Eye Candy is an American thriller television series which premiered on MTV on January 12, 2015. The series was developed by Christian Taylor, and is based on the 2004 novel of the same name by R. L. Stine. Eye Candy stars Victoria Justice as Lindy Sampson, a tech genius who goes on the hunt for a serial killer in New York while searching for her lost sister Sara. On February 11, 2014, Eye Candy was picked up for a 10 episode first season. Justice revealed on April 18, 2015, that the series had been cancelled.
Premise
Eye Candy centers on tech genius Lindy, a 22-year-old woman who is persuaded by her roommate, Sophia, to begin online dating. Unfortunately, she begins to suspect that one of her suitors might be a deadly cyber stalker. She teams up with her friends, a band of hackers, to solve the murders he committed while unleashing her own style of justice on the streets of New York City in an attempt to find her sister, Sara, who was kidnapped three years earlier by an unknown suspect.
Cast and characters
Main
Victoria Justice as Lindy Sampson, a brilliant 22-year-old hacker who dropped out of MIT after her sister was kidnapped and moved to New York City to look for her, and is set on finding the Flirtual killer.
Casey Deidrick as Detective Tommy Calligan, an officer at the NYPD who is working with Lindy and Ben's best friend in the series, and one of Lindy's love interests.
A pilot episode of Eye Candy was ordered on September 13, 2013, by MTV. The first and unaired pilot of Eye Candy, which starred Victoria Justice, Harvey Guillen, Justin Martin, Lilan Bowden, Nico Tortorella, and Olesya Rulin, was written by Emmy Grinwis and directed by Catherine Hardwicke. On February 11, 2014, it was announced that the series was picked up for a 10-episode first season with the first episode being reshot and all the roles being recast except for those of Justice and Guillen. On September 16, 2014, the cast was extended with Casey Deidrick, Kiersey Clemons and John Garet Stoker all becoming series regulars. Production began on September 15, 2014, and ended on December 20, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York City.
Reception
Eye Candy has received mixed reviews. Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly stated, "While Justice is a winning actress, she's miscast here and not helped by a story line that feels like one of those old USA TV movies that would have starred Shannen Doherty and Rob Estes." Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times said, "The prologue is well-handled, suspenseful and alarming, but much of what follows seems at least a little bit silly or confused." More positively, Adam Smith of the Boston Herald said, "With the suspenseful Eye Candy, we have a pretty good show, especially for teens who get a thrill out of being creeped out." The series' pilot episode holds a score of 54/100 on review aggregating website Metacritic.
