Writer and director Ryan Murphy, best known for “Glee” and “American Horror Story,” has released the first season of “Love Story,” once again choosing real people in order to make a profit. This time: lawyer John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) and publicist Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (Sarah Pidgeon).
Seeing how much he profited off of his other hits like his “Monster” series, which portrayed the stories of Lyle and Erik Menendez, Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein in their respective seasons, I’m not surprised by this.
The first few episodes are pretty light-hearted, with the exception of the very beginning, which foreshadows the horrible fate of the real JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette, who died in a plane crash in 1999, along with Carolyn’s sister Lauren Bessette (Sydney Lemmon).
Other than that, we can really see how Carolyn’s life went from this carefree, fun world, and turned into a stressful, intense one as her relationship with John went on.
She was getting promotions at work and was free. Then, she fell in love. I’m not saying it was bad that she fell in love, but her relationship took a toll on her.
I will say, I love how the show really portrayed it this way. It separated Carolyn from JFK Jr. It’s what Carolyn wanted. She didn’t want to be Mrs. Kennedy; she wanted to be her own person. The show portrayed her as herself.
And what an icon she was.
If there’s one thing I took out of this godforsaken show, it’s that Carolyn is both my role model and celebrity crush, same goes for Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn. I can’t tell if I want her or want to be her.
Both Kelly and Pidgeon were amazing as their characters. Both are relatively new to Hollywood, with only a few acting credits under each of their belts, but they did better than a lot of seasoned actors.
They both portrayed emotion so well, I was completely in awe.
A few things surprised me throughout the series about the story itself, including the portrayal of former First Lady Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy (Naomi Watts). To say I was shocked to see Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts on the screen, barely recognizable, is an understatement.
To be honest, the portrayal was a bit underwhelming. I get that it wasn’t her story, but she was the matriarch of her family. Her performance as Jackie O was great, but it should’ve been a lot more memorable than it was.
Another thing that was surprising was the portrayal of their deaths. Given how the first episode began, with the moments before their deaths, I was half-expecting the story to just end with their death scenes. It didn’t.
The last episode highlighted the pain of both JFK Jr’s sister, Caroline Kennedy (Grace Gummer), and Carolyn and Lauren’s mother, Ann Freeman (Constance Zimmer). Remember that Jackie had died earlier in the series, so we had to watch Caroline go through both losses.
If you know anything about the Kennedy family, you’re probably aware of the rumoured “Kennedy Curse,” which refers to the pattern of tragedies that have befallen the Kennedy family.
In 1969, even politician Ted Kennedy said that he wondered if there was a curse after surviving
Obviously, President John F Kennedy Sr. was assassinated, as was his brother, Robert Kennedy Sr. Multiple family members have died in plane crashes, including JFK Jr and Carolyn.
Most recently, journalist and author and Caroline’s daughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, died of cancer and 35 years old. The knowledge that Caroline just lost a child made the mourning scenes so much more impactful.
The series was called “Love Story,” so I’m not shocked that a lot of the relationship was romanticized for Murphy’s convenience. However, their relationship was nothing to romanticize.
For example, right before they died, it’s portrayed that their relationship was somewhat on the mend. In reality, there were rumors that JFK Jr was with another woman the night before their deaths.
One of the most problematic aspects of this whole show is that the Kennedy family was vocally against this. JFK’s grandson and politician, Jack Schlossberg has criticized Murphy’s depiction of his aunt and uncle.
“I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind and that’s a capital ‘F’ for fiction,” Schlossberg said.
If the show wasn’t based on a true story, it would’ve been perfection. But knowing that Murphy exploited yet another famiy who’s been through so much, and inaccurately, overshadows the story.
