White House Plumbers is an American satirical political drama television miniseries created and written by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck and directed by David Mandel, based on the 2007 book Integrity by Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh. The 5-episode series stars Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Domhnall Gleeson, Kiernan Shipka, and Lena Headey and it premiered on HBO on May 1, 2023. A new episode is released every Monday.
G. Gordon Liddy and his associate, Howard Hunt, who led the disastrous espionage operations later known as the Watergate scandal, considered their actions as patriotic. This miniseries from co-creators Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck presents the two wacky “Dirty Tricks” specialists motivated by their extreme loyalty to the country and President Nixon. But this leads to Liddy and Hunt’s shady and clumsy work with Daniel Ellsberg (The Pentagon Papers) leak and then the Watergate break-in. And their superiors, like Attorney General John Mitchell and White House Counsel John Dean, supported and funded them. In White House Plumbers John Dean is both a co-conspirator and accessory to the political shenanigans that later brought down Nixon.
Justin Theroux in his role of G. Gordon Liddy goes over the top with the tar-black, openly fake-looking mustache of Liddy. Theroux revels in the dangerous craziness of his character displaying the agent’s troubling love of Hitler’s speeches, guns, and propensity to keep his hand over a flame as a gesture of his trustworthiness and toughness.
Woody Herrelson delivers a blend of comedy and tragedy with his role as Howard Hunt attempting to rein in Liddy’s nutty actions. At the same time, Hunt’s family is in crisis and his financial problems increase. Herrelson’s controlled performance balances the wild escapades of Liddy.
I was surprised to learn the actual Watergate break-in was the FOURTH attempt by the Plumbers to access files in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) office. If you’re interested in the bizarre and twisted story of the Watergate break-in, White House Plumbers reveals the actual true events in all their humorous yet disturbing detail. GRADE: A–
I won’t see this in Europe probably but it might be better that way.
I lost all my trust in US democracy with Watergate – and it didn’t help that there were other shady activities in Washington.
OT:
T C Boyle has written “Blue Skies”, a new dystopian novel which right now was translated into German and got rave reviews, have you read it?
Wolf, we all lost faith in Government with the Watergate Scandal. I have a copy of T. C. Boyle’s BLUE SKIES around here somewhere.
Not a fan of Boyle, who’s work with a single exception has been too precious in my experience. But the one short story does give some faint hope of other better work.
Todd, I’m with you on Boyle’s tendency towards “precious”–and not in the sense of Gollum and The Ring.
Hunt also published 73 novels during his lifetime, including many spy and hard-boiled thrillers nunder the names Robert Deitrich, Gordon Davis, David St. John, and P. S. Donahue. During the Watergate flapdoodle, I once asked Gloria Amory, then secretary for the Mystery Writers of America, was Hunt was ever a member of MWA. He wasn’t.
Jerry, Woody (Hunt) mentions his writing in WHITE HOUSE PLUMBERS but his life-style demanded a lot more money to sustain than paperback novels. I’ve read a couple of Hunt’s spy and hard-boiled novels. They’re okay.
I think watching this is a satire put me off. But I may give it a try.
Patti, the events in WHITE HOUSE PLUMBERS actually happened. It’s incredible that such silly yet dangerous operations got the Green Light from the Nixon Administration despite the political risks.
I enjoyed the first episode, though Jackie wasn’t very interested. I was surprised, too, to learn that this was the fourth attempt. Their break-in at Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office in L.A. was ridiculously incompetent. I will definitely keep watching.
I read several of Hunt’s novels, most in the David St. John/Peter Ward spy series. They weren’t bad, though nothing special to write home about (so to speak).
I’d forgotten that his first wife was killed in a plane crash the year that Watergate happened.
Jeff, you had the same reaction to Hunt’s spy novels as I did. Okay, but nothing to write home about, indeed! Hunt comes off as a frustrated figure: troubled home life, disappointing professional life.
The preview of things to come in the increasingly unhinged American political scene that began with Nixon & Agnew and continues today with the rat’s nest of declared or anticipated GOP contenders for 2024. I met Gordon Liddy once, long after Watergate, when he hosted a nationally syndicated radio talk show out of Fairfax, VA. That day, at least, he was low-key and friendly.
Fred, you’re right about the unraveling of American Politics beginning with Nixon & Agnew. John Dean, who I once considered a Good Guy because of his testimony during the Watergate Hearings, comes off as a willing accomplice to the hijinks Liddy and Hunt planned.
The unraveling of American politics goes back to Lyndon Johnson, at the very least!
Bob, good point! LBJ and the Vietnam debacle certainly contributed to the disorder of the Sixties…which led to Nixon.
I’ll note here what I’ve noted elsewhere…there is a bit of fictionalization at play here, but not too much, as with the even better GASLIT series last year on Starz and currently being repeated on their channels (which was mostly about events around John Dean and his eventual wife Maureen and Martha and John Mitchell, but no little about Liddy et al., as well)…but I’m enjoying this one as well. Definitely no hagiography.
GASLIT and most other texts and recounting I’ve seen portray Dean as a bumptious, slightly smartass reflexive Republican who eventually realizes that the folks he was dealing with were whackjobs to a degree he hadn’t fully appreciated, or chose not to fully realize while building his career.
Also, any good drama which features Lena Headey is doing at least that correctly.
Todd, Lena Headey is terrific as Dorothy Hunt. But I was astonished that Rita Beard was played by Kathleen Turner!
Todd, your assessment of John Dean hits the mark. It slowly dawns on Dean that the projects Liddy and Hunt operated–both illegal and borderline idiotic–could blowback on him.