By Stacey Harrison
In the final two episodes of The Kennedys, what has been suspected all along becomes readily apparent — the series has simply bitten off more than eight hours of commercial television can chew. In dealing with the JFK assassination, Episode 7 also tries to cram in about 15 minutes of Marilyn Monroe, a subject that could be its own miniseries (one I sure as hell would watch) along with some boilerplate setup for how Lee Harvey Oswald spent his day in Dallas. Then in the final episode, the script wallows in Bobby’s grief and guilt over his brother’s death, at least until it decides to all of a sudden fast-forward five years to his tragic presidential campaign. At least they didn’t try to shoehorn in any Sirhan Sirhan business.
Even though they feel a bit rushed, Episodes 7 and 8 still contain plenty of memorable scenes, showcasing the strengths of Katie Holmes as Jackie (she got better as the series progressed), and Barry Pepper as Bobby. Pepper manages to wrest control over the series after Tom Wilkinson and Greg Kinnear exited stage left — no easy task. His portrayal of Bobby comes off as the series’ most consistent characterization, although the last couple episodes seem committed to puncturing his warrior Boy Scout image.
But even though the characters were made out to be the victims of tragedy, there were plenty of unflattering, uncomfortable subplots that would have left the real-life family reeling. And that’s without zero mention of Teddy Kennedy whatsoever.
(Note: Major spoilers ahead for Episodes 7 & 8 of The Kennedys.)
— Marilyn apparently had her claws not just in Jack, but in Bobby as well. In fact, we never see Marilyn (Charlotte Sullivan) with the president. Instead there’s just Bobby trying to fend off her advances and stifle his own latent libido. Shouldn’t say latent, I guess. The man did have 11 children. But while Jack is prone to grand pronouncements of eternal love during moments of passion, the Hollywood actress takes him at his hot-and-bothered word that he’s going to leave Jackie and be with her. Jack entreats Bobby, sheepishly, to quell the situation, having his brother pay a visit to Marilyn’s home to tell her the brutal truth. Not long after, Bobby’s taking his family out for a leisurely drive when he hears over the radio that the starlet has killed herself. And the not-so-subtle implication is that it’s all because of the heartbreak she felt over Jack.
— The story also makes clear that Bobby understood what his brother saw in Marilyn, having him barely able to resist her flirtation at a Malibu party and subsequent invitation to come into her home and help her build a fire … naked. What’s funny, though, is the actors’ portrayals make it almost seem that Bobby — who comes off as aggressive and self-righteous — would be the one having the affair with the world’s most desirable woman. Jack is the soft-spoken one, quick to disarm people with humor, but who hides a dark, tortured soul. We finally get to see a bit of what might have been hiding under Bobby’s demeanor all along.
— His near-dalliance with Marilyn, though, isn’t nearly as unsettling as his relationship with Jackie, which takes a strange turn after Jack is killed. First, Bobby feels enormous guilt, assuming that all of the enemies he made in organized crime and other high-powered areas must have led to the assassination. Then, he becomes obsessed with protecting and providing for Jackie and the children. At times, the two seem to be a little too close, as if Bobby is taking the Bible’s definition of becoming his brother’s keeper to its carnal extreme. There are those who believe in a Jackie-Bobby affair, but seeing it portrayed — even if it’s just hinted at — makes the skin crawl a bit.
— I’ll admit, I knew nothing about Jack and Jackie’s baby Patrick, who died two days after being born. The series handles the topic delicately but, again, at a pace that’s a bit swift for much dramatic impact. Storywise, it mainly serves to bring husband and wife closer together, and it leads to Jack promising to be a better husband. Jackie believes him (the women in this series tend to believe the men, no matter what), and at the time of the assassination they seemed to be in a good place in their relationship.
— Rose refuses to let Joe become resigned to his fate. When the old man slacks off in his rehabilitation efforts, she does more than just offer kind encouragement. “Your behavior is an embarrassment!” she says, reminding him of his “Kennedys don’t cry” mantra they imparted to their children. Eventually you see it comes from a place of love, but there’s also always a hint of revenge involved, that the long-suffering wife is enjoying a bit of her husband’s karmic comeuppance.
— With all the talk over Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver trying to get the series quashed, there’s been surprisingly little heard from Ethel Kennedy. As Bobby’s widow, she’s the only major player portrayed in the series who is still alive. Her character, played gamely by Kristin Booth, is usually portrayed as a put-upon but doting wife, whose inferiority complex help makes her a perennial outsider to the Kennedy family. Even Bobby, who obviously loved her, isn’t immune from the occasional soul-crushing retort during an argument. (“After all this time, I thought you understood what it meant to be a Kennedy.”) She replies the only way she can, “I gave you 11 children.” Translation: Is it ever enough? Bobby realizes his mistake and apologizes, but only after he does what he was going to do anyway, despite how it made his wife feel. Forty-three years after the fact, you have to think Ethel would have made peace with her life with Bobby, and taken comfort in her legacy. Seeing it portrayed like this couldn’t have been pleasant.
So, in the end, should the Kennedys have hated The Kennedys? It certainly wasn’t as lurid as early reports led people to believe, and there seems to be little included that doesn’t have some historical basis. A common refrain I’ve heard is that there isn’t anything portrayed that everyone doesn’t already know anyway. Point taken, but knowing something is true, intellectually, is different than seeing it depicted in real time. For instance, it’s widely circulated that Walt Disney hated unions (feeling they were a tool of communists), and some say he was an unabashed racist, but knowing that and seeing an actor (Edward Norton, let’s say) saying and doing those things is a different matter. Imagine if you went to a theater and saw all your dark family secrets that everyone knew but never talked about splashed all over the screen. True, the Kennedys are public people, but they are people. So while I don’t agree with their decision to use their influence to make trouble for the series, I do understand the inclination.
In the end, however, their protests, though quiet and behind the scenes, managed to achieve the same goal as the more outspoken protests do: They brought more attention to the project than it probably otherwise would have had. Yes, airing on History most assuredly would have brought on larger ratings, but the series most likely would have made a decent splash then been quickly forgotten. But ReelzChannel made it an event, using The Kennedys as its introduction to the world at large. Time will tell how the series is regarded by posterity, but as someone who is in the business that is often called “the first draft of history,” I’m sure glad the opportunity to weigh in was not dashed.
After all, as the series so relentlessly points out, the Kennedys have been through worse.
Photo: Credit: History Television
