Well, despite the reported misgivings of the real-life subjects, The Kennedys did well for ReelzChannel, with 1.9 million people tuning in for its two-hour debut Sunday. It marked the highest number ever for the network in its five-year history.
I outlined some aspects of the first two episodes that probably didn’t sit well with the flesh-and-blood Kennedys. Personally, I was hoping for a little more action myself. JFK’s PT-109 adventure, for instance, would have been a great opportunity to add a more epic, dramatic feel. Instead, we’re stuck primarily with scenes set backroom conferences and family functions. But Episode 3 does get into JFK’s early presidency, and introduces the always-reliable (from an entertainment standpoint) J. Edgar Hoover, played with skeezy aplomb by Enrico Colanti.
Here’s what probably rubbed the family the wrong way in this hour:
(NOTE: Major spoilers ahead for Episode 3 of The Kennedys)
— Rose Kennedy basically calls Jackie a fat cow, saying the designer of her inaugural dress usually looks better on “a more slender woman.” The complex relationship between the two women is one of the episode’s prominent themes, with Rose later confiding in Jackie that she briefly left Joe after his infidelities (or rather his reputation for infidelities) went public. When Jackie asked why Rose went back, her answer was good old Catholic guilt. The church, her father told her, believes it is the woman’s responsibility to keep the family together, despite what the man does. By way of further explanation, she says that the men they’ve chosen to marry have “great gifts and great flaws.”
— We see the first real evidence of JFK’s philandering. This is as Jackie is trying to get him on the phone, and he’s too busy meeting another female of the species to answer. He later tells Bobby that it wasn’t even about the sex; he just couldn’t sleep because he had a heckuva lot on his mind. Well, gee, couldn’t he have just told Jackie that? She would have understood. Botched invasions of foreign countries have, I’m sure, driven many men into the arms of mistresses.
— Joe Kennedy doesn’t stop bossing around JFK just because he’s president, especially on the matter of appointing Bobby as Attorney General. Despite Jack and Bobby both going in to tell Dad that they don’t want Bobby to take the post, he manipulates them into getting his way.
— The faux-newsreel approach the movie takes in presenting the “ask not what your country can do for you” speech is silly and, frankly, a missed opportunity. We’ve seen this image in fuzzy color already. Do we really need to see it in fuzzy black and white? How cool would it have been to see it crystal clear, with the benefit of angles not available in stock footage?
— Bay of Pigs. No Kennedy is going to like to revisit that regrettable episode in history. It might help, though, that JFK is portrayed as being reluctant, at best, in giving his OK for the ill-fated attempt to oust Fidel Castro in Cuba. In the end, he gives in out of deference to his advisers whom he assumes know best.
— J. Edgar Hoover becomes the family’s first true adversary during the presidency. After a tense introduction to Bobby, in which the younger brother relishes the opportunity to show the FBI director who’s boss, Hoover immediately looks for ways to gain an advantage over his new whipper-snapper overlords. Shouldn’t be too hard, he reasons, because “their need for sexual conquest borders on addiction!” Well, Bobby is annoyingly squeaky clean, but Jack proves accommodating, hosting a late-night conquest on presidential grounds. A mob princess, no less. So now Hoover has his leverage.
Check back Wednesday night for a rundown of Episode 4.