|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
13
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
|
Watch Now
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
Apr 27, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Mandel keeps the tone light (up to a point) and the energy high, and the expansive cast includes actors with comic bona fides Ike Barinholtz, Domhnall Gleeson, and Gary Cole, most of whom show up to steal a scene or two before disappearing back into the fabric of the story. ... It's Harrelson and Theroux's show, however, and both skillfully perform the tightrope act needed to keep the series funny without ignoring the gravity of the events it depicts.
Read full review
May 24, 2023
Season 1 Review:
We live, though, in uniquely incompetent times, and one of the shows that best captures this fact is a work of stylized history. White House Plumbers. .... As with traditional treatments of competence, the story delights in the details, turning Watergate into a step-by-step origin story.
Read full review
The Daily BeastMay 1, 2023
Season 1 Review:
White House Plumbers doesn’t feel pointless. The show’s ensemble cast is electric, and there’s a surprising amount of visual style to boot. Theroux and Harrelson are both stellar, but it’s the show’s delicate depiction of their characters’ real-life buffoonery that will jolt and delight both history-class dropouts and Watergate buffs alike.
Read full review
May 1, 2023
Season 1 Review:
“Lineage is very important to Gordon. Even more so than intelligence,” his subservient wife Fran (national treasure Judy Greer) says in one of the miniseries’ many cheeky lines of dialogue. ... The most interesting people in this story are the ones not central to it.
Read full review
IndieWireMay 1, 2023
Season 1 Review:
“White House Plumbers” likely won’t go down as the definitive Watergate tale (though a voice in Episode 4 sure seems like a nod toward one classic film), and its tone may be too indefinite to attract average TV fans. (It’s a historical drama steeped in absurd humor, just as it’s a satire absent “Veep’s” laugh-a-minute leanings.) Still, each element is made with such obvious enthusiasm for the time, place, and central story that it’s hard not to admire how the five-hour oddity adds up.
Read full review
Apr 28, 2023
Season 1 Review:
White House Plumbers thus tells a clear, coherent story about a famous event in American history, and at just five episodes there's not much bloat to complain of (though it probably could've been made as a movie in an earlier era). But those viewers looking to cackle as they did with Veep probably won't get more than an occasional chuckle.
Read full review
RogerEbert.comApr 28, 2023
Season 1 Review:
"White House Plumbers" is better before it gets to Watergate, with the first half depicting how Liddy and Hunt were bombastic but somehow good at their jobs. ... The “Can you believe this actually happened?” angle of "White House Plumbers" loses its edge when it gets to the aftermath of Watergate and underwhelms its supporting performances.
Read full review
May 1, 2023
May 1, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Watergate meets “Veep” in “White House Plumbers,” an at-times-surreal HBO limited series that occasionally feels a little too over the top, mostly because the real-life characters actually were. At its best, it’s a lightweight companion to “All the President’s Men,” presenting the flip side of all that planning and frantic covering up by what amounted to Keystone Criminals.
Read full review
ColliderApr 27, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The combination of shocking real-life events and stellar performances should spark a strong reaction but will likely evoke nothing more than a shrug at best and slight annoyance at worst. It’s a stylish watch, sure. It’s just a shame it feels like that was chosen over substance.
Read full review
Apr 28, 2023
Season 1 Review:
White House Plumbers is a series of partially managed chaos, in which every actor in the impressive ensemble feels like they’re in a different show, and here’s the thing: The discordance is probably largely intentional and I’m confident it’s a valid interpretation of one way that Watergate probably felt from inside. It still makes for a frustrating and not wholly satisfying TV series.
Read full review
The PlaylistApr 27, 2023
Season 1 Review:
It’s a show filled with talented, funny people, and they generally make smart decisions, especially Theroux, Gleeson, and Barinholtz. Harrelson ends up with more mixed results. ... However, a lot of the issues with Harrelson’s mediocre performance here go back to the writing, which is way too content to merely add a few jokes to the Wikipedia highlights of this story.
Read full review
The GuardianMay 30, 2023
TV Guide MagazineMay 5, 2023
Season 1 Review:
We're in the company of a mad man and a madman, and I couldn't wait for it to end. [8 - 21 May 2023, p.6]
May 1, 2023
Season 1 Review:
It’s not without funny moments, nor without interesting performances — even though leads Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, and Lena Headey all seem to be acting in different projects from one another — but on the whole feels like a long joke where the punchline gets repeated again and again.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score