Domhnall Gleeson in White House Plumbers Image Via HBO
By
Liam Gaughan
Published Feb 21, 2026, 9:04 PM EST
Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows.
In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O'Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA.
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The “Watergate scandal” involving the administration of President Richard Nixon has been one of the most well-documented moments in American history. In addition to films like All the President’s Men and Dick that were about the break-in itself, Watergate has also been an essential part of biopics of the President, including Nixon, Frost/Nixon, and Secret Honor. The implications of Watergate also inspired several conspiracy thrillers that created similar scenarios, including The Conversation, The Parallax View, and Capricorn One. However, in all these studies of Watergate, attention was rarely paid to those who actually performed the break-in, and why they were motivated to act on behalf of President Nixon. White House Plumbers is a quirky, enlightening HBO series that shines a spotlight on the colorful characters involved in a major incident that shaped the next few decades of American politics.
Inspired by a non-fiction novel by Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh, White House Plumbers explores the bizarre true story of two self-proclaimed patriots within Nixon’s White House who were convinced to stage the Watergate break-in, and ultimately end up taking the fall for it. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) was a longstanding member of the CIA who worked alongside the bumbling White House lawyer G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) to serve as a covert organization known as the “White House Plumbers,” who were tasked by the attorney John Dean (Domhnall Gleeson) with fixing any “leaks” that may have come from Nixon and his allies. However, this isn’t a typical HBO drama about the “best and brightest” members of an espionage crew; the misadventures that Hunt and Liddy get into result in a hilarious satire about who actually has the power to shape the actions of a nation.
HBO's 'White House Plumbers' Spoofed One of America's Greatest Scandals
White House Plumbers is unique among recreations of the Nixon administration because the series is focused on the actual minutia of how the break-in happened, and not just about its ramifications. Although Watergate would become a stand-in for many political films of the 1970s, the scandal escalated because of the way that the Nixon administration doubled-down on their obstruction of justice. The actual burglary was a relatively minor incident, which makes it so funny that Liddy and Hunt treat it as an important moral duty that they have on behalf of their nation.
The show explores how the desire for power and legacy is enough to convince people to take elaborate risks that they can’t justify. Hunt at least seems to be aware that what they are doing could have severe consequences, but he sees performing a dangerous activity as a means to possibly gain the favor of senior members of Nixon’s inner circle. Of course, most of the powerful Republicans at the time had no idea who Liddy and Hunt were, which is made clear within a particularly amusing scene with John Caroll Lynch as Attorney General John N. Mitchell.
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Posts By Liam GaughanEven ignoring the pointed commentary on who actually ends up shaping history, White House Plumbers is a great buddy comedy with two actors who have finally been able to sink their teeth into comedic roles. Harrelson has done so many serious television and film roles recently that it's easy to forget that he was once a comedy icon with White Men Can’t Jump, Kingpin, and Wag the Dog. Similarly, Theroux had been doing more serious work with The Leftovers and The Mosquito Coast, and White House Plumbers gave him the opportunity to be just as colorful and idiosyncratic as he was with his animated voice work. One of the standout moments of the scene is a painfully awkward dinner party in which Liddy and Hunt introduce each other to their respective wives; Hunt and his wife Dorothy (Lena Headey) quickly learn that Liddy and his wife Fran (Judy Greer) are eccentrics who shouldn’t be given any degree of influence.
HBO's 'White House Plumbers' Is a Relevant Piece of Satire
White House Plumbers finds it comedy in showing the escalation of the situation and how poorly managed it was from the beginning. Liddy and Hunt were clearly ill-fitted for the responsibility of infiltrating Democratic headquarters, but they ultimately couldn’t be blamed for a heist for which there was little planning. It was due to the vast ignorance of the other conspirators that everyone else ended up being prosecuted, as no one would ever believe that Liddy and Hunt were the "masterminds" behind it all.
Join the Newsletter for Sharp Takes on Political TV
Subscribe to our newsletter for analyses that unpack shows like White House Plumbers, reveal how satire reframes scandals, and offer context-rich perspectives on history through television. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.It’s a scathing takedown of how scapegoating works in conspiracies, but also an ironic reflection on how history is written. Even though Liddy and Hunt were involved in a failed plot that resulted in a changing-of-the-guard within the White House, they won’t be remembered in history textbooks the same way that the more prominent conspirators were. Given that HBO has a knack for historical miniseries like Band of Brothers and John Adams, White House Plumbers was a nice change of pace because it wasn’t afraid to poke fun at the self-importance of people who tried to avoid culpability. Looking back at the past in White House Plumbers wasn’t just revelatory, but successful in putting history into perspective.
White House Plumbers
Biography
Drama
History
5
10
Release Date
2023 - 2022
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White House Plumbers
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Justin Theroux
Join the Newsletter for Sharp Takes on Political TV
Subscribe to our newsletter for analyses that unpack shows like White House Plumbers, reveal how satire reframes scandals, and offer context-rich perspectives on history through television. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.What To Watch
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