White House Plumbers Review: HBO’s Tonally Messy Miniseries Explores Secret Watergate Facts (and Fictions)
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The post White House Plumbers Review: HBO’s Tonally Messy Miniseries Explores Secret Watergate Facts (and Fictions) appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: There are many, many quotable lines in the 1976 film All the President’s Men, but perhaps the most incisive and timeless remains Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook)’s description of the men responsible for the infamous break-in at the Watergate Hotel: “Forget the myths the media’s created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”
That line essentially serves as the thesis statement for White House Plumbers, a five-part limited series about the crimes committed by E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) in the 1970s, seemingly in the name of President Richard Nixon. While the series begins, much like All the President’s Men, at the Watergate one fateful night, the abrupt pivot of the opening sequence is just the beginning of a descent into chaos.
Stranger Than Fiction: The primary appeal of White House Plumbers, for anyone with a passing interest in the scandals that surrounded the Nixon administration, comes in how creators Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck and director David Mandel explore the true-life facts of Hunt and Libby’s actions. Each episode ends with a twist on the standard legal disclaimer about dramatizing historical events, immediately confirming that at least one surprising event depicted on screen actually happened — and these real-life twists prove to be genuinely shocking in context.
As someone with more than a passing interest in the Watergate affair, I was surprised by how much I already didn’t know: It turns out that Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting couldn’t come close to capturing just how bizarre the events surrounding Watergate were, especially when it comes to the deeper levels of conspiracy generated by Hunt and Libby. The botched burglary attempts, the scatological plans for sabotage, the moments when ego overrides good sense… Deep Throat knew what he was talking about.
Not Exactly Masterminds: White House Plumbers features an impressive cast, including Kiernan Shipka, Ike Barinholtz, David Krumholtz, Rich Sommer, Gary Cole, Toby Huss, John Carroll Lynch, Tony Plana, and Kathleen Turner. But at its core, it’s a two-hander, the Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy show, with both men treated as comedic figures to a degree.
Some of that comes from the performances, with Harrelson pushing his natural gravelly drawl to an unnatural level, and Theroux committing so hard to the Liddy voice (overtly mannered, with distinctive diction) that he sounds like a cartoon parody of a ’30s newspaper man at times. Wildly paranoid and prone to implying things about his involvement with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Hunt is still the more reasonable of the two, and by the end of the series, Harrelson’s take on Hunt begins to take on more human dimensions.
White House Plumbers (HBO)
Meanwhile, Liddy’s “quirks” pushing the character into caricature from time to time, including what might be the series’ most disturbing element: The way that Liddy’s all-too-real Nazi fandom is incorporated into the series proves more chilling than funny, despite notes that imply Mandel, as director, is aiming for the laugh. It’s clear that Liddy is not meant to be taken seriously. But a time when the voices of literal neo-Nazis feel like they keep growing in volume feels like the wrong time to make light of a character who enjoys blasting Hitler’s speeches on the stereo while with his family and dinner guests.
Family Men: The home lives of Hunt and Liddy are not given equal weight, but that’s because the Hunt family is more interesting, with Hunt’s adolescent children playing a significant role in the series. And the cast standout may be Lena Headey as Dorothy Hunt, who plays a much bigger role than wife and mother thanks to her inside knowledge of the spy game.
Of course you wouldn’t expect the actor who slogged through eight seasons of Cersei Lannister to play a doormat, but it’s still a treat to see Headey dig into the role of a legitimately fascinating woman — one whose reactions to Hunt and Liddy’s choices are very relatable. By contrast, once again Judy Greer shows up to do the best she can with an underwritten wife role, but despite a few engaging scenes Fran Liddy never feels like a real person. (Perhaps it’s the bland and happy way she reacts to her husband’s worship of the Third Reich.)
The Verdict: The period details are excellent, and the series’ pacing is economical while leaving enough time to appreciate both its wilder moments as well as the efforts to humanize Hunt, largely through his relationship with his wife and children. Whether marathoned alongside All the President’s Men or not, it’s often fascinating viewing. However, Liddy’s Nazi fascination is just one symptom of a larger tonal problem, as the show oftentimes feels a bit glib in exploring the events that unfold, especially the ones with shocking life-and-death consequences.
It’s important to note that if the series feels at all familiar in its approach, it’s because the aforementioned Gregory, Huyck, and Mandel are all alumni of HBO’s Emmy-winning triumph Veep, a show which famously avoided showcasing any real life politicians because it would mess with the universe in which the show existed.
White House Plumbers reveals that that distinction was one of Veep’s smartest choices: Dangerous idiots committing crimes on behalf of an American president are funny in a fictional universe. But when the events being depicted are true — they’re horrifying.
Where to Watch: White House Plumbers premieres Monday, May 1st on HBO and HBO Max.
Trailer:
White House Plumbers Review: HBO’s Tonally Messy Miniseries Explores Secret Watergate Facts (and Fictions)
Liz Shannon Miller
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