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Steven Seagal makes most of the fights in his movies appear effortless. Bad guy approaches, fists flailing, only to walk into the calm aikido master’s grip and limp away with a bloody nose and newly deformed limb. It’s all over in a flash, and afterward Seagal appears to have barely broken a sweat or changed his expression. The man himself will tell you it’s taken a lot more blood, sweat and tears than that to have forged the career he’s made for himself in nearly 40 movies over the past 24 years — starting with 1988’s Above the Law, reaching its […]

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 […]

By Stacey Harrison The epigrams that open each episode of The Kennedys have varied in their relevance and resonance. Sometimes they just obliquely apply to what you’re about to see, with some vague notion pertaining to fathers and sons, the quest for power, etc. But the one that opens Episode 6 is meant to stay with you. Ovid’s “Love is a kind of warfare” is displayed over a mushroom cloud, after which we immediately see Jack delivering a speech about the heightening Cuban Missile Crisis. To that end, this comes across as the most focused hour of The Kennedys, crosscutting […]

I know I started this trail of recaps/analyses intending to point out everything that would have made the real-life Kennedy clan revile The Kennedys and seek to get it quashed. But Episode 5 really doesn’t offer much of anything in that regard. For the most part, the family comes off principled, highly sympathetic, and dare I say noble. They champion the civil rights cause when it would have been far easier not to, deal with a family tragedy in the massive stroke suffered by Joe Sr., and generally try to become more complete human beings. There’s no hint of Jack’s […]

Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Episode 4 is chock-full of mobsters, drugs and the first hints of the Cuban Missile Crisis. And Frank Sinatra, played by a guy (Chris Diamantopoulos) who looks even less like Old Blue Eyes than Ray Liotta. Didn’t think that was possible. (Note: Major spoilers ahead for Episode 4 of The Kennedys.) — The first scene, set during the 1960 campaign, shows Joe being escorted by Sinatra to a meeting with Chicago mob kingpin Sam Giancana. Joe is trying to drum up support for Jack’s campaign, knowing that Giancana can deliver the union vote […]

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 […]

By Stacey Harrison Regardless of whatever the real story may be, The Kennedys miniseries will always be remembered as the show the real-life Kennedys didn’t want you to see. After History abruptly dropped the eight-part drama that up to then had been its most ambitious project to date, eyebrows were raised. The reason the network gave, that the series it had commissioned — and presumably read the script for — all of a sudden didn’t fit its brand, only raised suspicions. The prevailing wisdom said that the surviving Kennedy clan — namely Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver — leaned on […]