This is one of the best miniseries I've ever seen. It is right up there with John Adams and Thornbirds. I rarely give out 10 stars but this series truly deserves it. The DVD's can be found on Amazon.The makeup and hairstyling was better than any film or series I've ever seen. In fact, Kate looked better than Jackie. It was also nice that we didn't have to suffer through overacting and ridiculous forced accents like we did with Martin Sheen on Kennedy. All the actors in this miniseries were so natural and looked so much like the real life persons, I forgot they weren't the real deal. Truly exceptional acting and natural makeup without prosthetics. Tom Wilkinson stole the show as Joseph Kennedy. The Kennedy early years was excellent about the son Joe & Rosemary. I wish we could have seen the others like Kathleen, Pat and Eunice. Teddy is shown in the sequel. But they forgot to include John John.However, whenever there is a foreigner or foreign country involved in a true life historical show like the recent Jackie, (Canada in this case) they inevitably show Oswald as the assassin when all of us who were alive at the time know depict no one as the assassin and just the result... so the lie about Oswald doesn't PO the American Public. Oswald grates through us like chalk on a chalkboard anytime someone shows that ridiculous lie.Then we had the BS with the fake history channel boycotting the film in the US. Read Wikipedia. I hardly believe Caroline's opinion carried that much weight. Especially since she wasn't even alive during the first part and a child during her fathers administration. So she wouldn't know the truth any more than Will and Harry really know how their mother Diana was killed.There is nothing revealed about the Kennedy's or outside of what we know from news articles, so no surprises which should have upset the last of the original Kennedy family so I don't know why they tried to destroy this series before it was even cast or filmed. This was a deliberate premeditated attack before the filming script was even written.Read about Operation Mockingbird if you want a real eye opener how our media has been controlled by the CIA. Think I'm kidding? Look it up. They recruited publishers, broadcasters and filmmakers in every major company to control what we see. People like Ben Bradlee and Katherine Graham of the Washington post and Newsweek. CNN, Fox, History Channel, A&E, etc. My brother was a CIA publisher. This is the real deal.Read about Operation Mockingbird on Wikipedia and Ben Bradlee's obit to learn just how free and honest our press, broadcast news networks and filmmakers really are with the CIA involved. Allen Dulles, CIA director fired by JFK along with Charles Cabell and Richard Bissell, is the one who orchestrated the assassinations. Cabell's brother Earl was the Mayor of Dallas in 63. Notice how all the secret servicemen were all standing on the 2nd car following Kennedy and how Kennedy's driver slowed down when the shooting began. Bolton, Kennedy's protection was sent away to keep him out of Dallas and set up to silence & discredit him.JFK's mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer was CIA like her ex husband & brother in Law Ben Bradlee who gave her diary to the CIA. Mary had been assigned to control JFK and his cabinet. Read about her on Wikipedia. She was murdered a year after JFK to silence her. The staged witnesses gave CIA safe house as their address and the other gave phony military identity as they tried to set up a scapegoat for her murder. Bradlee admitted to lying about the diary in his trial testimony. He was Washington post and Newsweek.Dulles was put in charge of the Warren Commission by LBJ to mislead all of the evidence and testimony. Pres Ford & Arlen Spectre were also on the commission and Bush Sr coordinated from the CIA. Witnesses say their testimony was changed and completely altered. Why would LBJ appoint the fired CIA director Allen Dulles over JFK's assassination investigation unless LBJ was involved or knowledgeable of the complicity of Dulles and put him there to misdirect the evidence.I loved this miniseries with the one exception about Oswald. I had to buy it on DVD due to the ridiculous boycott by History channel. So be sure to boycott them. Contact all their sponsors and tell them you will boycott any product which sponsors that network and A&E. I cancelled my service 5 years ago. Isn't it amazing how the UK History Channel aired this series and called it one of the best ever with nearly 3 million viewers there. We are the victims of propaganda and media control.This is an excellent video. Highly recommended.

The controversial 2011 miniseries "The Kennedys" was turned down by History Channel because it wasn't 100% accurate, as if anything that purports to tell a true story on film is 100% accurate. The truth is that the channel was pressured by its board members, many of whom were friends of the Kennedys, to turn it down. The History Channel in England managed to stoop to broadcast it, so something tells me, as my grandmother used to say, there was "dirty work at the crossroads." Speaking of which, this miniseries attempts to give us a realistic look at the Kennedy family, and it isn't too pretty. If this were about my family I'd try to keep someone from broadcasting it as well. And they didn't even give us the worst parts.The beginning story centers around Joe Kennedy, a man who built his fortune with insider trading and had political aspirations which were dashed when he was pulled from his Ambassador job in England. He then focused on making his son, Joe Jr., the star politician, but when Joe was killed in the service, his hopes turned to Jack. According to this, he didn't think too much of Bobby. Yet in the series, Bobby actually emerges as a hero.The focus is on these Kennedy men without much about the rest of the family, which was a criticism. But in order to do that, the miniseries would have had to be a maxiseries. It does touch on Rosemary, the mentally/emotionally challenged child who was institutionalized, and whom Joe arranged to have a lobotomy. The miniseries doesn't mention the last part.There is no mention of Kathleen, nor would there have been, since her family cut her off when she became involved with a married man. When she died in a plane crash at the age of 28, her mother Rose, who did not attend her funeral, said that it was God's punishment for her being involved with a married man. In 1963, President Kennedy saw his sister's grave for the first time.As far as Jack and Jackie, Jackie emerges as a woman very much in love with her husband, a man who made her unhappy most of the time with his infidelity. This was just something you were supposed to put up with, I guess. I believe there was a lot of love between both of them; and I believe that toward the end of his life, JFK became more and more impressed with her as a woman and realized how important she was to him. It's said that when he died, clippings about her were found in the top drawer of his desk.Bobby Kennedy comes off as extremely aggressive, loyal, hardworking, a loving husband, and a family man. He was one who, in a way, had greatness thrust upon him and came to a tragic end as a result. Not mentioned is how much Ethel came to resent Jackie because after JFK died, she was calling Bobby for every little thing. One does see her doing this in the miniseries, though.JFK's portrait is that of a thoughtful man who listened carefully to advice and didn't cave into the military, who wanted him to blow Cuba to kingdom come. The focus here is on the pain he endured from Addison's disease and various infidelities. We do not see a lot of his tremendous charm, his humor, and his great charisma.The acting is uniformly excellent. I had some problems with Barry Pepper's accent, which I felt in the beginning wasn't organic but really put on. Greg Kinnear was amazing -- as usual, his performances are surprising and he's underrated as a result. If he doesn't sparkle enough as JFK, it's probably because it wasn't in the script.The most brilliant performance is that of Tom Wilkinson as Joe, a powerful, controlling, ruthless man who let nothing stand in his way to get what he wanted. Wilkinson's real-life wife, Diana Hardcastle, is a marvelous Rose Kennedy.Katie Holmes does a good job as Jackie, though she resembles Mary Tyler Moore a little more than the First Lady. She is nevertheless lovely and a sympathetic character. We're not really able to see her courage, but we can see what she went through in the White House. We also see that she was an amazing woman, classy and sophisticated, and a wonderful mother without it being beat over our heads. The assassination was well-handled with real documentary footage and no emphasis on gore.Some of this film is verbatim from real events - Kennedy's speech in Dallas at the Chamber of Commerce, his televised report to America about the Cuban missile crisis, Bobby's speech in Los Angeles, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the White house meetings were verbatim as well, since those transcripts exist and were used in "Thirteen Days." All in all, I thought this was very good; I read an expert's list of inaccuracies, and it was fairly short, having to do with whether or not Bobby and Jack discussed their sex lives with one another; whether Joe was pro-Hitler; and whether Joe kissed his secretary in front of Rose. The expert had that incorrect. In the film, Joe is kissing his secretary when Rose enters the room. It wasn't deliberate. Also the expert didn't know if Joe actually did have an affair with his secretary. Not that it would surprise me if he did. I do believe he had a great deal of respect for his wife, however, and would not have done anything to embarrass her.I highly recommend this series. If the miniseries comes off like a soap opera, let's face it, the lives of the Kennedys were just that. Unfortunately their lives were all too real, and most of them paid a high price for their fame and ambition.

Uhhh, okay. I don't know if this a spoiler or not. I don't want a ruler across my knuckles so let's just say it does have spoilers.... ??? Wow..This is the first review I've ever written and I'm 51 years old. That's how disgusted I am by this garbage.Anyway, the problem with a story like this is: It's supposed to be based on 'actual history'. But unless you've been living in a cave for 50 years (or watching television), you already know that Oswald didn't shoot JFK. He was the patsy, the fall-guy. There is a picture you can view online of the guy on 'The Grassy Knoll' with a rifle pointed at JFK and cloud of smoke emanating from the end of the barrel... (just google: Badge-Man JFK). Malcolm Wallace, LBJ's personal hit-man, fired from the 6th floor of the depository building where a fingerprint matching Malcolm Wallace was found on one of the boxes in the 'snipers nest' There is so much evidence that proves the 'OFFICIAL STORY' is a lie. It would take a couple of years to present it all here in this forum. So I give this mess a '3' for direction and cinematography... That's it ! I was embarrassed for humanity and repulsed beyond words by this film. It perpetuates the lie right down to the last detail while making JFK and Jackie-O out to be druggies...The CIA and Secret Service murdered JFK on behalf of dozens of powerful men and a few powerful women (Queen Mum for instance). That's it. It was a coup de tat. And the CIA has run the executive branch ever sense. This screenplay is garbage. Sick and repulsive. How dare you !!! .......I'm too disgusted to continue... THE END

It is well worth the time to view this mini-series & view it again. I watched it on t.v., on two different channels. Then, I was delighted to find it for sale on DVD at my local drugstore . I promptly watched it again. Due to the attention to detail par excellence in every aspect of this production, it DESERVES critical acclaim, and respect. Viewing the series and being able to see JFK and Robert as not just leaders, but as husbands and fathers, made me feel very very sad for them, and more empathy toward Jackie and Ethel and really the whole clan. The production showed the flaws or humanness of JFK, Robert, and especially their father. As people have stated, the acting from all actors was breathtaking. The makeup/hair, & costuming is impeccable. I would swear they ARE the true people. The sets were gorgeous-are you sure this isn't the Whitehouse and the Compound? I realize that the historical aspect of Dallas is complex. There is difficulty showing the entire story because no one knows exactly who caused JFK's death, and who is responsible. But the writer dealt with the most important facts such as the mafia felt crossed by the anti-mafia stance of JFK's administration. Dallas is obviously so important it was investigated and if someone wants more detail they should read the Warren Commission. Overall this series gave me more insight into the Kennedy family of the 50s and 60s. It also most importantly, emphasized how brutal and tragic circumstances were for John. F Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy. There are not appropriate words to express how sad and how wrong it was that their lives were taken. KR (ps I was born in 1969).