I found "The Kennedys" to be a gripping retelling of the family life and political careers of John Fitzgerald and Robert Kennedy, and I am baffled by the smear campaign that the American left led against it, to the point of having it banned from U.S. T.V. screens (and the U.S. left is the party that is supposed consistently to oppose censorship and freedom of expression: think again.) "The Kennedys" does not try to destroy the Kennedys the way Hollywood usually seeks to destroy right wing icons: I had seen much more damning revelations in TV documentaries, and I am sure that the JFK that emerges from Seymour M. Hersh's "The Dark Side of Camelot" is much less glamorous and decent. The series is not filled with the kind of mockery and hatred that you will find in Oliver Stone or Michael Moore movies. On the contrary, despite the "warts and all" approach (JFK's adulteries and drug use are not whitewashed), it is very reverent, and gave me a greater appreciation of the Kennedys both as politicians and as human beings. In fact, though I am much more conservative than the average U.S. conservative, I would consider Bobby Kennedy as a truly admirable man, especially after seeing the series.
I think what the U.S. left objected to (under the guise of questioning the show's historical accuracy, as if they cared) was the positive depiction of Catholicism (in a moving scene, for instance, Bobby starts praying the rosary with his mother, and he is shown crossing himself in the main titles), the unsympathetic treatment of adultery (whose deleterious effects are not brushed over) and, most of all, the fact that the Kennedys are not portrayed as vague incarnations of "hope" (whatever that is) whose mystique can be used by unscrupulous modern demagogues ("Vote for me, I'm for hope and change, just like the glamorous Kennedys"), but as genuine people whose values are very far from being consistent with the current liberal agenda. As Catholics and cold warriors who still used the politically incorrect term "negro", the Kennedys become less docile to modern left-wing revisionism and appropriation.
Although I found the first episode a bit too stilted and "pedagogical" in a way that detracted from the drama, I was soon drawn in by the series. Greg Kinnear and Barry Pepper are brilliant as Jack and Bobby, and the rest of the cast are generally on a par with them.
SPOILER (?): The documentary "Marilyn: The Last Sessions" had made me believe that Bobby Kennedy had had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, but the series shows him manfully resisting the temptress's wiles. I thought they had been disingenuous on this point, but they appear to be right again, while the "documentary" (based on an "essay-novel") was wrong.
This is a series I highly recommend. As far as I can remember, it does not contain strong language, sexual scenes or gory violence, though it features a heavy amount of drinking, smoking and drug use.
I think what the U.S. left objected to (under the guise of questioning the show's historical accuracy, as if they cared) was the positive depiction of Catholicism (in a moving scene, for instance, Bobby starts praying the rosary with his mother, and he is shown crossing himself in the main titles), the unsympathetic treatment of adultery (whose deleterious effects are not brushed over) and, most of all, the fact that the Kennedys are not portrayed as vague incarnations of "hope" (whatever that is) whose mystique can be used by unscrupulous modern demagogues ("Vote for me, I'm for hope and change, just like the glamorous Kennedys"), but as genuine people whose values are very far from being consistent with the current liberal agenda. As Catholics and cold warriors who still used the politically incorrect term "negro", the Kennedys become less docile to modern left-wing revisionism and appropriation.
Although I found the first episode a bit too stilted and "pedagogical" in a way that detracted from the drama, I was soon drawn in by the series. Greg Kinnear and Barry Pepper are brilliant as Jack and Bobby, and the rest of the cast are generally on a par with them.
SPOILER (?): The documentary "Marilyn: The Last Sessions" had made me believe that Bobby Kennedy had had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, but the series shows him manfully resisting the temptress's wiles. I thought they had been disingenuous on this point, but they appear to be right again, while the "documentary" (based on an "essay-novel") was wrong.
This is a series I highly recommend. As far as I can remember, it does not contain strong language, sexual scenes or gory violence, though it features a heavy amount of drinking, smoking and drug use.