Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette TV Review – A dramatic retelling of the tragic true fairy tale romance

Plot: A limited series that explores the undeniable chemistry, whirlwind courtship, and high-profile marriage of one of the most iconic couples of the 20th century, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.

Review: Super-producer Ryan Murphy hit the zeitgeist hard when he expanded his American Horror Story anthology format to multiple other genres and focuses. From major media coverage in American Crime Story and American Sports Story to legendary rifts in Feud to serial killers in Monster and more, Murphy’s name recognition has launched audiences into deep-dive series chronicling some of the most infamous events of the twentieth century through today. In fact, we just reviewed yet another recent series from him, The Beauty, which is strikingly different from this one. The newest addition is Love Story, an anthology that explores the rise and tragic ends of famous couples. The first season focuses on the romance and marriage of America’s prince, John F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, which ended as publicly as it began. With a style and tone very different from those of previous anthologies produced by Ryan Murphy, Love Story is a well-acted and emotionally resonant look at the parts of John and Carolyn’s relationship the public did not get to see, and represents the least stylized and least pulpy project of any Ryan Murphy-produced series.

I have watched every Ryan Murphy-produced series to date and have enjoyed some far more than others. His recent success with his true crime projects often overshadows the fascinating true Hollywood stories he has shepherded to Netflix and FX, but I understand how some audiences may be worried that Love Story will follow in the sensationalized style of the Bill Clinton-centric Impeachment: American Crime Story or the melodramatic angle of the fashion designer biographic series, Halston. The Kennedy family is the closest thing the United States has to the fascination the world had with Princess Diana and the British Royal Family, and that serves as a key theme throughout this first season of Love Story. Having seen eight of the nine-episode series, I found Love Story to be a much more interesting look behind the Kennedy mystique than I was prepared for. The opening episode begins with the take-off of the fateful final flight that would result in the deaths of John and Carolyn, along with Carolyn’s sister, but it is presented respectfully and without any sort of tabloid or expose tone. In fact, what works for (and against) this series is that Love Story may be too respectful at times.

The early episodes of the series show how Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon) and John F. Kennedy Jr (Paul Kelly) met while she was working for Calvin Klein (Alessandro Nivola) and he had just broken up with Daryl Hannah (Dree Hemingway) and had failed the New York State bar exam for the second time. Under pressure from his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Naomi Watts), to enter into a relationship with a suitable woman, John was instantly smitten with Carolyn, and the two fell hard for each other. As their relationship deepens, the immense pressure of living under constant media scrutiny takes its toll on the couple, both behind the scenes and in the public eye. Both Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Kelly are impressive physical matches for playing Bessette and Kennedy, but both actors are up to the task of handling the dramatic burden of this story without becoming caricatures, and give us a reason to invest in this tragic story from the very beginning. With each successive episode, there is no doubt about the chemistry between Pidgeon and Kelly, and how effortlessly they make these two figures look. That also makes the burden of celebrity and the Kennedy legacy on both of them all the harder to watch as Carolyn struggles and John tries to help her without knowing how.

The historical context of Love Story is accentuated by dozens of needle drops of memorable hit songs from throughout the 1990s, some in succession, one after the other. The premiere episode alone has a soundtrack’s worth of music, with the soundtrack almost eclipsing the story itself. The supporting players include Naomi Watts (in her fourth Ryan Murphy project) giving a decent impression of Jackie O, Grace Gummer as John’s sister Caroline, Leila George as Kelly Klein, Sydney Lemmon as Lauren Bessette, and Erich Bergen as Anthony Radziwill. Calista Flockhart portrayed Lee Radziwill in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, which gives this series a companion feel to that excellent entry, but Love Story spends most of its time focused on John and Carolyn, with Pidgeon and Kelly often carrying the bulk of the heavy lifting. Whether they are acting opposite each other or amongst the ensemble, both young actors are excellent and up to the task. What sometimes detracts from the series’ momentum is the knowledge that everything is going to end tragically, and it feels inescapable, but the actors both make a concerted effort to keep their performances in the moment, which helps the series feel worth investing in as much as The Crown did for the Diana and Charles drama.

The first season of Love Story was created by Connor Hines and was based on the book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller, who wrote six of the nine episodes alongside Juli Weiner, who wrote two episodes, and D.V. DeVincentis and Kim Rosenstock, who each wrote one. Max Winkler directed the first episode, while the rest of the season was helmed by Jesse Peretz, Gillian Robespierre, Crystle Roberson Dorsey, and Anthony Hemingway. The series’s consistent storytelling and style embrace the wealth of the Kennedy clan and the pressure the paparazzi put on the young couple, with the penultimate episode a standout as everything between John and Carolyn comes to a head in the wake of Princess Diana’s public death. Almost the entire episode takes place in the couple’s apartment, where they go back and forth with their deepest fears and feelings. It is surely one of the best episodes of television this year and from the last few seasons.

Having not seen the season finale but fully prepared for where the story will be going, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette has proven to be a surprise in many ways. I did not expect a Ryan Murphy-produced project to be this conventional. While some who go in for the over-the-top and heavily stylized shows like Feud, American Crime Story, and Monster may be a bit let down by the straighforward style of Love Story, it works as a more engaging and respectful take on the tragedy of the young Kennedy couple. It may be a bit too reverential at times, but this is a good dramatic retelling that combines romance with historical accuracy. I am sure that audiences will connect with Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon who are surely going to become hot talents after this series hits the air.

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette premieres with three episodes on February 12th on FX.