. That’s all you’re going to get. Don’t look up these people unless you want to potentially ruin the show.
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“… enjoying small town family life in Texas, until Jesse Plemons picks up an axe.”Because we all know it’s going to be him, right?
I’d pick up an axe if I peed lemons.
If it’s the true crime story I’m thinking of, it’s one of the wives who kills the other with an axe. Spoilers?
You never know, he was great as the completely befuddled nice guy husband in Fargo.
That’s true – it was his (real-life) wife who picked up the proverbial axe that season.
That dead eyed blurst Opie motherfucker.
Todd is going to apologetically have to correct you.
I see someone snuck in before me. Well, it’s the CancerAIDS for me…
Sounds pretty interesting, but I’m still bummed about Sorry for Your Lost not getting renewed. That was a terrific show.
It’s “Sorry for Your Loss”. I watched it all in anonymous mode to spite Facebook. I’m not too bummed about it only getting two seasons.
I mean, he was spot-on as Meth Damon, but has he really been so great in everything else as to deserve how much work he gets? It ain’t because he’s purty.
I’m not sure you’re allowed to ask this.
Why? Is he going to dissolve me in a barrel of acid?…is he?
Yes, he deserves the work he gets and more.
He looks like Juila Stiles and acts about as well. Which is to say: fine but not transcendent. I don’t know where we get the “next great actor of his generation” thing. He’s okay. Maybe I’m missing something?
He’s engaged to Kirsten Dunst, whom I think can have her pick of men, so maybe we aren’t the best judge of that.
He was great in Fargo, Judas and the Black Messiah, and incredible in Game Night. He’s affable and good at his job so it makes sense that he keeps getting work. Besides he only really starred in one movie so far.
Also Friday Night Lights and The Irishman. Dude’s legit.
Lance is pretty damn great in everything he does.
Uh, have you seen Battleship? Acting masterclass.
Have we not learned our lesson about David E Kelly HBO shows yet? The first episode will be very well-acted, stylish and intriguing, a few episodes in we’ll be hoping for the best but less and less sure this is going anywhere, then it just completely runs out of steam.
Also, have we not learned that it’s David E. Kelley?
I’ll apologize for that if he apologizes for The Undoing and the second season of Big Little Lies.
And the increasingly frustrating Big Sky, its ridiculous twists, and the endless torture of its two female leads?
I dunno – The Undoing ended in a (SPOILERS) helicopter and car chase with a fully off-the-deep-end Hugh Grant manically signing children’s songs and ranting about the best fried clams. That’s a good amount of steam!
ok but if there’s good jackets i’m in.
THE mary pickford???
This is exactly what I came here to say. I’m no longer watching David E. Kelley shows on spec. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The Undoing and the second season of Big Little Lies were horrible, and the blame falls squarely on the feet of the writing first and foremost. Both shows needed much stronger scripts and a better sense of what they were trying to accomplish. David E. Kelley has shown, time and again, that he is incapable of delivering a coherent arc across 6-8 episodes. The only way I’m getting into this series is if the show wraps up to near-universal acclaim. I’m not getting suckered in by reviews of the first 2-3 episodes that praise the show’s slick styling or atmospheric qualities or marquee cast only to be utterly let down by the baggy writing and lazy plotting in later episodes. Nope. Not gonna do it.
Unless this is a remake of the Woody Allen/Diane Keaton Napoleonic Russia comedy, I’m not interested.
i’ve just read an amazon book review about this incident….urgh, bleak.
John Bloom, as in Joe Bob Briggs?
I like all three of those individuals! Color me tentatively intrigued!
Hulu is also doing a version of this with Elizabeth Moss. As much as I love both Liz’s, I feel like Moss will be a better Candy.