This review contains spoilers.
I didn’t want to fall in love with “Love Story.” I’ve had my fair share of issues with Ryan Murphy and his various TV shows about real people and tragedies over the past few years — most recently with “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” It’s hard to fictionalize stories that deal with real, sensitive issues and people.
Yet, from the second the first trailer dropped for his biographical drama on John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, I was hooked on the show’s passion and drama.
“Love Story” is a nine-episode Hulu series that, after an initial three-episode drop, was released weekly beginning Feb. 19. It follows the relationship between Kennedy and Bessette Kennedy from their first meeting until their deaths in a plane crash in 1999.
Leading actors Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly physically transformed for their roles, becoming uncanny Bessette Kennedy and Kennedy lookalikes. Their performances and chemistry anchor the show’s success. Kelly captures Kennedy’s charisma, making it easy to understand the public’s infatuation with him. Pidgeon does a spectacular job of displaying the mysterious, effortless chicness and emotional complexity of Bessette Kennedy, a woman the public knew very little about.
The show also excels at creating tone. It captures ’90s New York in a way that somehow makes me nostalgic for a time I wasn’t even around for. One key way it does this is from the consistent, flawless needle drops. From Lenny Kravitz’s “It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over” to Radiohead’s “Exit Music (For a Film),” the show’s musical moments provided constant buzz online and might be my favorite part of the entire series.
Episode one perfectly sets up the relationship, and was my favorite of the nine. “Pilot” builds up to the couple’s first date at Panna II Garden Indian Restaurant, a small hole-in-the-wall establishment on the Lower East Side covered in romantic rainbow string lights. It felt like I was interrupting an intimate date between the two, getting to be a fly on the wall and watching the early sparks of this great love. It was thrilling, nerve-racking, flirty and so addicting. I find myself going back and rewatching that first date scene again and again.
It’s no surprise to me that the public has been equally obsessed with “Love Story.” For a show to be popular these days is one thing, but for it to create such an impact in music, fashion and culture is a true sign of viral success. I can’t talk about “Love Story” without mentioning the craze over Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s fashion. Viewers have been flocking to build their Bessette Kennedy-style closets and purchase her signature tortoiseshell headbands.
Of course, the show didn’t get everything right, and certainly left important elements out. Daryl Hannah’s portrayal on the show painted her in an abysmal light, with Hannah even writing a piece in The New York Times responding to her portrayal played by Dree Hemingway. Also, there was no touch on Kennedy’s rumored infidelity leading up to the couple’s deaths.
But by the time the finale aired last week, I was simultaneously excited and nervous for how the series would handle its touchiest subject — the plane crash. In my opinion, the final episode was a beautiful tribute, with stellar performances from Grace Gummer, who plays Caroline Kennedy, and Constance Zimmer, who plays Bessette Kennedy’s mother, Ann Messina Freeman. I was a puddle of tears by the time the credits rolled.
While I find myself a little guilty for enjoying this art that has been publicly criticized by John F. Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, at the end of the day, Bessette Kennedy and Kennedy were forced to become incredibly public figures that the entire nation had its eyes on.
I think this show helps to honor them and their love for each other. I’m very curious to see the direction Murphy takes his “Love Story” series and which great love will be the next to take his limited series spotlight. But, I wonder if he could do this with the advice or guidance of those whose story he’s choosing to tell.
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