The Love Story of JFK Jr. & Carolyn is The Crown USA (review)
The new Ryan Murphy saga is a fascinating romantic chronicle, a portrait of America in the 1990s in which two soulmates tried to love each other.
The prolific creator releases a new series almost every month! After season 2 of Monster dedicated to Ed Gein (last October), the very flashy All’s Fair (in November), then the dark farce The Beauty (in January), Ryan Murphy returns this February with Love Story.
This brand new saga was originally supposed to be called American Love Story, echoing its previous anthologies (American Horror Story, American Crime Story, American Sport Story). Except this time, Murphy is “only” a producer. He didn’t create this romance around John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. Jr. He didn’t write anything. Neither achieved. And it is true that the “Murphy style” is largely absent: the series rather exudes tenderness and kindness. Love Story is neither trashy, nor flashy, nor particularly glamorous. It’s a beautiful, simple chronicle of America in the 1990s, fascinated by the story of John and Carolyn.
A fairy tale which – we know – will end tragically in 1999. But the creator and screenwriter, Connor Hines (relatively new in the profession), prefers to go back in time to tell the meeting of Carolyn and JFK Jr. in the summer of 1992. He, JFK’s son – the little boy who hid under the Oval Office in the 1960s and saluted his father’s coffin, forever illustrating our history books – is now one of the most prominent bachelors in the country. A few months earlier, he was even named “Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine. A public figure clinging to his position as assistant prosecutor, John experiences a complicated relationship with actress Daryl Hannah, glamorous star of Splash and female icon of her time. Until the day the Kennedy heir crosses paths with a saleswoman from Calvin Klein.
Carolyn is not famous at all. She could almost pass for a commoner in the world of the Kennedys. But she imposes an elegant naturalness, a cool and soothing presence. A tall blonde with immense self-confidence and a real gift for fashion, which allows her to manage VIP clients. When John meets her eyes, it’s love at first sight: the start of an epic, sincere love story that will mark his decade.
The series is seen as a vast novel brimming with sensuality, highlighting the intensity of their romance and the way it can shatter everything along the way. Boosted by a desire to explore emotional nuances rather than limiting itself to the chronology of events, Love Story seeks to tell the intimate story, a bit like The Crown did so well with the British royal family. The Kennedys are certainly the closest thing to them in America, and the parallel becomes obvious. We think of the episodes of seasons 4 and 5 of The Crown, bathed in 90’s nostalgia, when Princess Diana tried to find a place for herself with the Windsors. Carolyn suffers at least as much from her mother-in-law’s contempt and media overexposure.
We also find the same qualities and the same defects in this American version of The Crown: tendency towards exaggeration, over-romanticization of all private scenes, largely interpreted by the authors for the needs of fiction. The series thus suffers from an excessive dependence on the Kennedy myth, and Naomi Watts’ performance as Jackie is quite strange. The authors also go all out on name-dropping, citing all the icons of the decade, from Cindy Crawford to Kate Moss.
It should not be seen as a faithful portrayal of reality, but rather a soap in the good sense of the term: a heart story with crackling emotion, easy to watch, driven by exceptional performances. As in the finest hours of The Crown, the success of this Love Story is largely due to the fabulous incarnation of Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly. Their couple bursts onto the screen, a symbol of a love trapped in a society that seeks to control it. It’s hard to find a more romantic Valentine’s Day!
Love Story, season 1, in 9 episodes, to watch from February 13 on Disney + in France.
