White House Plumbers

Took me a couple of episodes to appreciate the comedic take on a dark moment in history. When I got past that I just settled back and enjoyed it, and the pairing of Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux was just perfect to capture the buffoonery, but wannabe badassery, of Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy.

The soundtrack was particularly good. Especially the brilliant scene in episode 4 that segues from the Nixon rally (Mike Curb Congregation singing 'Nixon Now') to Dorothy Hunt becoming the unwilling but cool operator to clean up Howard's mess (Eddie Kendrick's 'Go on With Your Bad Self').

Just sit back and enjoy it!

Gordon Liddy was a certified psychopath, willing to kill journalists and break the law in the name of patriotism, and yet even after being hired to, and then convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping, upon being released from jail, his views made him a hero to millions as a demagogue radio show host. For decades, he was living proof of the power of progranda-style language to fire up the fear and loathing hidden in people's minds, allowing listeners to overlook the tiny detail that they were listening and being influenced by a psychopath.

This satirical TV show on one of Liddy's more well-known bungles is funny and educational. But ultimately its real value will hopefully be to give insight and awareness to the particular younger generations whose parents and grandparents got sucked into believing the fear-based rhetoric that came out of Giddy's radio show for decades.

I started watching this series for nostalgic 70's cultural and historical references. But I was quickly hooked on the satiric brilliance of Theroux and Harrelson portraying the Keystone Cops comedic element of the bungling undercover operatives of the Nixon administration. The portrayal of the Liddy's and Hunt's domestic complications works well, too. Their wives/kids play into the cultural zeitgeist of the time, nicely framing the unhinged nature of the "'plumbers' " mission as being detrimental to their families. But the highlight for me has to be Theroux's pitch perfect portrayal of Liddy's pomposity.

My brother and I watch a lot of tv and then review it so even though this came out last summer we just now finally got around to watching White House Plumbers and were very entertained by it. So much so that we binged all 5 episodes over a weekend. Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux are absolutely brilliant in this political satire on one of the most famous events in American history. HBO is known for putting out the best quality tv there is and White House Plumbers is another home run from them. Even though there is a lot of satire in this, they never stray from the facts of what actually happened. You won't find anything that you didn't already know about Watergate but I promise you've never seen it from this point of view. I promise you'll laugh mo matter what political party you support. At only five episodes long, it's definitely worth your time.

I was expecting a serious take on Watergate. However I am not disappointed that it is a satirical look at what happened. I don't know about E. Howard Hunt. But I always thought G Gordon Liddy was a buffoon. And a psycho. (I read his book). So I am enjoying Justin's take on him. I was 19 years old when the hearings were happening. A cousin of mine who was in college at the time was very into it. Only later when the books started coming out did I start paying attention to what happened. Yes I would have preferred a serious series. But I am enjoying this. Not crazy about the person playing of Howard Dean.