Series / Gaslit

An American political thriller Mini Series that has Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts), wife of John N. Mitchell (Sean Penn) who was the first to sound the alarm on a break-in that soon leads to the Watergate Scandal.

The series also stars Dan Stevens, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Darby Camp, Allison Tolman, JC Mackenzie, Chris Bauer, Chris Messina, Carlos Valdes, among many others.

It aired Starz from April 24 to June 12, 2022.

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Tropes for the series:

• The '70s: Takes place from the break-in at Watergate to Nixon eventually resigning from office in 1974.
• All for Nothing: The opening episodes have characters openly asking why they are bothering to spy on the Democrats when Nixon is leading by double digits in every poll and the election is "in the bag." Sure enough, Nixon won in a historic landslide only to resign in disgrace and his reputation forever tarnished in scandal.
• Alliterative Name:
  • Martha Mitchell.
  • Marty Mitchell.
  • Charles Colson.
• Ambition Is Evil: John Dean's arc centers around him being drawn into Nixon's inner circle through his involvement in the break-in and cover-up. It strains his relationship with Maureen and eventually lands him in prison. Dean admits in the final episode that hearing himself on the White House tapes, he barely recognizes himself after spending so much time close to the President.
• Anachronism Stew: One episode shows John and Mo Dean watching a Sesame Street episode where Cookie Monster is interrogated by journalist Robert McNeil about stealing cookies (dubbed "Cookiegate") and responding to questions with variations of "I don't recall." This episode actually aired in 1988, well after the events of the series, though it was clearly parodying McNeil's coverage of Watergate for PBS.
• Ax-Crazy: The portrayal of Gordon Liddy, who enjoys killing rats to overcome his fear of them, roasts his hand over an open flame to prove his toughness, sings Nazi anthems and routinely threatens to murder his coworkers for "betraying" him. All of this is barely an exaggeration of things Liddy himself admitted to in his memoirs.
• Beauty Inversion: Believe it or not, that's Sean Penn buried under layers of make-up to play John Mitchell.
• Caught on Tape: Subverted when Mitchell is called into a meeting at the Oval Office where Nixon's inner circle acts like they barely know Liddy when every one of them met him numerous times. They then press Mitchell to explain how he put the entire Watergate burglary together. Realizing what's happening, Mitchell brings up scores of other dirty tricks the team has pulled that would implicate them more on tape. He then laughs it all off before leaving. As soon as he does, Chuck Colson asks, "Wait, are there microphones in here?"
• The Ghost: Nixon himself only appears in silhouette (and in the final episode, shown in extreme close-up as he showers and dresses in his bedroom) and never directly as a character.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: A major goal of the series is to focus on figures like Martha Mitchell, Frank Wills and the FBI agents investigating the break-in as opposed to the usual names of Nixon, Haldeman and other White House higher ups.
• Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: Unsurprisingly, the Ervin Committee's hearings on Watergate play a central role in the series, with Dean called as a witness and Nixon and Mitchell attempting to manipulate them behind the scenes. Martha Mitchell, however, was never called before the committee as depicted in the show.
• Historical Domain Character: Most of the cast. The principals are:
  • Martha Mitchell, the woman who blew the whistle on Nixon's involvement in the scandal, which eventually leads to his resignation.
  • John N. Mitchell, Martha's husband and Attorney General of the US.
  • John Dean, Nixon's White House Counsel-turned-whistleblower.
  • Gordon Liddy, the most fanatical member of the Plumbers.
  • Frank Wills, the security guard who uncovers the Watergate burglary and becomes a reluctant celebrity as a result.
• Historical Hero Upgrade:
  • A few scenes make Martha Mitchell seem more progressive than she actually was. The depiction of the Carole Feraci incident in particular: whereas Martha silently but sympathetically watches her hustled off the stage after her protest, in reality Martha was leading the hecklers herself while demanding that Feraci be "torn limb from limb." In general Mitchell was known for her outspoken conservative opinions and generally supported Nixon and her husband's policies, despite disliking John's involvement in politics.
  • While John Dean isn't the most sympathetic character in the series, Gaslit overemphasizes his supposed naivety by showing him only getting involved with White House "dirty tricks" by hiring Gordon Liddy. Dean had worked for the White House for almost two years by that point, and had already been involved in harassment campaigns against Nixon's political opponents long before Watergate. As a minor point, while he wasn't a member of Nixon's inner circle, Dean had met Nixon on several occasions before the events of the series and certainly wasn't unknown to Haldeman (who hired him), Ehrlichman or others.
• Mission Briefing: As in Real Life, Liddy gives an extravagant one to Mitchell, Dean and Magruder wherein he outlines his "Operation Gemstone" plan of political sabotage against the Democrats. He's infuriated when Mitchell instructs him to come back with something less expensive.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Martha's "bodyguard" Peter, who keeps her locked up in the Mitchell estate after the break-in and later roughs up and sedates Martha, is based on Steve King. Presumably his name was changed because King is still alive and active in politics in Real Life, having served as a Republican political organizer in Wisconsin and as Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Frank Wills uncovers the Watergate burglary which sets in motion the biggest America political scandal of the century. His reward is a brief splash of fame, a miniscule bonus from his boss and ultimately being fired from his job for bringing undue attention to his employer. Wills eventually leaves DC altogether and moves back to Georgia with his parents, preferring obscurity to unrewarding notoriety.
• One-Word Title:
  • Will.
  • California.
  • Honeymoon.
  • Tuffy.
• Punch-Clock Villain: A few of the more sympathetic Nixon staffers like burglar James McCord, who is guilty at worst of blind loyalty to Mitchell, and arguably Dean and Jeb Magruder, fall under this category.
• Stupid Crooks: Invoked by Magallanes when he and FBI partner Lano track the burglars to a Nixon campaign office. As he notes, they've been going under the assumption they were dealing with professionals escaping notice by being a few steps ahead "but what if they're just idiots?"
• Women Are Wiser: A consistent theme of the series is how women in the Nixon Administration react to the pressures of political life, often more reasonably and ethically than their husbands. Martha most obviously, who is unwilling to keep her opinions to herself or to share her husband's self-sacrificing loyalty to the President despite the White House's attempts to smear and silence her. Maureen Dean constantly calls John out on his self-serving attempts to exculpate himself from the cover-up and helps coach him for his Senate testimony. It extends even to minor characters like Jeb Magruder's wife, who convinces him to testify because it's the only way he'll avoid a long prison sentence.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: A common reaction.
  • The White House higher-ups can't believe a simple burglary got turned into this mess, thanks to sheer incompetence. There's also the reaction to how many of these plans were recorded on tape.
  • L. Patrick Gray confesses to his staff that for the last year, he's been giving the White House inside information, complete with forms and reports, about the Watergate case.
  Magallanes: Sir...you're not saying you've been leaking our investigation...to the people we've been investigating?
  Gray: (Chuckles) Ah, no, I wouldn't say that...Yeah, that's about right, yeah. That's accurate. And that's all going to come out.
• Young Future Famous People: One episode features Frank Wills meeting several political activists, including a young Elijah Cummings and a character implied to be Hillary Clinton at a bar,^note Clinton did work for the House impeachment committee's legal staff in 1974, though the scene with Wills takes place a year earlier who praise him for his exposure of Nixon's corruption.