Gordon Liddy.Ī rewatch of director Alan J. Exaggerated in part to the point of satire, it’s nevertheless a telling look at the scandal and its key players, including a wildly over-the-top Shea Whigham as G. This eight-part dramatization of Watergate is worth catching for those who haven’t seen it, with Julia Roberts as whistleblower Martha Mitchell, an unrecognizable Sean Penn as her husband, Nixon Attorney General John Mitchell, and Dan Stevens as John Dean. “Watergate: High Crimes in the White House” (CBS )Īlthough Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are among those interviewed, there’s a bit more of a skew in this documentary toward CBS’ role as one of the few TV news outlets to cover the scandal, including Lesley Stahl’s recollections about the story, footage of Walter Cronkite weighing in on the scandal and stately reporter Daniel Schorr discovering on air that he had earned a spot on Nixon’s enemies list as he read through the names. (CNN and HBO Max are both part of the same parent company, Warner Bros.

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. Watergate meets “Veep” in this new limited series, an at-times-surreal account that occasionally feels a little too over the top, mostly because the real-life characters actually were. Watching some of the newer and more recent productions devoted to that story, as well as revisiting older ones, offers a few insights about tho Watergate years, and a reminder that Nixon’s scandals went well beyond just sending a few hapless burglars into the Democratic National Committee headquarters.įor those who might see Watergate as ancient history, these projects – featuring those who participated in and covered the story – also underscore that this previous constitutional threat was much closer than it appears in the rear-view mirror.Īs for refresher courses, here are a few options, including some that qualify as Watergate-adjacent in terms of helping to understand or remember what happened.

With the premiere of HBO’s “ White House Plumbers,” the Watergate scandal is having yet another moment, 51 years after the original break-in that ultimately led to Richard Nixon’s resignation.

A scandal in spring