Les plombiers de la Maison-Blanche

I started watching this series for nostalgic 70's cultural and historical references.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

White House Plumbers is a five part HBO mini-series based on the actual historical events when Nikon's own saboteurs got caught during Watergate Scandel. E. Howard Hunt who is played by Woody Harrelson and G. Gordon Libby played by Justin Theroux are former FBI agents who are hired by Nixon to break-in to Watergate to steal or to overhear the Democratic parties strategies. Unfortunately they were unprofessional and careless undercover operatives that got caught in the act. The series was more comedic and a historical piece than anything else. Lena Headley acted as Woody's wife who was a former operative herself, unfortunately she ends up dying in a plane crash which might or might not have been cohorts by the FBI. Judy Greer played Justin's stay at home to help raise there five kids. Although they were implicated and indicted for over 20 years they served less than 5 years in minimum federal security prison. Kim Coates, Tony Plana, F. Murray Abraham were the Cuban individuals who were hired to break in, I never knew they failed twice to get into the hotel. The story started out slow but it was a good piece, I could definitely see Justin and Woody being nominated for their roles.

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.

My brother and I watch a lot of tv and then review it so even though this came out last summer we just now finally got around to watching White House Plumbers and were very entertained by it. So much so that we binged all 5 episodes over a weekend. Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux are absolutely brilliant in this political satire on one of the most famous events in American history. HBO is known for putting out the best quality tv there is and White House Plumbers is another home run from them. Even though there is a lot of satire in this, they never stray from the facts of what actually happened. You won't find anything that you didn't already know about Watergate but I promise you've never seen it from this point of view. I promise you'll laugh mo matter what political party you support. At only five episodes long, it's definitely worth your time.

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!