White House Plumbers

White House Plumbers is a five part HBO mini-series based on the actual historical events when Nikon's own saboteurs got caught during Watergate Scandel. E. Howard Hunt who is played by Woody Harrelson and G. Gordon Libby played by Justin Theroux are former FBI agents who are hired by Nixon to break-in to Watergate to steal or to overhear the Democratic parties strategies. Unfortunately they were unprofessional and careless undercover operatives that got caught in the act. The series was more comedic and a historical piece than anything else. Lena Headley acted as Woody's wife who was a former operative herself, unfortunately she ends up dying in a plane crash which might or might not have been cohorts by the FBI. Judy Greer played Justin's stay at home to help raise there five kids. Although they were implicated and indicted for over 20 years they served less than 5 years in minimum federal security prison. Kim Coates, Tony Plana, F. Murray Abraham were the Cuban individuals who were hired to break in, I never knew they failed twice to get into the hotel. The story started out slow but it was a good piece, I could definitely see Justin and Woody being nominated for their roles.

I started watching this series for nostalgic 70's cultural and historical references.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.

Films based on true stories are often more fascinating, and in this case, bizarre and hilarious.

The two main characters are in many ways opposites but contrive to reluctantly work together in order to serve their respective sense of egotistical self importance, their greed, and their stupid mission to save the President.

The impression that their families convey is one of relative normality in spite of the weird behaviours of the 'plumbers'.

White House staffers and CIA, FBI too appear to be quite reasonable right wingers and far less extreme.

That clears the stage for the comedic antics of the undynamic duo!

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.

All historians remember the times of the early 70's and the scandal plagued Nixon administration and anybody knows, you don't have to be a history student to know about Watergate as the incident has long been dissected all thru pop culture. This new "HBO" 5 part miniseries called "White House Plumbers" takes a dark hearted comedic like look at the guys who worked behind the scenes in a clumsy and crazy like way in the Watergate break in. Justin Theroux and Woody Harrelson have good on screen chemistry as Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy both former CIA and FBI agents respectively who's trying to help the president would ultimately break down the Nixon administration. Overall watching with the scenes and the clothing and hairstyles and dialogue it feels very early 70's as you watch the tag team duo turn clownish for the President. It's really funny with drama to watch how the break ins were botched, as dirty little tricks backfire. All of this really wasn't necessary still both Hunt and Liddy are determined Kool aid drinkers for Nixon, as you the viewer feel in company of a madmen like tag team. Overall pretty good historical parody of the 70's "Watergate" scandal that any political historical buff should watch.