Lily Rabe To Star Alongside Jesse Plemons In HBO Max Series 'Love And Death'

Lily Rabe and Jesse Plemons are the latest stars to join the cast of the HBO Max series Love and Death. The addition of these brilliant blonde bombshells opens up a world of unsettling possibilities in the series that follows an infamous small-town Texas murder.

Deadline reported The Undoing and American Horror Story veteran Lily Rabe has joined the cast of Love and Death alongside Fargo's Jesse Plemons. The show follows two church-going couples, enjoying small-town family life in Texas until evil and jealousy take hold. The series is based on the true story of Texas housewife Candy Montgomery, who murdered her friend from church, Betty Gore, with an axe in 1980. Rabe will star as Betty Gore and play opposite of Elizabeth Olsen (Wandavision) who stars as Candy Montgomery. Plemons is set to play Allan Gore whereas Pat Montgomery will be portrayed by Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous).

Love and Death will be written and executive-produced by David E. Kelley and executive-produced by Nicole Kidman, the same duo that shattered HBO Max records with The Undoing. Homeland's Lesli Linka Glatter will direct the series that is based upon the book Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs and a collection of articles from Texas Monthly ("Love & Death In Silicon Prairie," Part I & II).

As a native Texan, I have full faith in these casting choices. Rabe is well-versed in horror after working on American Horror Story for 9 seasons so far with the 10th around the corner. Despite her innocent demeanor, Rabe can easily pull off characters that are deceptive and malicious. This notion of sweet yet sinful perfectly captures small-town evil in the south, especially with women. Plemons also has this innocent appeal with his light locks and baby face glare. No one can play a quiet madman quite like Plemons. If you've seen Black Mirror or Breaking Bad, then you know what I'm talking about. These two actors can perfectly balance a mixture of being both kind and cruel which will lead to really promising dramatic (and obviously disturbing) performances in this series.

Since there are elements of infidelity in the 1980 murder case, it will be nice to see this show through a female lens with Glatter behind the camera. I also suspect the characters to be multi-dimensional, especially given the religious undertones. Elisabeth Moss was recently on board to play Candy, but I bet Olsen will deliver one hell of a performance as a Christian housewife turned murderer. Her performance as an abused cult member in Martha Marcy May Marlene sets the tone for how I envision her as the subdued version of Candy Montgomery. However, her emotional range in WandaVision gets me excited about her breaking barriers and further exercising her talent. I really look forward to this series but also hope it is respectful, as much as a depiction of murder can be. After all, we are dealing with a true crime here.

Love and Death is set to premiere on HBO Max, but a release date has not been announced yet.