‘American Dynasties: The Kennedys’ Review: A Striving in the Blood

A gaggle of biographers and Kennedy clan members provide a dazzling wealth of detail on “American Dynasties: The Kennedys,” and they do it at top speed, or so it feels—the result of a production in which nobody gets to expand on a thought or utter more than a sentence at a time. That’s not to say this isn’t a blessing when the commentary takes a trashy turn—as it does midway through the series with its cliché-drenched vision of Lyndon Johnson as a barbaric intruder interested only in the satisfaction of his ambition. On the airplane departing from Texas with the slain president’s body, Johnson, who had dared to begin...