I resisted watching Love Story for a long time. The reaction of the Kennedy family and many other friends of John F Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy to the TV series put me off. The view of so many of their inner circle seemed to be that the portrayal of those two iconic figures and their love story was both sensationalist and inaccurate.
I was particularly affected by the heartfelt and well-written rebuke of the show by Daryl Hannah. She wrote an impassioned defense of her friendship with John and said the portrayal of her in the show bore nothing to the reality of her as a person or her connection with JFK Jr.
I totally respect that view. Too much liberty may have been taken in the way Ms Hannah and others were presented. And that criticism stands in all cases.
So I dragged myself to watch the show expecting to be very disappointed.
And the exact opposite happened. I loved it.
The quality of the script, the acting, the flow, and that ongoing drumbeat of imminent tragedy underscoring it all were compelling. Also, underlying the sequence of events is one of the best TV soundtracks I’ve heard in ages. For 90s music fans, it was a special moment of music nostalgia. For younger folks, a chance to discover some amazing songs.
Some of the press coverage made the show seem careless and frivolous in the way it handled this chapter of the Kennedys’ legacy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The screenwriters did a superb job in relaying the life story of JFK Jr. in a respectful and elegant manner.
I must admit to being a Kennedy enthusiast. I have read many books and articles, and watched countless documentaries and YouTube videos of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy. Undoubtably, both brothers were a rare breed of politician. Politicians with overarching values and an intellect that matched their towering ambition.
The story of John and Carolyn is one of the greatest “what-if” stories of all time
I also remember following JFK Jr. in the press in the 1990s. There was that sense of extraordinary promise about him and everything he did.
I bought the first edition of George magazine, and remember distinctly being impressed with the juxtaposition of the magazine’s serious political purpose and the glamour of Cindy Crawford posing cheekily as George Washington.
The story of John and Carolyn is one of the greatest “what-if” stories of all time. I did not doubt when he was alive, and I haven’t doubted since, that JFK Jr. would have become President. I have a nagging suspicion that such an outcome would have made our world better today.
The producers and filmmakers behind Love Story handle this precious story with the grandeur and subtlety it deserves. Both John and Carolyn were presented as normal human beings first and foremost. The urge to succumb to their iconic stature was avoided.
There’s been some talk that Carolyn was badly portrayed, that her own promise and life journey were devalued, but I must have missed that completely. I saw a very delicate and consciously careful portrayal of Carolyn as a beautiful, intelligent, fashionable and highly successful career woman.
The show overemphasised and spent a lot of time showing the deep troubles she had with the massive extent of fame she had to contend with as the wife of “the sexiest man alive.” The paparazzi camping daily outside their apartment in New York; fights with her husband caught with prying video cameras; every move outside their home captured and shared with the world.
By all accounts from friends and contemporaries, Carolyn actually struggled deeply with these issues. She may have thought she was ready for the challenge, as it couldn’t have escaped anyone how ludicrously famous JFK Jr. was at the time.
But being ready for something is quite different from the actual experience of it. One can imagine what fame is like till the cows come home, but no one knows what it’s really like until faced with the sight of an army of camera-flashing so-called “journalists” waiting outside your home every time you step out the door.
It was a great move for the producers to cast relatively unknown characters in this series. Any famous face could have blurred the viewer’s ability to imagine JFK Jr. and the other characters in motion. Sarah Pigeon, Paul Anthony Kelly and the whole cast do an outstanding job, and they should all be lauded for delivering such difficult yet highly nuanced performances.
And it all comes to a heart-stopping finale with the performance of Grace Gummer as Caroline Kennedy, as she confronts the news that her only sibling had died a tragic and achingly needless death.
Gummer delivers an acting masterclass, with deep subtlety, depth and grace
Gummer delivers the performance of a lifetime and one that must be crowned with countless Emmys and other awards. How can any actress channel the pain of a young woman dealing with the tragic loss of her younger brother, having grown in the shadow of a father’s life stolen by mindless violence and a mother who had only recently died at a relatively young age?
I was sure it was an impossible job. Yet Gummer delivers an acting masterclass, with deep subtlety, depth and grace.
You feel her pain pierce your TV screen and straight into your heart. A landmark performance that I am sure will propel her into a highly successful career.
Hats off from me to all involved in making this excellent series. It is hard to dramatise the life of legends and still humanise them. Yet this series succeeds in the way series like The Crown had succeeded before.
Sure, you know that a great deal is fictionalised. But what counts is whether the show gives you a strong hint of the era, the people, their struggles and how the world reacted to them in their time. Love Story does that and then some.
I alluded earlier to the negative reaction of real people portrayed in the series and the Kennedy family. I have huge respect for that. It’s a matter of great importance. The privacy of all, including famous people, is a right.
This is a debate worth having. Should series like The Crown and Love Story only happen if the actual people involved approve them? Who qualifies as a public person whose rightful scrutiny can include plays, TV dramas and series? Were JFK Jr. and Carolyn actually public figures?
I don’t have an answer to that. But what I know is that I watched this show ready to pounce on anything that I regarded as negative and sensationalist. What I saw was a warm and careful telling of a beautiful love story and good yet complex people. Like the rest of us.
Viewer reaction such as mine could perhaps give some comfort to those more closely involved in the lives of those portrayed in the work.
When all is said and done, this series shed a light on an important story and, in doing so, touched a chord with countless viewers. It is one of the most successful series in the age of digital television.
Most importantly, it caused a massive spike of interest in both JFK Jr. and Carolyn; there was a 9,100% increase in TikTok searches for both!
They may have died young, but this series is playing a real role in keeping their memory alive.
A life cut short three decades ago is resonating with a new generation that is reacting with love and deep fascination for John and Carolyn. That counts for a lot.