OCTOBER 2022:
This critique contains spoilers and detailed episode information, do not read further if you have not watched ‘Gaslit’ in its entirety!!!
A PRETTY WOMAN GASLIT…
Gaslit is a 2022 American political thriller television limited series created by Robbie Pickering for STARZ. It is based on the first season of the Slate podcast Slow Burn by Leon Neyfakh. It starred Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, Dan Stevens, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, and Darby Camp. It premiered on STARZ on April 24, 2022, and was comprised of 8 episodes that began in 1972 and followed the story of the Watergate scandal through the lives of several individuals involved in the Nixon Presidency era scandal. The main protagonist of the limited series was Martha Mitchell, known as “The Mouth from the South” due to her propensity to attract the attention of the press by talking with them and often at the most inopportune times for her husband, Nixon’s Attorney General, John N. Mitchell. Being aware that her behavior made her unpopular with the government and her own husband, and seen as a liability by both, Martha eventually blows the whistle on Nixon’s and his staffer’s knowledge of the activities surrounding the Watergate Scandal.
MY BEST FRIEND’S PERSPECTIVE…
The other perspectives in the limited series surrounding the events of the Watergate scandal come from the bungled burglary’s coordinator, unstable mentally and radicalized Nazi sympathizer, G. Gordon Liddy, who on June 17, 1972, led a gang of ex-FBI agents and Cuban exiles into the Democratic National Committee headquarters located at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C. to try to wiretap the headquarters for the Richard Nixon campaign for re-election. He is responsible for presenting the Nixon administration at the White House with this grand plan for the wholesale infiltration of the Democratic Party. The other perspective comes from that of Nixon’s White House Junior Counsel, John Dean, who is at first pleased to be chosen personally by the President of the United States for his position, but soon becomes apprehensive and unnerved by the administration’s involvement in criminality right up to the point that he realizes he is being set up as a fall guy. Dean’s personal life becomes complicated and entangled with his involvement in the Watergate scandal and conscience crisis as a result, due to his engagement and subsequent marriage to a political left-wing activist, Mo Dean. The limited series looked to bring back to the forefront the characters of the Watergate scandal who were front and center of it all but who have faded from public memory. The limited series also looked to change the narrative of the events of 1972-1975 and refocus them away from the white men in positions of power often told when discussing the Watergate scandal, to the white wives of those white men, a black security guard and Italian and Hispanic FBI field agents, who were all the real people that the scandalous events centered around, and not the Nixon White House staffer that simply outsourced the crime of power.
CONFESSIONS OF A CAST…
MAIN:
Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell
Sean Penn as John N. Mitchell
Dan Stevens as John Dean
Betty Gilpin as Mo Dean
Shea Whigham as G. Gordon Liddy
Darby Camp as Marty Mitchell
RECURRING:
Allison Tolman as Winzola “Winnie” McLendon
J.C. MacKenzie as Howard Hunt
Chris Bauer as James McCord
Chris Messina as Agent Angelo Lano
Carlos Valdes as Agent Paul Magallanes
Hamish Linklater as Jeb Magruder
John Carroll Lynch as L. Patrick Gray
Jordi Caballero as Eugenio Martinez
Oscar Torre as Virgilio Gonzalez
Jeff Doucette as Senator Sam Ervin
Patton Oswalt as Charles Colson
Nat Faxon as H.R. Halderman
Martha Kelly as Rose Mary Woods
Patrick Walker as Frank Wills
Raphael Sbarge as Charles N. Shaffer
Keisuke Hoashi as Senator Daniel Inouye
Anne Dudek as Diana Oweiss
Chris Conner as John Ehrlichman
Brian Geraghty as Peter Bailin (based on Steve King)
Reed Diamond as Mark Felt
Jim Meskimen as Senator Edward Gurney
Johnny Berchtold as Jay Jennings
Adam Ray as Ron Ziegler
Kat Foster as Barbara Walters
Aleksandar Filimonović as Zolton
OCEAN’S 8 EPISODES…
- Episode Title: “Will” Director: Matt Ross Air Date: April 24, 2022
The first episode was written by Robbie Pickering. Martha Mitchell struggles to balance the demands of a re-election campaign with that of her marriage. John Dean’s ambition as White House Counsel is tested as he finds himself drawn unknowingly into a conspiracy inside Nixon’s re-election campaign.
- Episode Title: “California” Director: Matt Ross Air Date: May 1, 2022
The second episode was written by Robbie Pickering & Amelia Gray. Martha and John rekindle their love and their power-couple working relationship at a campaign event in California, overshadowed by G. Gordon Liddy and his team bungling the break-in at the Watergate.
- Episode Title: “King George” Director: Matt Ross Air Date: May 8, 2022
The third episode was written by Robbie Pickering & Amelia Gray. As John Mitchell and his subordinates struggle to manage the Watergate coverup, Martha finds herself in a dangerous situation. John Dean puts his relationship on the back burner as his work life begins to spin out of control.
- Episode Title: “Malum in Se” Director: Matt Ross Air Date: May 15, 2022
The fourth episode was written by Alberto Roldán & Amelia Gray. Martha and John try to enjoy their new life away from politics, but Martha has trouble moving on from what happened to her in California. At the Republican National Convention, John Dean has a hard time moving on from his breakup.
- Episode Title: “Honeymoon” Director: Matt Ross Air Date: May 22, 2022
The fifth episode was written by Robbie Pickering & Anayat Fakhraie. Martha finally speaks out, putting a strain on her marriage. The FBI comes closer to an answer on the real story behind Watergate and John Dean is forced to come clean to Mo on their Camp David honeymoon.
- Episode Title: “Tuffy” Director: Matt Ross Air Date: May 29, 2022
The sixth episode was written by Uzoamaka Maduka & Sofya Levitsky-Weitz. Frank Willis, the security guard who lost his job at Watergate over the break-in, struggles with his newfound fame.
- Episode Title: “Year of the Rat” Director: Matt Ross Air Date: June 5, 2022
The seventh episode was written by Amelia Gray. All hell breaks loose between Martha and John surrounding her decision to testify. John Dean is surprised by a new legal development as G. Gordon Liddy faces his own trial in solitary confinement.
Episode Title: “Final Days” Director: Matt Ross Air Date: June 12, 2022
The eighth episode was written by Robbie Pickering. In the final days of the Nixon administration, Martha struggles to keep her family together in the midst of her decline. Dean and Mo are ready for their own future as G. Gordon Liddy gives Dean a parting gift.
THE PRODUCTION BRIEF…
Gaslit is from Universal Content Productions and was announced in February 2020, with executive producer Sam Esmail attached and Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, Armie Hammer, and Joel Edgerton as part of the cast. Edgerton was also set to direct the series along with his brother Nash Edgerton. Hammer would exit the series due to personal conflicts in January 2021 and Dan Stevens would be cast in his role in April 2021. The limited series was picked up by STARZ in February 2021, while both Edgerton brothers left the series, and Matt Ross joined as the new director. Betty Gilpin, Darby Camp, and Shea Whigham, who was cast in the Edgerton role left open, joined the cast in May 2021. Filming began the same month in Los Angeles, California. In July 2021, Allison Tolman, J.C. Mackenzie, Chris Bauer, Chris Messina, and Hamish Linklater joined the cast in recurring roles. The limited series was given a premiere date of April 24, 2022, and the final episode aired on June 12, 2022. When asked in an interview about the limited series narrative, creator and writer Robbie Pickering stated that the series was not attempting to girl boss and try to overcorrect the history of the Watergate scandal, but rather to accurately depict the historical events of the 70s era political scandal and show the human stories that illustrate the depth of the public scandal that resulted in Richard Nixon resigning from the Presidency on August 9, 1974.
TICKET TO SCANDAL…
My critique of the limited series, Gaslit is positive, if you’re a fan of Julia Roberts, then the series does not disappoint. It felt like she was gone for a minute, and it was a nice return, and to have it on television is even better. It was also perfect timing in Roberts‘ career, for she handles the firecracker convictions and history of Martha Mitchell with care and when you watch her in the role, you couldn’t see anyone else playing the part. It is also amazing to watch her scenes with Sean Penn as well, not just because of the caliber of acting between them in their scenes together, but also because Penn is so unrecognizable as John N. Mitchell that if you weren’t told it was Sean Penn under all the prosthetics, you would question who is portraying the disgraced Attorney General and friend of President Richard Nixon. It’s hard not to watch the plight of Martha Mitchell in the political landscape of truth, and not think of America’s current political climate. Maybe that’s what makes the show a solid watch and worthy of your time, either way, you win by watching Gaslit. Maybe you love political thrillers, maybe you are reminded of the Watergate era in American politics when you turn on the news lately, or maybe you just love Julia Roberts, any one of these options will be satisfied by choosing to watch the limited series Gaslit tonight.
All 8 episodes of Gaslit are available through your local cable provider ON DEMAND now on the STARZ channel or through the STARZ app.