Table Of Content
- White House Plumbers — Limited Series
- Review: Brilliantly acted, HBO’s ‘The Regime’ flirts with satire but lacks political bite
- Grant Gustin, ‘The Flash’ cast mark superhero’s disappearance day, as teased in show’s pilot
- Does a home warranty cover plumbing?
- Where to Watch
- On the ways Watergate speaks to today's political moment
This five-part limited series imagines the behind-the-scenes story of how Nixon’s political saboteurs, E. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect… and their families along with it. Chronicling actions on the ground, this satirical drama begins in 1971 when the White House hires Hunt and Liddy, former CIA and FBI, respectively, to investigate the Pentagon Papers leak. After failing upward, the unlikely pair lands on the Committee to Re-Elect the President, plotting several unbelievable covert ops – including bugging the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex. Proving that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, White House Plumbers sheds light on the lesser-known series of events that led to one of the greatest political scandals in American history. "White House Plumbers" is better before it gets to Watergate, with the first half depicting how Liddy and Hunt were bombastic but somehow good at their jobs, which helped them lead Nixon's corrupt Committee for the Re-election of the President.
White House Plumbers — Limited Series
Gordon Liddy are part of the "White House Plumbers". Charged with plugging press leaks by any means necessary, they accidentally overturned the Presidency they were trying to protect.
Review: Brilliantly acted, HBO’s ‘The Regime’ flirts with satire but lacks political bite
We certainly didn't lean into it, but we wanted it there. That kind of gives you a little bit of perspective, you get the modern-day perspective on Watergate and you kind of get this 50-year perspective on what's going on right now in our government. If Gordon Liddy existed nowadays, he'd be in a chat room somewhere.
Grant Gustin, ‘The Flash’ cast mark superhero’s disappearance day, as teased in show’s pilot
At one point, Kathleen Turner takes centre stage, as the notorious lobbyist Dita Beard, shipped off to hospital to keep her away from the White House. Judy Greer is Liddy’s wife, Domhnall Gleeson is White House counsel John Dean, and Mad Men’s Rich Sommer and Kiernan Shipka dust off the period costumes once again. The Veep showrunner David Mandel directs, which should give some idea of the acerbic tone it aims for. The obligatory “based on a true story” note that opens the show cheekily points out that “no names have been changed to protect the innocent, because nearly everyone was found guilty”. Over five episodes, it follows the inept misadventures (and that’s putting it lightly, although, surprisingly, the series does occasionally allow space for an interpretation of the pair as quirky goofs) of the Nixon operatives E Howard Hunt and G Gordon Liddy. White House Plumbers is an A-list, star-stuffed, prestige retelling of the Watergate scandal, which might sound familiar to viewers of last year’s Gaslit, another A-list, star-stuffed, prestige retelling of the Watergate scandal.
They were called the Plumbers because, well, plumbers locate and stop leaks. Its attempts to be a jack of all trades sometimes make it a master of none. The pace is meandering, which is odd, considering there is so much happening, and it doesn’t pick up steam until well into episode two; Watergate non-aficionados may not make it that far. Theroux turns the volume up to 11 as Liddy, while Harrelson has more depth to find, with a more rounded backstory of family strife and money troubles.
“White House Plumbers” grabs a few chuckles from how Hunt is only a layer away from Liddy's nuttiness or that he’s a dorky dad with a secret job. But Harrelson's veneers and gurgly voice do a lot of the heavy lifting for an otherwise bland comedic and dramatic performance. Hunt’s character has a tragic element that Harrelson doesn’t get to the bottom of, and it's a missed opportunity. So we come to “White House Plumbers,” a tale in five parts, premiering Monday on HBO. White House Plumbers gets clogged up by its overstuffed adherence to real history, but with actors this appealing and material that truly is stranger than fiction, it flushes down easy enough.
Nearby plumbers in and around Los Angeles
There are nods to current populist rhetoric, particularly in some of Liddy and Hunt’s more provocative statements. “It’s just you and me against the entire radical left. Let the record show that Gordon Liddy shits red, white and blue,” barks Liddy. Hunt, a former CIA agent still fuming from the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and Liddy, whose tenure with the FBI did not end well, had plenty in common.
On the ways Watergate speaks to today's political moment
Even though it came back to bite him, Nixon’s willingness to break the law — and order others to break it — does seem to mark the beginning of a win-by-any-means age. Right away, you know this new White House Plumbers series is in great hands. Specifically, it's in the hands of writers and creators Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, both of whom worked on HBO's Veep and The Larry Sanders Show. The director of multiple episodes is David Mandel, who directed episodes of Veep and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
It's definitely worth seeing, and savoring. All the President's Men is one of my favorite movies of all time — and White House Plumbers is good enough to be shown as a very long, all-Watergate double feature. Start from the beginning of the series and watch the first episode of White House Plumbers for free. Get the Envelope newsletter for exclusive awards season coverage, behind-the-scenes stories from the Envelope podcast and columnist Glenn Whipp’s must-read analysis. LOS ANGELES — On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C.
White House Plumbers: Where Howard Hunt's Daughter Lisa Is Now - Screen Rant
White House Plumbers: Where Howard Hunt's Daughter Lisa Is Now.
Posted: Sun, 17 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
He's actually oddly a very modern character who was mostly obsessed with getting famous, and he really didn't care how it happened. He would have been happy to have had some sort of a scandal. He talked a big game, but didn't actually serve in the war and never quite actually killed anyone and had these delusions. There's a desperation to him that's part of why he's so dangerous. Parts of White House Plumbers are laugh-out-loud outrageous – but other parts do make you feel for some of these people, and, of course, compare that scandal to more contemporary ones.
And the many executive producers include Frank Rich, who's also an executive producer on Succession. So this group knows how to tell a story in unexpected ways, and to find the humor even in the more serious situations. The actors Justin Theroux (left) and Woody Harrelson play G. Howard Hunt in the new HBO miniseries White House Plumbers. Professional plumbers do not expect a tip.
Review: HBO's 'White House Plumbers' Is an Amusing Take on Watergate - Reason
Review: HBO's 'White House Plumbers' Is an Amusing Take on Watergate.
Posted: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
That’s not to say that “White House Plumbers” isn’t interesting or watchable, or sometimes as funny as it wants to be; there’s too much talent behind and in front of the camera for that to be the case. There’s some fine bumbling in the burglary scenes. The production is first-rate, the period work never rings false, crowd scenes are not threadbare, and choice D.C.
Liddy calls black ops “black bag”, to the hilarity of the CIA stalwarts he is dealing with. Liddy is not a man who enjoys being laughed at, although the schemes he tries to pitch to Dean are frequently absurd. There are times, in reading this, playing it and watching it, where there's almost something kind of adorable or corny. Nixon could be shamed enough to actually resign. Whereas now there's been so many impeachments of both Republican and Democratic presidents.
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