White House Plumbers (Season 1)

White House Plumbers (2023) is an HBO limited series you can watch online on iFILM. Across five episodes it plays the Watergate scandal as pitch-black comedy, following two men who set out to save Richard Nixon's presidency and managed to sink it instead. Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux lead.

Ex-CIA man Howard Hunt and former FBI agent Gordon Liddy are tasked with plugging the leaks pouring out of the administration. What should be quiet spycraft turns into farce: clumsy wiretaps, fake mustaches, harebrained schemes, and the disastrous break-in at the Democratic headquarters that finally gets the burglars caught red-handed. Lena Headey appears as Hunt's wife Dorothy, with Domhnall Gleeson, Judy Greer and Kiernan Shipka filling out the crew. Showrunner David Mandel, who steered the satire of Veep, keeps the tone balanced between thriller and absurdity.

This isn't a dry reenactment of the break-in; it's a portrait of the bunglers behind it — vain, incompetent and weirdly human. Great for anyone who likes political satire built on real history and remembers how trying to win reelection at any cost actually ended. Stream White House Plumbers (2023) online on iFILM.