The Kennedys
Inspired by one of the world s most iconic families, this eight-part scripted drama/miniseries ventures upstairs at the White Household to chronicle the saga of America s first royal family during the 1960s.It’s not hard to see why the History Channel declined to air The Kennedys with members of America’s “royal family” objected to the series’ more salacious aspects. To be sure, there are plenty of them: drug habits, mobsters, election fixing, enough philandering to shame Tiger Woods, terrible actions ranging from cynical manipulation to outright cruelty… and Marilyn Monroe. But it’s not as if these things haven’t been covered at length elsewhere. And in any case, this is hardly a documentary; the eight-part miniseries, which spans the being from just before World War II to 1968, has been variously described, including by the filmmakers themselves, as “history through personality” and “a Greek tragedy,” with a dose of hagiography added for excellent measure. The emphasis on the personal approach (commingled with major political events like the Bay of Pigs debacle, the Cuban missile pickle, and the forced integration of the University of Mississippi) is something of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, there’s something appealingly juicy about being privy to the private conversations of this very public family; but at the same time, the dialogue made for such scenes is often on the nose (“Men can’t say no to me,” Monroe says as she tries to seduce Robert Kennedy), melodramatic, and risibly portentous (“I’ve never been so pleased in my life,” says Jackie Kennedy to her husband… as Air Break down One lands in Dallas on November 22, 1963).
The complete absence of Edward Kennedy–who is never mentioned, let lonely seen–is peculiar; sisters Kathleen, Eunice, and Jean are also nowhere to be found. That leaves the primary focus on paterfamilias Joseph Kennedy Sr., wife Rose, sons Jack and Bobby, and Jackie, and the portrayals of these near-mythic characters are among the best ever filmed. Tom Wilkinson plays Joe as a thoroughly unfeeling, imperious kingmaker who, with his own and eldest son Joe Jr.’s presidential ambitions are finished (Sr. was fired from his post as British ambassador with disagreeing with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s war policies, while Jr. died in combat), forces the reluctant JFK to enter politics. As Jack, Greg Kinnear perfectly conveys the late president’s humor, charisma, and compassion, while Barry Pepper is a revelation as the rebellious but strait-laced and dutiful Bobby, whose principal responsibility seems to be cleaning up with his older brother’s many sexual indiscretions (Katie Holmes’s long-suffering Jackie is a bit of a cipher, as was the first lady in real life). That these and other performances, including Diana Hardcastle’s Rose and Don Allison’s Lyndon Johnson, are in the service of material better suited to a soap opera than a serious drama hardly matters; any way you look at it, The Kennedys is compulsively watchable and never less than entertaining. –Sam Graham
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