Why Jessica Biel’s ‘Candy’ on Hulu Only Has 5 Episodes — ‘The Gravitron Inspired Us’ [Exclusive]
Jessica Biel’s new true crime drama, Candy, on Hulu only has five episodes, but viewers want more. It’s a bizarre story of a 1980s Texas housewife, Candy Montgomery (Jessica Biel), who felt she did everything right, but conformity pushed her to a breaking point. She took an ax to her friend and fellow churchgoer, Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey), but what happened after is more unsettling. Find out why the writers and producers decided to tell the true crime story of Candy in only five episodes.
‘Candy’ on Hulu episodes list
Candy premieres on Hulu Monday, May 9, with the release of only the first episode at 9 p.m. PT/midnight ET. The remaining four episodes drop every day following the premiere, with the finale dropping on Friday, May 13. See the complete list of Candy episodes here:
Candy Episode 1, “Friday the 13th,” — drops May 9 at 9 p.m. PT/ midnight ET
Candy Episode 2, “Happy Wife Happy Life,” — drops May 10 at 9 p.m. PT/ midnight ET
Candy Episode 3, “Overkill,” — drops May 11 at 9 p.m. PT/ midnight ET
Candy Episode 4, “Covergirl,” — drops May 12 at 9 p.m. PT/ midnight ET
Candy Episode 5, “The Fight,” — drops May 13 at 9 p.m. PT/ midnight ET
Why is ‘Candy’ on Hulu only five episodes long?
In an exclusive interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Executive Producer Michael Uppendahl explained why they chose to stick to only five episodes for Candy.
“We wanted to distill it to its most majestic form,” he began. “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.”
Uppendahl referenced a quote from film director Billy Wilder to help explain why they kept the series so short. “Let the audience add up two plus two, and they’ll love you forever.”
“I like a visceral approach like that,” Uppendahl referenced the quote. Language stories are beautiful and wonderful, too, but this was not one that would have been served by it.”
Creator and executive producer Nick Antosca also explained why he felt Candy was perfect for a short five-episode run.
“Each episode has a discreet vibe,” Antosca told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “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.”
The gravitron inspired ‘Candy’ on Hulu
One thing the producers and writers compared the story to frequently was the Gravitron, which is a portable amusement park ride found commonly at fairs. The ride has many other names — Starship 2000, Centrifuge, Alien Invasion, Flight to Mars — but it does the same thing no matter what it’s called. The Gravitron is a short ride that hits a maximum speed of roughly 24 RPM in 20 seconds by spinning its occupants around in a circle.
“I thought it was a bit of a bold move, but we talked a lot about the gravitron, the carnival ride — where they pin you up against the wall,” Uppendahl continued. “It’s a bit of a slow start, but then you’re up against the wall, they drop the floor out, and you can’t move. And then it’s over, and you slide down the wall, and they open the door, and it’s all done. And we thought this was a good format for this story. So basically, the gravitron inspired us.”
‘Candy’ drops five nights in a row on Hulu
Typically Hulu drops three episodes of an original series and then the remaining installments one at a time, weekly. However, someone at the streamer proposed something new for Candy — one episode drops every night for five days. Showbiz Cheat Sheet asked Uppendahl why the consecutive days format since Hulu doesn’t typically do that.
“I think our friends at Hulu came up with it for the very reason you’re saying — they’d never done it before,” he said. “This is five episodes, which is really handy. We all circled Friday the 13th in May because the opening episode takes place, and the event took place on a Friday, the 13th of June. And we all thought, ‘Well, let’s work that in.’ And originally, the thought was to drop them all on that day, and then someone over there said, ‘What about five nights?'”
