Ryan Murphy's Latest Series 'Love Story' Criticized as a Punishingly Boring Drama
Ryan Murphy, the creator behind hits like 'American Horror Story' and 'Glee', has turned his increasingly unsteady hand to the tale of America's privileged, cursed dynasty with 'Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette'. This nine-episode series, which lasts roughly as long as the golden couple's relationship did in real life, is described as punishingly boring and a tedious slog that even diehard fans will find difficult to endure.
The Kennedy Fascination: A US Royal Family That Fails to Captivate UK Audiences
For a UK audience, the Kennedys simply do not hold the fascination they have always held for Americans. Ever since patriarch Joe successfully manoeuvred his telegenic son John F Kennedy into politics, the political dynasty has been the United States' answer to the royal family. The minutiae of their privileged, cursed lives have been breathlessly chronicled in books by hagiographic biographers, tabloid articles seeking scandal, and everything in between. Over here, naturally, we have been less enthralled.
It might be necessary to clarify that John F Kennedy Jr is JFK's son, known as little John-John, who came most heartbreakingly to public attention on his third birthday as he saluted the coffin of his assassinated father. Carolyn Bessette was, briefly, his wife. They started dating in 1994, married in 1996, and died in 1999, along with her sister Lauren, when the light aircraft John was piloting crashed into the Atlantic off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
A Story Ripe for Drama That Falls Flat on Screen
You can see why the story, inspired by the book 'Once Upon a Time' and created by Connor Hines with Ryan Murphy as executive producer, was bound to be fed into the Murphy machine. There is class warfare, since John Jr was a god and Bessette was a feisty girl from the wrong side of the tracks. There is celebrity culture, with the pair being a media obsession from the moment they started dating after their eyes met across a crowded Amazon fundraiser. And there is glamour, with Bessette working for Calvin Klein and John trailing clouds of glory.
Their relationship was complicated by the pressures of fame, endless paparazzi intrusion, and allegedly Bessette's drug use and unwillingness to start a family. It should be enough to sustain a miniseries, but what emerges on screen is an endless, drab slog charting what feels like every moment, no matter how narratively pointless, of the couple's pre-relationship situations, courtship, and marriage.
Performances and Script That Add to the Tedium
Bessette is played by Sarah Pidgeon, managing to do a lot with very little script-wise. Kennedy is played by Paul Anthony Kelly, a model in his first major role, who may get the idea eventually. Add to this two truly painful performances by Naomi Watts as Jackie Onassis and Dree Hemingway as Darryl Hannah, and this is not a nine-hour story anyone could love, at least in this country.
There is an extended sequence of Bessette sending back different bouquets of red roses from John-John after newspaper reports that he is back with Hannah, which will send you cross-eyed with boredom. Lines like 'She's unlike anyone I've ever met' and 'I have worked too hard to watch you be sucked into this pervasive narrative of entitlement and recklessness that has plagued every member of this family' make you want to throw yourself into a canal.
Up close and shorn of any of Murphy's trademark razzle-dazzle, these elements are rendered as dull to watch as it is to hear about any couple you've never met and couldn't care less about. But we are a bagatelle to the Murphy market, so there will likely be no slowdown in production or quality checks introduced at the factory. Brace yourselves, as 'Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette' is on Disney+ from 13 February.
