ANOTHER WATERGATE TAKE

SERIES IN REVIEW

DEADPAN HUMOR MAKES FOR COMPELLING INTERPRETATION

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Creator Alex Gregory takes everyone into the minds of the team leaders behind the Watergate burglaries.

Woody Harrelson as E. Howard Hunt and Justice Theroux as G. Gordon Libby deadpan their way into the media spotlight after their crew get caught planting listening devices at the National Headquarters of the Democratic Party in 1971.

US President Richard Nixon’s administration had hired Hunt and Libby to organize a dirty tricks unit that would assist in the reelection of the president in 1972.

Gregory masks the real life political events in a bit of a parody to reveal why the team of Cubans and ex-CIA agents loyal to the Whitehouse caused more damage than good. Although Nixon was reelected, the celebrations would be short lived as the media scrutiny intensified around the burglary at the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC, ultimately causing Nixon’s resignation before the end of his second term.

Hunt makes a series of bungles in his delegation of assignments based on an overconfident and over glorified self-image as a master spy in the HBO Series, White House Plumbers (2023).

And to make matters worse, Hunt’s co-conspirator, Libby, is overzealous with a borderline neo-Nazi disorder that involves listening to illegal German Nazi recordings.

Harrelson and Theroux are cast well together, with the two spies bonding well and seeing themselves as the saviors to America operating in the deep background of the presidency.

But the Whitehouse plumbers have a bit of comedic tragedy about them as they make one mistake after another.

This bumbling spy theme is intertwined with the actors demonstrating the idiosyncratic nature of their characters. A light score faithful to the era of late ‘60s and early ‘70s compels many of these scenes.

Lena Headey performs Dorothy Hunt as the loyal old school housewife who shares the same mindsight and remains loyal as long as her husband continues to be successful. Dorothy, though, is overqualified as a stay at home mom, presenting as capable of running more than her own household and providing more than emotional support to her husband’s endeavors.

Director David Mandel tells the story in five episodes, providing a unique spin on the true events that have stayed in the public spotlight for 50 years.

Mandel takes the camera inside the personal lives of the masterminds behind the White House black ops, following them about as they attempt to complete prep work for the Watergate break-ins.

Mandel also subtly sketches the cocktail generation and the nuclear family with all their shortcomings, including during marital sex.

Several scene advances drive the narrative along with the acting and the circus-like score all forming part of an interpretation that is not all that flattering.

Another story about the Watergate break-ins that overturned a democratically elected presidency is worth a watch for the directing and acting art and for the overlay of comedic tone over five episodes that seems to fly by through red traffic lights.