McNamara’s Picks: ‘JFK,’ ‘The Crazy Ones,’ ‘Castle’
“JFK.” During the next two weeks, many networks are offering an assortment of documentaries and docudramas to mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. If you watch only one, let it be American Experience’s “JFK.” In two two-hour segments, director and producer Susan Bellows and her team chronicles the life of the 35th president with a near-miraculous balance of admiration and clear-eyed assessment.
In many ways, Kennedy was the first truly modern president. His keen awareness and understanding of the media, especially television, was as crucial to his success as a politician as his father’s deep pockets or the famous Kennedy competitiveness. And his personal story, even stripped, as it is here, of certain mythologies and pocked by more unsavory truths, remains an American epic.
Joe Kennedy, an obsessively ambitious and highly successful Irish immigrant intent on founding a dynasty, expected much of his second son, but he did not see the potential for greatness. Stricken with life-threatening childhood illnesses, Jack would be plagued throughout his life by a variety of crippling health problems, most of which he subsequently kept from the public. Much of the copious footage and photos in “JFK” show a man struggling to project vigor despite an at times pitifully wasted body. But when his older brother Joe, the great hope of the family, was killed during WWII, Jack stepped into his place, pursuing a life of political service and influence at a time when the world was rapidly changing, technologically, politically and socially.
Although it is difficult not to succumb to the beauty of the Kennedy family in their endless array of home movies, or to be moved by the sheer grit of a man who rarely knew an hour without pain and yet always seemed to be on his feet and smiling, “JFK” does not romanticize its subject. His life of privilege, his incessant womanizing, his gimlet-eyed manipulation of the media are all given equal weight as his glamour and popularity, which makes each point that much more powerful. PBS, Nov. 11-12, 9 p.m.
“The Crazy Ones.” Many were initially unconvinced by the “Mad Men” meets Robin Williams conceit of this new comedy, which revolves around a modern ad agency run by a zany dad (Williams) and his uptight daughter (Sarah Michelle Geller). And indeed, the first few episodes were an often uncomfortable mix of Williams on ice and the scenarios that needed to be constructed to get him there. No one seemed to be having any fun at all, except in the out-takes included after the final break.
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But in the last couple of episodes, “The Crazy Ones” has settled down, or at least settled in. The pacing has improved and Geller has relaxed. More important, Williams, who seemed to be plaintively carrying the show around in his own two hands, is now handing large bits of it off to the very able supporting cast, which includes the always excellent Hamish Linklater, a comedically astute Amanda Setton and the undeniably handsome but oddly ubiquitous James Wouk, who may have finally found a character that that can work for him long-term.
Working more with regret than his Morkian mania, Williams strays at times too far into the treacly bog of sentiment, but playing a brilliant narcissist now sober and entering the late-autumn of his life, he has begun bringing a mournful resonance to his scenes that is increasingly difficult to resist. CBS, Thursdays, 9 p.m.
“Castle.” Like Fox’s long-running “Bones,” ABC’s couple-centric mystery series “Castle” is facing down the long-feared “Moonlighting” curse -- can a show survive when the romantic/sexual tension between its two leads is happily resolved? So far so good in a solid sixth season that began with Det. Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) agreeing to marry famed mystery writer Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), who has been shadowing her for “inspiration” through these many seasons.
But then “Castle” did put all its chips on a “will they or won’t they” romance. A light-hearted if occasionally grisly series, “Castle” spread its bets around. Caste’s poker game with real mystery writers soon gave way to a surprisingly textured family life that included the maturation of daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn) from adoring and adorable tween to an independent young woman and the equally satisfying transformation of his actress mother Martha (Susan Sullivan) from dingy narcissist to a woman by turns resolutely oblivious and unexpectedly wise.
Beckett too had a complicated back story, and each member of her police team has been given room to change and grow. The result is an addictive blend of clever crime procedural and easy-going character development, remarkably angst free, yet emotionally compelling week after week, year after year. Many things will no doubt thwart the Beckett/Castle nuptials and any hopes of a “normal” marriage (over on “Bones,” Booth and Bones just solved a murder while on their honeymoon), but in this modern age of TV narrative, anything is possible, including a smooth transition from “Moonlighting” to “Hart to Hart.” ABC, Mondays, 10 p.m.
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