- Network: HBO
- Series Premiere Date: May 1, 2023
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Critic Reviews
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In parts, “White House Plumbers” delivers a tongue-in-cheek, amply resourced reenactment from a cast and crew of HBO regulars. As a whole, the show can’t quite mount a convincing case for another piece of Watergate media, though it has fun playing in the margins.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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It seems to lack a clear identity or a clear sense of what it is. It looks the part, and the talent involved is undeniable, but somehow the chemistry is off and the parts don’t fit together. These on-screen dirty tricks just aren’t quite dirty enough.
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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]
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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.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 18
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Mixed: 2 out of 18
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Negative: 2 out of 18
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May 7, 2023