White House Plumbers (2023)

The HBO limited series succeeds as another account of the Nixon scandal thanks to its stellar cast, meticulous construction, and dark-comic spirit. Harrelson and Theroux stand out as fine stooges in this Watergate farce.

White House Plumbers is a rollicking Veep-style Watergate farce that revels in political incompetence and feels painfully familiar to modern politics. It has a heist-movie aura with broad performances highlighting bungling schemes and contemporary echoes.

The series is giddy fun that romps along with pitch-perfect chemistry between Harrelson and Theroux as the odd-couple bunglers, but it is also a cautionary tale about incompetence and the real political consequences of zealotry. It is television dynamite that does justice to the true story.

The critic praises the drily funny tone and real chemistry between Harrelson and Theroux as the incompetent Laurel and Hardy of political espionage, with their growing bond almost touching; Lena Headey stands out as the exasperated wife throwing their stupidity into relief.

The series works better as a dual character study of the bromance between Hunt and Liddy than as a lecture on history; it delivers tongue-in-cheek reenactments but struggles to justify another Watergate retelling overall.

The manic hijinks-heavy comedy struggles with tonal traction and insufficient management of chaos across five episodes, exhausting viewers with buffoonery before an abrupt shift to seriousness; strong ensemble performances are undercut by the format.

The series is a meandering political farce with a star-packed cast that rapidly loses interest unless one is an aficionado of 1970s US political scandals. It lacks a clear identity, with off chemistry and parts that do not fit together despite slick production values.

Fifty years on, the Watergate scandal is played for laughs as bungling farce rather than outrage, though it feels a bit all over the place by the end. Justin Theroux channels a malevolent Ron Burgundy as Liddy in this comedy that turns serious.

The tonally messy miniseries explores surprising true-life facts and fictions around the Watergate conspirators, treating the bumbling masterminds as comedic figures with some human dimensions emerging later. Praises the shocking real events highlighted and the impressive cast while noting the broad, cartoonish performances.

The miniseries has the makings of a great show but settles for being merely adequate; it's not sharp enough as satire or resonant enough as drama, with disjointed pacing and flattened characters. Praises the stylish aesthetic and the leads' chemistry while criticizing the writing, underutilized supporting cast, and lack of substance.

The critic finds it a sporadically funny series about not-very-bright guys letting things get out of hand, but notes the comedic approach doesn't fully gel with the material and it might have worked better as a movie. Praises the leads' chemistry while criticizing the broad performances and lack of depth or momentum.

The series is a cartoonish rehash that wants viewers to know the plumbers did many other stupid things besides the famous break-in; the ham-handed acting distracts, but it ties in intriguing real details. Praises the focus on compelling peripheral figures like the wives while criticizing the central portrayals as buffoonish.