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The Kennedys, a miniseries commissioned by the History Channel and then promptly dropped once the finished article had been viewed, has been the source of much controversy. Rumours abound that a member of the Kennedy family pressured the channel into dropping it because of the unfavourable light in which the family was portrayed.
However, having seen it on the BBC last week, I can in fact confirm that it was dropped because it was an incredibly dull and incredibly unsubtle lesson in whacking an audience over the head with an opinion. The Kennedy family need not have worried. Everything about The Kennedys meant that audiences would forget it as soon as it finished, possibly even during the viewing process.
The opening credits were bad enough; a billowing American flag over shots of various characters weeping and looking meaningful, and important historical footage. This was set to such ridiculously melodramatic music that it became a parody of self-importance.
However, then came the acting. Beyond looking just like Jackie O, Katie Holmes brought little to her role. She has a nice face, but one suspects she has been lobotomised by scientologists because she was a decidedly lacklustre, well-dressed vessel with a knack for weeping elegantly. The talented Greg Kinnear was boring, so drowned in a bad accent and too many character-traits (pill popping, a penchant for secretaries, puppet to his father’s master) to do anything other than ogle pointy boobs and look worried sometimes. Diana Hardcastle’s matriarch was a caricature of a stereotype, a woman who has turned to religion after a child’s death and now is rarely seen not clutching a crucifix or weeping. Joe Jnr was boring, although Bobby and his wife Ethel were quite good. The only redeeming factor was Tom Wilkinson’s Joe Snr, but even his acting talent could not sufficiently cover up the totally unsubtle nature of the script. He may as well have had an evil laugh.
The plot was plodding. It started out OK, in the hustle and bustle of election day, but it soon emerges that the only thing making the early scenes interesting was the fact that the actors were moving and talking quite quickly. Once they had slowed down in the flashback section, the action moved so slowly it was like trying to focus attention on a real-time film of someone’s weekend, or possibly box making. This meant that it was impossible even to be vaguely gripped by the repeated blows over the head of Catholicism, corruption, being rubbish versions of Joe Jnr and sexual scandal. Why, we are asked repeatedly, does this poor excuse for a son make a good president? And why on earth does he cheat on Katie Holmes? The answer is that all presidents are liars and cheats, and Katie Holmes is really boring.
This is a family which has so many layers, so many indiscretions and so many secrets that it’s practically a WASP version of the Sopranos. It could have been Shakespearean. The Kennedys were so worried about it that they spent a significant amount of cash to bump it to the deeply obscure ReelzChannel. So how disappointing it is that what we get is this tepid caricature, with about as much subtlety as a mallet.
The Kennedys continues tomorrow 9pm, BBC2.
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