Letters and an uneven look ‘Between the Lines’

“Between the Lines” is a frustratingly uneven documentary miniseries from A&E; that uses various sorts of written communication as a hook to present a collection of mostly unrelated segments that on the whole replicate the ruling aesthetic of A&E; -- a network that dresses itself like a cousin to PBS, but which is largely taken up with old cop shows and various packages of true-crime sensationalism and human-interest goo. “Documentary” is perhaps too ambitious a word for these series; some new term seems necessary -- “facturettes,” maybe, or “snackformation.”

The series is by turns entertaining, informative and irritating. Though the annals of written communication provide plenty of fodder for thought on the question of how people represent themselves to one another, ultimately the only question this series seems designed to answer is “How can we fill another four hours of television?”

Tonight’s premiere episode, “Inside the White House,” is the best, for being focused and having at least the illusion of historical weight. The centerpiece is an exchange of letters between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev tracing the Cuban Missile Crisis, but there is also a letter to a little girl from Jimmy Carter explaining that babies probably do not come from eating peanuts, and one of Ronald Reagan’s (pre-political) love letters, so touching it makes Kelsey Grammer cry.

The episode is relatively star-studded, with letters read by Grammer, Martin Sheen, Candice Bergen, John Goodman, President Carter, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Priscilla Presley, who must be a kind of royalty, having been married to the King.

Later episodes devolve into mostly familiar human interest and horror stories, including the Nicole Simpson murder, trapped miners, the e-mail of 9-11, the Black Dahlia murder, the ‘30s starlet who jumped from the Hollywood sign, and Hitler’s sexy fan mail. A graphologist analyzes letters from Jack the Ripper and the Son of Sam. Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter are horribly miscast as F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in a breathy segment that reduces a complex correspondence into an exchange of Hallmark Cards.

Much is made of the ironies inherent in human activity, as with the Titanic passenger who wrote before his departure, “Right now I wish the Titanic were lying at the bottom of the ocean” -- the words “bottom of the ocean” are made to echo -- or the soldier addressing a farewell letter to his family before going into action in Iraq. “Did Diego foresee his own death?” the narrator asks. “Perhaps this 19-year-old soldier had a vision that went beyond death.” This is just insulting hogwash.

If the narration is filled with doom and portent, abetted by an equally overwrought soundtrack, the screen bursts with gratuitously busy visuals -- superimpositions and animations and all manner of computer-wrought effects -- as if the audience cannot be trusted to stay focused on any image that remains on the screen longer than two seconds. Documents beg to be look at, after all, and here they are continually being snatched away.

On the actually fun side, Donnie Osmond reveals the secret mark his girlfriends were instructed to put on their letters to ensure personal delivery; we see some letters to the race horse Funny Cide (“I’m sorry you didn’t win the Belmont, but third is good”); and Jim. J. Bullock and Shelley Morrison play an amusing skit based on an epistolary humor piece by Shelley Berman.

Robert Downey Jr. hosts, functionally.

*

‘Between the Lines’

Where: A&E;

When: 10-11 p.m. Fridays. Premieres tonight.

Host: Robert Downey Jr.