White House Plumbers
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The volume is comically loud.
Everyones screaming to be heard.
Its completely deranged and hysterical, just a few centimeters past preposterous.
Then a local kid throws an egg at the house.
Despite the unflinching physicality Theroux brings to his role, this is not funny.
Its kind of stupid.
Even if it really happened, it feels stupid to watch it.
Theres too much happening at the same time.
The series opens on a night that only threatens to be familiar to audiences ofAll the Presidents Men.
Its such a succinct depiction of what follows that Im sort of shocked they didnt cut it.
It renders the rest of the episode redundant.
And its more controlled tone black and irreverent makes all the farcical stuff that comes next feel chaotic.
Still, we rewind about a year.
When Charles Colson Nixons White House lawyer calls, Howard assumes hes on the verge of a comeback.
Domhnall Gleeson plays White House counsel John Dean.
None of these men are individual characters at this point just blowhards with a collective distaste for commies.
They recon the doctors Beverly Hills office in ludicrous yet entirely penetrable disguises.
Not so top secret after all.
The walkie-talkies dont work.
Howard, who is meant to be staking out the shrink, loses him.
(Its because itstwocoffees, he patiently explained.)
In the end, the Cubans completely trash the doctors office but still dont find the file.
The Bozo Brothers are moved off the White House roster and onto the payroll of CREEP.
Now, Gordon and Howard are in the crucial business of keeping Nixon president by whatever means necessary.
He gives them a million dollars to put toward espionage and sabotage, electronic surveillance, and better walkie-talkies.
Gordons still a caricature dont get me wrong but its all somehow sadder.
And sadder even still is the Hunts homelife.
She wants to quit college, but her dad wont let her.
Meanwhile, the couples younger sons are disconcertingly adept at managing and avoiding the conflict in their house.
But mostly, the pilot had me thinking aboutScandal, another show about the distressing underbelly of U.S. politics.
