Gaslit

Julia Roberts is fantastic as 'mouth of the south' Martha Mitchell in this prestige bit of TV – and she knows it.

This side of the story is superior to the Four-Lions-at-the-White-House farce of the break-in, and it is far more intriguing, though it is fun to see Chris Bauer (of The Wire and The Deuce fame) as the half-chilling, half-bumbling James McCord. There is just a slight sense of unevenness. (This isn’t light on symbolism, and those familiar with the Martha Mitchell side of the story will spot many signposts along the way.) The scene in which he is challenged over the definition of a gemstone is pure silliness, and very funny. Watergate and Nixon are a familiar story to many, though, so in order to breathe some fresh air into it, the series takes a sideways glance, using “mouth of the south” Martha Mitchell (Roberts) and her husband as its way in. It is based on a highly acclaimed podcast, Slow Burn (the Watergate season); it is a period drama that looks the business; it reframes a well-known historical story; and it is led by A-list movie stars, in this case Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. Once, this combination of ingredients would have made Gaslit a rare delicacy. It plays many of the macho antics for comedy, which works well, because it is often dealing with belief-defying stupidity. Plenty of people saw the clip of Dan Stevens on The One Show that went viral recently.

Stevens was initially keen to sit down with the Republican lawyer, but the actor changed his mind once word got out of the planned meeting.

A bit more money and the same thing for another decade,” Stevens replies, “or the great unknown. “But the question is what would satisfy you? Stevens says now, “It’s not something I expect people to readily understand.

Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, Dan Stevens, Betty Gilpin and more star in this political thriller that lacks cohesion.

Shea Wigham in "Gaslit" (Starz)"Gaslit" sizzles with some hilarious lines, not all of them spoken by Martha, who does get zingers like: "Jesus Christ wouldn't make it through the Republican primary." And a lot to try to balance. The gaslighting of the title doesn't begin right away, it isn't the biggest part and it's also an anachronism to call the show after a kind of psychological abuse that would not be known to Martha or any of the characters at the time. "Gaslit" is being billed as the Julia Roberts show, but it's really an ensemble piece. Over the course of the seven episodes given for review, it sparks the most when the minor characters are allowed to take the stage. His portrayal of John Mitchell stands out in the series, as does, of course, Julia Roberts as his wife, Martha. Deeply loving, deeply violent and always sparring, increasingly desperately, the two have a relationship that recalls another Martha, from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Julia Roberts stars as the wife of John Mitchell, President Richard M. Nixon's attorney general at the time of the scandal.

The men of "Gaslit" are preoccupied with shifting blame and sticking others with assignments that will backfire on them in the end. Martha Mitchell wasn't good, not in the way the patriarchy demanded in 1972 and beyond. Roberts said on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" that Martha Mitchell would be popular today. From the vast distance of 50 years, the events of Watergate seem a tame precursor to the assaults on democracy that America faces today. In one scene, "Gaslit" even coyly plays on past adaptation of the story like the 1976 film version of "All the President's Men." It shows Bob Woodward, shown only from the back, slipping into a court hearing for the burglars. It's "Lord of the Flies" with black suits and stiff cocktails before dinner. Roberts is superb as she reveals the toll the smear campaign took on Mitchell and her marriage, which is rooted in real passion but threatened by her husband's wavering loyalty. "Gaslit" describes Mitchell in its press notes as "the first person to publicly connect the Nixon administration to Watergate." But in real life, she was no progressive whistleblower. After the bungled 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee's offices in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., leaves members of Nixon's team scrambling to cover up their dirty deeds, Mitchell becomes a potential liability for the White House. The effort to keep her quiet results in her being drugged and virtually kept prisoner for days. In the early 1970s, Mitchell was discredited by the Nixon administration as mentally unstable. And if that doesn't conform to the president's message, so be it. A biography of Martha Mitchell by journalist Winzola McLendon describes a floral arrangement sent to her 1976 funeral by an unidentified fan.

Julia Roberts is returning to television to play Martha Mitchell, the wife of John Mitchell who became a source of controversy due to her outspoken comments ...

That Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globes-winning actress has starred in Mystic Pizza, Pretty Women, Erin Brockovich, and Homecoming. Martha’s husband John N. Mitchell, Attorney General under President Nixon, is played by Sean Penn. The Oscar-winning actor is best known for his roles in Mystic River, Milk, and 21 Grams. Altogether, there will be eight episodes in this STARZ miniseries. Little by little it would eventually be revealed that the group that orchestrated this break in was connected to President Nixon’s administration.

Julia Roberts plays Martha Mitchell in Gaslit, an entertaining new Starz series about the Watergate scandal that ended Richard Nixon's presidency.

Like so many of the decisions made in Gaslit, it is a show of devotion that is born out of a dangerous delusion, one which prioritizes power and position over morality. The series, which was created by Robbie Pickering and directed in its entirety by Matt Ross (Captain Fantastic), occasionally attempts to broaden its scope and paint a comprehensive portrait of 1970s American society, but it is only intermittently successful at doing that. If Martha and John are on the downslope of a once-great marriage when Gaslit begins, then John Dean (Dan Stevens) and Maureen “Mo” Kane (Betty Gilpin) are, as Martha sadly observes in the show’s premiere, at “the beginning of something.” John’s a member of Nixon’s White House counsel and Mo’s a stewardess. As a result, much of the drama in Gaslit stems from Martha and John’s toxic relationship, one that ricochets between loving and sexual to abusive and demeaning repeatedly throughout the series. Opposite her, Penn is fittingly sleazy — if a little underused — as John Mitchell, a political scumbag of the highest order who is brought to life in the show via several layers of impressive prosthetic makeup. It’s a show that charts the downfall of Richard Nixon’s presidency but rarely shows the man himself because it’s too busy investigating the motivations of the men (and women) who were willing to commit treason for him.

'Gaslit' premiere recap: Martha Mitchell struggles with her marriage and politics, while John Dean is drawn into the Watergate conspiracy.

John invites her to the fundraiser anyways and once she finds out it’s for the Mitchells, she promises to think about it. Dean changes his mind about resigning and exits the office. But later, Dean “runs into” Mo at the airport (he stalked the hell out of her), and she calls him “a little psychopath” for tracking her down. The election is around the bend, and Mitchell asks Martha to keep things quiet for just a few more months. He was manipulated by Mitchell. “Learn to recognize a snake when you see one,” Haldeman suggests. To thank Dean for his work, Mitchell invites him to Martha’s fundraiser at his house. Martha says she learned long ago that she will say how she feels, and if it doesn’t conform to the president’s message, so be it. (Mostly because Liddy seems like a total nutjob who might murder him where he stands.) But that said, Dean says they should never talk about it ever again. It’s a tale woven deeply into the fabric of American history, but here it’s told with a quirky sense of humor and from a fresh new angle. Dean goes to see his boss, John Mitchell, who says he’s “re-evaluating” personnel. “History isn’t written by the feeble masses — the pissants, the commies, the queers and the women,” the political zealot tells us. Thus is our introduction to this fresh spin on Nixon’s re-election campaign and the scandal that followed, only this time, the story revolves around the lesser-known character who made up his inner circle.

In Starz's new Gaslit, premiering Sunday, central Watergate figure John Dean is played by Dan Stevens. In White House Plumbers, an upcoming HBO limited ...

In his book, Chapin writes that as Watergate began to unfold, Martha “spoke of things she claimed to know — and in some cases actually did know — which caused a huge problem for our administration.” That is a version different than has been depicted in a number of movies and books — including those that will unfold over the next few months. “I hope this helps us re-examine the stories we tell ourselves about history, and the heroes we make, and how selective we are about those heroes,” Pickering says. In his book, Chapin lays out a view that challenges the image of Dean as a heroic figure, but rather someone who bore much responsibility for engulfing the White House in the debacle, keeping Nixon in the dark. Chapin says that he got to know reporter Carl Bernstein when he was living in East Hampton, N.Y., and the historical narrative proved to be a topic of debate. You look at it an he only testified out of convenience, well why does John Dean get lionized as a hero for the rest of time, but Martha is forgotten?” “I think that’s all of us at a certain base level — moron — and it comes from emotional need and emotional messiness. All the President’s Men is one of the great all-time classics of moviemaking, and has probably done more to keep Watergate in the sphere of relevance than another other film. A Netflix documentary, The Martha Mitchell Effect, focuses on the wife of Attorney General and later Nixon election campaign chair John Mitchell. “Watergate is one of those stories where hubris brings nemesis,” says Tim Naftali, clinical associate professor of public service at New York University and former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. “It makes it a source of optimism for people who felt that Donald Trump somehow escaped justice, escaped sort of a reckoning. “The story is picaresque, with weird and wonderful characters including Martha Mitchell, but it’s also a drama that played out differently from something that we all watched. He says that they did focus group interviews as part of the renovation of the Richard Nixon Library “and Watergate would come up as a curiosity.