FX's 'Love Story' Has a Romance Problem

No matter how you might feel about its depiction of the real people involved, FX's Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette is a genuine hit. The nine-part drama, which follows the doomed courtship and marriage of the young Kennedy scion and the Calvin Klein publicist turned fashion icon, debuted as the network's most-watched limited series when it premiered back in February. What's more, the show went on to increase its viewership week-over-week through social reach and word of mouth, culminating in a late March finale that notched a 90% ratings increase over the premiere.

By every definition of the word, the show was a raging success, and has almost certainly guaranteed that we'll be seeing another chapter in this particular anthology sooner rather than later. (Place your best bets now on which famous couple(s) will be featured in a future season.) And, to its credit, Love Story does have a lot going for it. It's a weirdly addictive viewing experience, one part shot-for-shot historical recreation of a story that dominated headlines in the 1990s and one part media critique, with a surprisingly thoughtful exploration of the corrosive effect of the Kennedy mythos — particularly when it comes to the family's women — on top.

What it isn't, however, is a particularly compelling romance. And that seems like a fairly significant problem for a show with "love story" in its literal title.

Sure, stars Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon are very attractive — Kelly in particular bears a remarkable resemblance to the real JFK, Jr. — and both look great acting out various moments from the couple's frequently documented history (often striking poses made famous from newspaper and tabloid photos). But the pair's wet blanket chemistry is more fizzle than sizzle, and while Love Story clearly wants us to believe in the fairytale vibe of this generational romance, it does very little work to earn it.

In fact, if the only things you knew about this John and Carolyn's relationship were what you see on this show, I'm not sure it's even possible to explain why these two like one another. They don't actually seem to, a lot of the time. In fact, Love Story never really gives us a real reason to root for this relationship or displays any understanding of why this romance became such a cultural obsession for so many.

Early episodes revolve around various milestones in the couple's relationship history as though they're ticking off items on a shopping list. It's their first date! Their first kiss! Their first fight! He's proposing! The show hits all the big moments it's supposed to, but it struggles to give them emotional depth. This is partly because it never really explains why these two specific people love each other, or how being together encourages either to change and/or grow.

Instead, Love Story tells the story of JFK Jr and Carolyn's romance as though it's recounting something its audience already knows, and takes their investment in it for granted.

As a television series, Love Story treats its John and Carolyn as symbols more than actual three-dimensional characters, vaguely hinting that there's more to both of them than meets the eye, but almost completely failing to give either anything approaching real interiority. Their relationship is similarly empty — a simulacrum crafted of magazine covers, generational wealth, and the particularly American flavor of mythmaking that comes with the Kennedy name.

Love Story is big on telling us how much John and Carolyn love each other, but does little in any real way to demonstrate the reality or depth of that affection. Kelly and Pidgeon generate very little passion or heat as would-be or actual lovers — there's not much in the way of desperate passion here — and the show spends more time on the idea of their relationship than the fact of it. Subsequently, their love story is more hagiography than anything else, whether you believe the pair were a fairytale, a modern nightmare, or a tragedy of unrealized potential.

Why are these two people in love? What makes their relationship so special? What was it about their connection that captivated a nation? That made a successful young woman with plenty of options choose to cage herself in this way? These questions feel as though they should be the guideposts for any kind of story this show might be aiming to tell. But in all honesty, you'll likely have less idea of their answers after watching the series than before you started.

The show's later episodes, which see the pair's relationship fracturing under the stress of constant media attention and the performative rituals that life as a Kennedy requires, are more interesting. (Unfortunately, it's only as the clock begins to inexorably count down to their deaths that Love Story seems to find something it might want to say.)

The series' ending, in an attempt to tastefully depict the plane crash that killed John, Carolyn, and Carolyn's sister Lauren, reimagines a moment of what must have been pure terror as one of reconnection and relative peace. In it, Carolyn is sitting next to John as the plane goes down, holding his hand and reminding him to breathe. In the end, death is another hurdle they face together, and while there's something both sweet and vaguely comforting about this reading, it's a fabrication that doesn't mesh with the reality of what happened or the fiction the show's been building.

But it's the kind of moment you want to believe in, and one it's easy to wish the show had done the work to build up to in terms of the relationship it was trying to portray. Love Story Season 2, take some notes.

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette is currently streaming on Hulu.