It’s hard to believe that this July marks the 27th anniversary of one of the worst tragedies in the history of celebrity in this country. This horrific plane crash that caused the death of John, Caroline, and her sister Lauren in July 1999, like the death of Princess Diana in September 1997 and Kobe Bryant in January 2000, was far worse because the mistakes that caused them were all easily preventable.
The nine-episode series on Hulu, “Love Story John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Bessette”, tells the entire story of the relationship between JFK Jr, played by Paul Anthony Kelly, and his wife, Caroline Bessette, revealing so many facts about that most would never have known, including how unlikely it was that they ever got married in the first place.
The frequent arguments that Caroline and John were mostly about John’s extreme fame and the unrelenting rudeness and aggression of the Paparazzi, which, for this series, has to be seen to be believed. Many of the arguments are hard to watch, especially the long one in the 8th episode, where it seems that Caroline was creating problems that did not exist or had no solution, as John tried to fix their problems and then finally gave up and left their apartment. Caroline is then left amazed that he left, even though she was the catalyst for this long argument from the start.
The other major part of this story was John’s attempt to create his own magazine, “George,” and the volatile relationship he had with Michael Berman, played by Michael Nathanson, with Berman amazingly rude to John, in almost every meeting, eventually causing a huge argument that led to a physical fight in John’s office.
The constant chain smoking in this series, with John and mostly Caroline, was hard to watch, considering their extreme wealth and privilege, taking risks like this. JFK Jr. would frequently ride his big around New York City without a helmet, darting around roads and parked cars without regard to the risks he was taking with his life. John would rarely lock his bike, resulting in many thefts over the years. Clearly someone like John F. Kennedy Jr. had a different way of looking at life.
Actor Naomi Watts, is very good in her role as Jackie Kennedy Onassis who died in May 1994 at the age of 64 of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Early in the series, there were several scenes where it was clear that Jackie did not approve of John’s dating actor Daryl Hannah played by Dree Hemingway.
The scenes leading up to the plane crash in July 1999, were well done, as they just showed all three sitting in this small single-engine plane and John’s disorientation due to the fact that he was never trained and certified for night flying. Why would Caroline and Lauren get into this small plane at night, when they knew that John did not enough training to fly at night, is a question that will never be answered.
This Hulu series is very well acted and produced, and, surprisingly, it took this many years to develop a story about one of the worst tragedies in American history.

