White House Plumbers Mines Comedy from Watergate Missteps

White House Plumbers is an HBO miniseries that turns its attention to the operatives who carried out the Watergate break-in. Inspired by a non-fiction book by Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh, the series follows Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), two self-styled patriots enlisted to fix leaks for the Nixon administration and tasked by John Dean (Domhnall Gleeson) with covert activities.

Rather than dwelling on the scandal’s aftermath, the show focuses on the small, often absurd details of the burglary itself, highlighting how a relatively minor incident was blown up by misplaced conviction and poor planning. Hunt sometimes recognizes the danger of their actions, but both men are driven by a desire for power and legacy, while many senior Republicans remain oblivious to who they really are, a point underscored in a scene with John Carroll Lynch as Attorney General John N.

Mitchell.

United States

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