Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette Review Ser

Hey guys, thank you so much for joining me in another video. So I've had many requests to make this video. It's not something I typically do, but the topic is something I am very much invested in, fascinated by, of course, talking about Ryan Murphy's love story, the portrayal of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr.'s relationship, their love story, their tragedy. Of course, we can talk about this within American history, but it is also very much fashion history. It is also very much a critique of the media. And of course, I'm gonna give a very nuanced review. I think there are things that I genuinely loved, and then there are things that I'm wrestling with. Let's just start with the beginning. The show opens on Friday, July 16th, 1999. A child version of Carolyn stands in front of these flashing paparazzi lights. Then we cut to her at the nail salon. She is getting her nails done, red nail polish stops, changes her mind, chooses nude. Of course, this is a small moment, but it's very symbolic. Red, it's bold, it's visible, it's loud, and nude is very safe. She's gonna be attending a wedding. She doesn't wanna stand out too much, right? So she smiles apologetically, almost reminding herself to smile. You can feel the anxiety, the weight of her being watched. This moment here, immediately, the show establishes its whole thesis. This is a woman who is hyper aware of her image. Then we see JFK Jr. packing, preparing to leave. The contrast is subtle. He is in a rush, but you don't get the sense of the anxiety that she is feeling. He's active, he's moving. Even if his leg is in a cast, he is still on the go. He can do no wrong. He can make mistakes. He can be the daredevil that he is. Carolyn has to, under the scrutiny of the media, she has to really think about her image. What is also interesting in this scene, we also see her with her Birkin 40, her Constance belt, the Salima Optique sunglasses. And I have to say, this is night and day from what we saw from the early promo stills. It feels like the production got the message. You cannot treat the fashion in the series as an afterthought. They wanted you to see that. The belts, the watches, and they wanted to prove they did their homework. And watching the behind the scenes footage, they spoke to the right people. The costume designer, Rudy Mance, and his team, they really did their work. They really did the research. They spoke with Sunita Kumar Nair. They spoke with Elizabeth Beller. Actually, the story is heavily referencing Elizabeth Beller's book. Her book really tells Carolyn's side and the story around people that knew Carolyn. Of course, for many years, during the 90s, everybody knew who JFK Jr. was. Even before that, he was America's prince. And the media loved him. He loved the media. He gave the media what they wanted. From the day he was born, he was media trained. As the son of the president, as the son of Jackie Kennedy, she knew how to play the media game. He knew what was expected of him, and he knew how to play it. And this was not something strange. The media was something he actually could use to his advantage, and he did. That was always the side of the story we saw. It was the Kennedy side. It was also the media side, with the media speculated, the media gossip, the tabloid gossip, the paparazzis. We saw that side that was very speculated when looking at their relationship. And then due to social media, and then I also think due to many people telling their stories, in Elizabeth Beller's book, we saw a different perspective of who Carolyn Bissette Kennedy was. She was not this cold-hearted person that the media portrayed her as. She wasn't a perfect person by any means. The media was definitely out to get her in the 90s. And this was very much a theme with a lot of women that had relationships with very powerful men, as the book explores. The fact that they took the perspective from Elizabeth Beller's book, showed Carolyn's side, which is the side that was never really told. We got to hear the media side. We got to hear the Kennedy side. But Elizabeth Beller's book highlight the perspective of people close to Carolyn and knew their relationship from that perspective. And again, was she a perfect person? No. Also the CBK book by Sunita Kumar Nair is an incredible book. Great interviews, delving into her style. They really did the research. They clearly invested in getting the right pieces. They also talk about in the behind the scenes how they altered these pieces, as we'll talk about in later episodes. And while the focus of this is the love story, it debuted Valentine's Day weekend. They're showing the romance and the ultimate tragedy between Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr. The fashion is very much a huge part of the story. I really appreciated that they did the work to get this right because it is night and day again, from what we saw with those initial images to where we see the show now. And I'm saying this as I've only seen up to episode four, but I'm recording this and we're talking about episode one here. Going back to the episode, we go back to 1992. We get that 90s, early 90s, that energy. Carolyn's apartment is very humble. She has her subway commute. We've got primal scream. She has slightly disheveled hair, the black turtleneck, the cropped flares, the loafers. Like they're going for this look right here. Again, this is the early 90s. It's a total rejection of that 80s flash and excess. We're seeing how the 90s was really much this era that was about realism. We're talking about minimalism, but there was also the music and youth culture was grunge. This was definitely a time period where there was less of this worship around hierarchy, less glamor. There was just more rawness and realness. We see her on her way to work, taking the subway. We see the tabloids mocking JFK juniors, the hunk flunks again. Carolyn instead chooses Vogue's May 1992 issue with Claudia Schiffer on the cover. I don't think these dates match up perfectly. I think for the purpose of storytelling, what we're seeing here situates everything culturally. And we see her at the Calvin Klein offices and this has got to be my favorite so far. Some of my favorite scenes. I love the fashion side and I really feel there's something about the 90s, about this era, about this like analog era that is really speaking to the culture right now. But we see the scene where Annette Bening, she's getting fitted. Carolyn's boss is pushing that Annette Bening wear this black dress. Carolyn immediately senses the hesitation. This episode establishes she's emotionally intelligent, intuitive, is good at reading people, her relationships with her coworkers. And of course, Carolyn suggests something different. The men's wear suit, they can alter to make it work for her. And it's presumably this look that we're seeing here. But again, the 90s was shaped by distrust in institutions, a rejection of this idea of hierarchy. Carolyn's instinct isn't rebellion for rebellion's sake, it's intuition. She understands emotional psychology and let's not forget, she studied to become a teacher. Her mother was a teacher. She knows how to ask the right questions, how to get people to open up. And that's something that is expressed in Elizabeth Beller's book, how great she was with people, how people would open up to her. It's very interesting in the scene, we're also seeing fashion in her hands becomes this emotional translation. And I think what's very interesting, again, the tabloids always projected Carolyn Bessette as like frivolous, only cares about fashion. Obviously on this channel, we know fashion it's so much more than just picking a blazer over a dress. There's a cultural nuance in all of these decisions. And she was responsible for moving millions of dollars in that showroom. And I was also watching the research done behind the production design. And they talk about from the production designer, the behind the scenes, and how they look to the original office design and how Calvin Klein from the 70s, early on was very inspired by the designer, Joe Durso, who was part of this high-tech design movement of the 70s and 80s. And then in the 90s, he was looking to John Pawson and his approach to minimalism. I have to say, I really appreciated the way they did this. The production design team took those designers and applied their approach to minimalism, approach to design at the Madison Avenue showroom where Carolyn worked. But continuing on with Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, her like instinct for the times, we see this meeting where Calvin Klein is deciding who's going to be the next face for the brand. And Carolyn wants to instead go to the images and models that were rejected. And she suggests Kate Moss. And of course, this isn't just a casting choice. This is like a generational shift in terms of Cindy Crawford really representing that supermodel glamor, very glossy. And Kate Moss representing this, something that was very anti-glamor at the time. This moment may have been dramatized, but I think it's supposed to be symbolic. Apparently the way it went down, Calvin Klein wanted to find somebody that was like Vanessa Paradis. So I decided there had to be a new type. And I was thinking, actually, the French actress, Vanessa Paradis. I couldn't get her. And so Kate walked into a photographer's studio, Patrick Demarchier, and Patrick knew what I was aiming for. And he called me. He says, I think someone just came to see me that you might be interested in. She came to me and she showed me photographs of herself that her boyfriend at the time, Mario Sorrenti, who's a wonderful photographer and filmmaker. They were his private photographs of Kate, which they've managed to share with me. I could tell in a second that he was obsessed with her. And we decided to send the two of them to an island. And I said, just photograph her. Film her, photograph her. We'll make something of it. And that was the beginning of her in imaging. This from Vogue. In reality, Bessette didn't exactly, quote, discover the model in the way the show suggests. However, she did advocate for Moss's casting in the brand's controversial 1992 underwear ad in which she appeared alongside Mark Wahlberg, then known as Marky Mark. According to Maureen Callahan's book, Champagne Supernovas Per Town and Country, Bessette and art director, Fabian Baron, convinced Klein that the then unknown Moss was just the kind of face he needed at the time. When the company was on the verge for bankruptcy, they were right. The success of the underwear and fragrance lines would ultimately help save the company. As for the story behind the 1993 obsession campaign depicted in the show, at the heart of it is another love story, one between Moss and her boyfriend at the time, photographer, Mario Sorrenti. Klein told the story to Interview, explaining that Moss told him about Sorrenti and Klein asked to meet him and see his portfolio. And I look at the pictures and it just says to me obsession. He was obsessed with her, Calvin Klein said. The feeling was mutual. In 2017, Moss reflected on their relationship to Elle, saying, quote, we were young and it was passionate and it was my first love. It's the kind of love that never happens again. Really, I was obsessed with him. Now let's talk about John F. Kennedy Jr. The show totally maximizes on his physicality. Shirtless in locker room scenes, this gym montage. This is very accurate if we're being real. The amount of paparazzi photos of him shirtless around New York City, this is very accurate. Whether it was him rollerblading in the city, playing football in Central Park. He was historically incredibly photographed and the paparazzi adored him and audiences loved it. He was feeding into the machine. John F. Kennedy Jr., from very early on, he understood the power of media from childhood. We see him in this moment. He's befriended these photographers. He knows them all. He invites them to play football because they're one man down. This detail aligns with what we know how Jackie taught him to manage the press. Give them something so at least you have some control over the narrative. You can't control everything, but if you give them something, at least there's that. There's also this fundraiser scene and we see here, Sarah Pigeon. I have to say, while I think Sarah Pigeon is very beautiful and while I think JFK Jr., both of these actors, very attractive people. Paul Anthony Kelly, he was a model apparently before this. Sarah Pigeon, she had starred in a few productions before, but I think this is really a breakthrough moment for her. I don't think these actors have ever received as much attention ever. But I have to say, with a lot of the casting, do these actors read to me as the characters? I don't really see it, but I also think it's just because I don't think Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr., they're some of the most charismatic people ever captured in the 90s. I just don't know if anyone really could play these characters. The show, they picked people that weren't really obviously famous. If we just saw another Jacob Elordi, Margot Robbie, I don't think this production intended to have these major celebrity actors anyways, but I'm glad it was not that. But do I see JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette? I don't think so. However, what I like about Sarah Pigeon and her portrayal of Carolyn is going back to the portrayal of her by the media, they portrayed her as very cold, this aloof fashion girl who is frivolous, typical criticism of anyone that is into fashion. What I like about Sarah Pigeon though, while to me she doesn't read as Carolyn Bessette, I think she brings a warmth and a softness and a contemporary relatability. In a modern day way, she reads to me as she could be the sister of an Elle Fanning, a Dakota Fanning. I think they wanted to pick someone like her. That didn't have this look of hardness, this look of coldness that the media often portrayed of Carolyn. When I see Sarah Pigeon, I get the sense of like looking at like a younger sister, the way like Elle Fanning is on the screen. She's a relatable beauty that is very of our times. I understand why they picked this actress and Paul Anthony Kelly, they picked him, he's a very handsome guy and he has like the general outline of a JFK Jr. Do they have the same kind of energy figures of the 90s? I don't think so, but I don't think anyone really could capture this. There's a mystique about Carolyn, there's a charisma about John that was instilled in him early on. At the end of the day, when we're like looking at this show, I think this is where like the critique stems. These are two people that kind of live in the hearts and minds and whether it be through the memory you have of consuming legacy media or through like just a place like Pinterest. I really like Naomi Watts, I think she's a great actress. She played in Ryan Murphy's Feud. Do I see her as Jackie Kennedy? No, I think just because she's been in the universe of Ryan Murphy for many of his productions, she was casted. Doesn't read to me as Jackie. A lot of the characters, if I'm gonna be honest, do not read to me as the original characters. But again, like especially when we're talking about some of the most iconic figures, these are very difficult role to portray. But of course there's the scene where Carolyn meets John. Apparently it didn't go down like this. Now this is an article from Town & Country. Again, there are conflicting stories, but from Paul Eckstein, I remember John at one of our Naked Angels parties coming up and being like, yo man, you gotta hook me up. Who is that girl? Introduce me. I was like, John, I'm not going to introduce you to anybody you're effing John Kennedy. Go introduce yourself. We were doing a 1940 speakeasy theme for this party and we were both dressed in cheesy 1940s outfits. I had a crush on Carolyn's sister, Lauren. He was trying to get me to help introduce him to Carolyn and I wouldn't do it. Of course he met her anyway. So that is one recollection. This from Rosemarie Terenzio. The story I heard was that John and Carolyn first met at Calvin Klein. It was around 1991. So again, just inserting this here. Again, the timelines aren't perfect with what we're seeing on the show. But continuing on, he had gone to pick out some suits and she helped him. She was the handler for a lot of VIPs. He asked for her number and they went out on a few dates. Carolyn was dating around and so was John. Daryl was still in the picture, but they seemed to be on and off. Carolyn wasn't sitting by the phone waiting for his call. It was the opposite. For the first time, he was getting a taste of his own medicine and that intrigued him. And this is from Sasha Chermayeff. John had taken me to this event. We were going to dinner, but he's like, I've gotta swing by this place first. I saw Carolyn from across the room and she was leaning on this post. And I said to myself, that's the kind of woman that John is so attracted to. That's so John's type right there. We meandered around the party and we're working our way to the focal point of this party. That woman and I realized we are not here for any other reason. I remember the way she looked at him, the way he looked at her and I was just like, okay, this is why I'm here. He was very casual. We're just coming to say hi. I didn't say anything. He was still with Daryl. It was private and I wasn't going to be like, oh my God, do you have the hots for her? What about your relationship? John never said anything to me, but he was overlapping with Carolyn while he was with Daryl. I'm convinced that there was quite a bit of overlap. I think he was obsessed with Carolyn from the minute he met her. And then from Brian Steele, we were running around Central Park West and started walking, which was unusual because the guy just wanted to run forever. He said he was completely enchanted by this woman, Carolyn Bessette. And I was like, what about Daryl? Because they were still together. And he was like, I think we're going to break up. I met her at Calvin Klein. He went out on a date or two with Carolyn and he's like, I want you to find out as much as you can about Carolyn. I know you know people, like you know nightclub people, restaurateurs. I know you know people that went to college with her. So I found out as much as I could about her and not all of it was good. I told him all of it. She was a club girl and she dated a lot of people. There are many different recollections, but ultimately I think what the show is trying to establish here is sort of a summary of these different interpretations. And again, the show is taking many liberties. It's not a true documentary of Carolyn Bessette and JFK Jr. Like this is a story. This is a story for the purposes of entertainment created by Ryan Murphy. So we see that go down. JFK Jr. very taken by this woman who's not very interested in him right away. And then we also see Daryl Hannah. So Daryl Hannah, I have to say, they make this actress or they make the lighting. They make her look very unflattering. But in reality, Daryl Hannah, she was an actress. She was a bombshell. She was someone who wanted to be in the media spotlight. She wanted the visibility. They capture, I think, Daryl Hannah as kind of character she was casted in during the 90s. They make her very annoying and insufferable. I don't know how Daryl Hannah probably feels about this portrayal, but they do show how they had this on and off relationship. And also how Daryl Hannah was somebody that she wanted the media attention. She would benefit from this relationship as an aspiring actress, but also her stepfather was a very powerful businessman. And as JFK Jr. would want to eventually venture into politics, culture, and media, a relationship with someone like her would make sense. Although Jackie, she did not approve of this. We see that dynamic in the show. And then we get to the date scene where she really picks him apart, pushes back on him feeling the need to like manage reactions, put others at ease. Rather than like adoring him and fawning over him, she's asking him questions. She gets him to open up to her and she speaks to him on an emotional and a human level, not like a media savvy PR kind of way. So that's like a very brief summary of episode one. There were moments that I really enjoyed, especially showing her at work at Calvin Klein, showing that aesthetic. I honestly think even just the visual language, I would have even loved this show to lean more into Calvin Klein's own visual language, that kind of like nineties aesthetic, which I think they did do pretty good job. If I were to have my dream version of the show, I would have loved to see more of that. I would have loved just to see so much more fashion. And I think we could go like further into this world, but I think the people making the show, they're not making it for people that are interested in just the fashion side. Like they want to sell this show to a mass audience, wanting to consume a romantic show on the weekend of Valentine's day. So those were parts of the show I enjoyed the most. I also really appreciated the work that went into the fashion as well. There were moments where we kind of see like the rawness of the nineties, like her hair a little bit messy. I would have actually liked to see more of that. I understand they probably want to make this show very, again, this is mainstream television. At the end of the day, they want to capture this love story. They want to capture like Paul Anthony Kelly in like underwear. Like I get it. That's also very Calvin Klein at the end of the day. It's interesting though that the producers, they did not consult with the Kennedy family. There has been some pushback from the Kennedy family. I think all of us know at the end of the day, this is a TV production. This is a Ryan Murphy production. This isn't meant to be a historically accurate documentary. And this is entertainment. And I think there are also fair critiques of this as well. Of course, the show argues that there've been like dozens and dozens of Kennedy films. So why not this? It must be hard for those that like intimately knew the family to see their story. For me, like when looking at somebody like Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, why she was so fascinating to me was because she like embodied, of course, that like 90s New York minimalism in real life. She was not a campaign. She was not an ad. Like she was the real thing. She became the blueprint for this whole look, but it's because she was the real thing. We're seeing is not the real thing. We're seeing an imitation of this. Watching this, it just reminds us where we are in fashion, in culture. Everything feels like a reproduction of something. I will say it is quite fascinating looking at the responses to this and also how it is really capturing the culture. Even if you don't care about Carolyn Bessette's style, like you don't care about Calvin Klein, Prada, Yoji Yamamoto, et cetera. If this is not your vibe, I totally get it. But I think there is something really fascinating about this era, the 90s. There is something very romanticized about this era. Again, it wasn't a perfect era. And as we'll see, she faced a lot of difficulty. This relationship was not rainbows and sunshine. It was very difficult. Overall for me, if I could hope for anything, it was that they would get the fashion right. I'm very pleased to see the amount of work that was put into by the costume designers, by Rudy Mance and his team. Like to source some of these pieces, as we'll see, is quite incredible. Anyways, that's my review. I would love to know your thoughts on episode one, your thoughts overall. Please let me know down below. That's my video for today. Thank you so much for joining me and I hope to see you in the next one. Bye.