Os Encanadores da Casa Branca

I started watching this series for nostalgic 70's cultural and historical references.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

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!

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.

White House Plumbers was nothing like I expected. I thought it was going to be just another show on Watergate, Nixon and how everything went down. There is no doubt that Watergate is one of the biggest presidential scandals in United States history and led to the embarrassing resignation of Nixon. That's what I thought this show was going to be about and it is, but it's so much more. It's absolutely hilarious. This is shown from the perspective of E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) and how ridiculously comical their attempts at Watergate were. Both Harrelson and Theroux were so good in this that they were nominated for several awards for their performances. The only negative was it's only five episodes long, I could've watched this a lot longer.

All historians remember the times of the early 70's and the scandal plagued Nixon administration and anybody knows, you don't have to be a history student to know about Watergate as the incident has long been dissected all thru pop culture. This new "HBO" 5 part miniseries called "White House Plumbers" takes a dark hearted comedic like look at the guys who worked behind the scenes in a clumsy and crazy like way in the Watergate break in. Justin Theroux and Woody Harrelson have good on screen chemistry as Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy both former CIA and FBI agents respectively who's trying to help the president would ultimately break down the Nixon administration. Overall watching with the scenes and the clothing and hairstyles and dialogue it feels very early 70's as you watch the tag team duo turn clownish for the President. It's really funny with drama to watch how the break ins were botched, as dirty little tricks backfire. All of this really wasn't necessary still both Hunt and Liddy are determined Kool aid drinkers for Nixon, as you the viewer feel in company of a madmen like tag team. Overall pretty good historical parody of the 70's "Watergate" scandal that any political historical buff should watch.