Two men set out to protect a presidency and end up destroying it: "White House Plumbers" retells the Watergate break-in from inside the operation that triggered it.
What is The White House Plumbers about?
This five-part series follows E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, the political operatives tasked with plugging leaks inside Richard Nixon's White House, as their covert unit spirals from surveillance work into the break-in that would unravel Nixon's presidency. Rather than framing the story around Nixon himself, the series stays close to Hunt and Liddy, tracking the mix of loyalty, ambition, and miscalculation that pushed two men convinced they were protecting the country into becoming the reason it fell apart. The tone leans toward dark comedy at points, without losing sight of how consequential the underlying events were. As a limited series built around a defined historical episode, it moves briskly across its five episodes, using the mismatched partnership between the cautious Hunt and the more reckless Liddy as its throughline. The result is a character study of two men who believed they were the last line of defense for an administration, told with the hindsight of knowing exactly how that belief ended.
About the cast
Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux play Hunt and Liddy, with Lena Headey, Domhnall Gleeson, Ike Barinholtz, Kiernan Shipka, Kathleen Turner, and Yul Vazquez rounding out an ensemble drawn from the wider circle around the two operatives. The pairing of Harrelson and Theroux carries the series' central dynamic, playing two very different personalities pushed into the same doomed operation.
Context & significance
"White House Plumbers" is a 2023 American biography and historical drama running roughly 55 minutes per episode across its five-part run. It draws on the true events of the Watergate scandal, presenting the political and historical setting factually as backdrop for its two central figures rather than offering commentary on the politics involved. The series sits alongside other historical dramas that revisit well-documented events through the perspective of lesser-known participants rather than headline figures.
Watching The White House Plumbers on Ktime
"White House Plumbers" is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, so Farsi-speaking viewers can follow the series in their own language from the first episode. Watching requires only a free K-Time account login, and the platform's interface is designed around a Farsi-first experience for the Iranian diaspora audience.