White House Plumbers

White House Plumbers was nothing like I expected. I thought it was going to be just another show on Watergate, Nixon and how everything went down. There is no doubt that Watergate is one of the biggest presidential scandals in United States history and led to the embarrassing resignation of Nixon. That's what I thought this show was going to be about and it is, but it's so much more. It's absolutely hilarious. This is shown from the perspective of E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) and how ridiculously comical their attempts at Watergate were. Both Harrelson and Theroux were so good in this that they were nominated for several awards for their performances. The only negative was it's only five episodes long, I could've watched this a lot longer.

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!

I started watching this series for nostalgic 70's cultural and historical references.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

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.

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!