Think All the President’s Idiots.
Turning the Watergate scandal right into a slapstick tragicomedy isn’t almost as novel a notion as White House Plumbers, HBO’s cartoonishly acted five-part docu-dramedy, appears to suppose it’s. (If you wish to see a superior tackle the story, try final yr’s entertainingly riveting Starz miniseries Gaslit, which takes a wider view of the intrigues with a give attention to colourful whistleblower Martha Mitchell, performed by Julia Roberts.)
This newest retelling zooms in on the chief bumblers — er, “plumbers” — who orchestrated the botched break-in that took down the Seventies Nixon administration: E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux). These former and really aggrieved CIA and FBI brokers, respectively, see themselves as democracy’s champions throughout Nixon’s re-election marketing campaign after they’re employed to supervise the plotting of soiled methods that invariably backfire.
“Is any of this nickel-and-dime cloak and dagger stuff necessary?” wonders Hunt’s spouse, Dorothy (Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey within the collection’ greatest efficiency), herself a former CIA agent. The reply is not any. But attempt telling these clowns, who view their antics as a approach again into positions of revered authority. As if.
Harrelson paints Hunt as a one-note rage monster, a strolling ulcer who leads along with his jutting chin, whereas Theroux retreats inside the oily psychosis of a perverse Nazi fanatic. (As Liddy’s inanely loyal spouse, the normally spot-on Judy Greer feels miscast.) This Mutt and Jeff staff boils right down to a mad man who can barely tolerate the madman whose grandiose schemes make them each a laughingstock — till nobody is laughing.
I do know I wasn’t. This story of political chicanery is framed as a cautionary story of poisonous machismo and swollen ego, with Hunt, having misplaced every part, in the end concluding, “All I have left is regret.”
Having spent 5 hours of their firm, I understand how he feels.
White House Plumbers, Limited Series Premiere, Monday, May 1, 9/8c, HBO