[ad_1]
REVIEW: After a recent string of more sombre takes around Watergate, a new five-part series delivers the half-century-old scandal with a hefty dose of hilarity and satire.
The slightly cracked creation of former Late Show with David Letterman and Frasier writers Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, White House Plumbers (now streaming on Neon and Sky Go and debuting on SoHo tonight, Sunday, May 7, at 9.30pm) is far removed in tone from last year’s Gaslit or The Martha Mitchell Effect.
Bookended by disclaimers that “no names have been changed to protect the innocent – because nearly everyone was found guilty” and that while this is a dramatisation, “Richard Nixon definitely resigned from the Presidency in disgrace”, the freewheeling opening episode introduces us to the eponymous 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue “leak fixers” E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux).
READ MORE:
* White House Plumbers and the men who brought down the Nixon administration
* Netflix’s Fubar, Apple’s Platonic, TVNZ’s The Gone among May’s must-see TV
* G Gordon Liddy, Watergate mastermind, dead at 90
Considered unhireable after being dumped by the CIA following the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, Hunt is recalled from exile a decade later in the wake of the embarrassing publication of the Pentagon Papers. With an “s-o-b” needed to discourage any future security breaches, he’s been tapped to head up a “Special Intelligence Unit” alongside former FBI guy Liddy.
While initially distrusting of each other and their conflicting methods, the pair bond over the “need to create a climate of fear and distrust” within the White House’s staff. But although they are both agreed it’s them “against the radical left”, Liddy’s love for a certain controversial European leader of the 1930s and ‘40s (which includes owning records of his speeches) does give Hunt a few conniptions.
Justin Theroux and Woody Harrelson team up for White House Plumbers.
Still they’re united when it comes time for the unit’s first operation – a trip to Los Angeles to secure a medical file that could discredit whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg. Things, though, don’t exactly go to plan, although even the chaos they create doesn’t stop them impressing “the right people with their zeal and commitment”, especially when there’s espionage, sabotage, infiltration and disinformation urgently required by those currently in power.
Reminiscent in style to Adam McKay projects like Vice, The Big Short, The Other Guys, Don’t Look Up and Winning Time, most of the delights of Plumbers comes from the chemistry between its two leads.
White House Plumbers offers an entertaining, enlightening – and light-hearted – look at some of American politics’ darkest days (of last century at least).
As he showed in the charming Champions earlier this year, Harrelson is having something of a renaissance at the moment, while Theroux (The Mosquito Coast, Maniac) offers a welcome refresher on just what a terrifically dry comedic actor he can be.
Bolstered by an impressive supporting cast that also includes everyone from Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey to The Good Fight’s Gary Cole, The White Lotus’ F. Murray Abraham, Arrested Development’s Judy Greer, The Kominsky Method’s Kathleen Turner and The Patient’s Domhnall Gleeson, Plumbers offers an entertaining, enlightening – and light-hearted – look at some of American politics’ darkest days (of last century at least).
White House Plumbers is now available to stream on Neon and Sky Go. It will also debut on SoHo tonight, Sunday, May 7, at 9.30pm.
[ad_2]