Gaslit premieres on Starz on April 24, 2022, with new episodes weekly on Sundays.
In the first episode of the Slow Burn podcast, host Leon Neyfakh compares Martha Mitchell to Anthony Scaramucci. Trump’s communications director was at the center of political discourse during his 10-day tenure, delivering a constant stream of outrageous quotes and stories before disappearing from the news. Likewise, Martha, an Arkansas socialite and wife of Richard Nixon’s Attorney General John N. Mitchell, was briefly one of the most famous people in America and a key figure in exposing the Watergate scandal, but was largely omitted from the retelling of the final days of the Nixon presidency.
Gaslit, a six-episode Starz miniseries based on the podcast, brings Martha back to the fore as part of a strange cast of lawyers and spies conspiring to sabotage the Democrats ahead of Nixon’s reelection campaign. The first episode offers a blend of dark comedy, paranoia, and personal drama to present a version of the Watergate story that’s chillingly familiar at a time when current politics feels equal parts surreal and on the brink of true crisis.
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Julia Roberts plays Martha alongside Sean Penn, who plays John and is almost unrecognizable thanks to a receding hairline and prosthetic cheeks. Both selling off their stormy relationship, they depict a couple who were deeply in love before John’s job moved them from New York to DC and took up most of his time and attention. Throughout the episode, they bicker about Martha’s penchant for speaking to the press, babble on a rivalry with First Lady Pat Nixon and speak out against the Vietnam War, then reconcile with sticky pet names and physical affection bestowed on their 11-year-old shame daughter Marty (Darby Camp).
While Martha plans a posh fundraiser for Nixon, John works on a spy campaign against his political rivals. White House Counsel John Dean (Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey and Legion) points out that given Nixon’s lead in the polls, this hardly seems necessary, but he is quick to put aside his practical and ethical concerns about the matter when he sees the opportunity to get on well with the President. In a clever way of storytelling from director Matt Ross and writer/creator Robbie Pickering, Nixon has no lines and is only seen in silhouette. He’s like a ghost that hovers over the episode and its characters, motivating them without being directly involved in the plot.
Stevens delivers a remarkable performance as he alternates between bewilderment and horror at the plans proposed by FBI Agent G. Gordon Liddy (Shea Whigham), who comes up with a presentation that suggests kidnapping Democrats or using prostitutes to seduce. Whighan, who previously co-starred in Homecoming with Roberts, devours the scene here as a man with an unwavering devotion to Nixon and his brand of male power, who sees himself as a warrior against communism and feminism. There isn’t a scene where he doesn’t steal, starting with the episode’s unsettling intro in which he judges the nature of human struggles while proving his resolve by holding his hand over an open flame.
Rounding out the cast is Mo (Betty Gilpin), a flight attendant who meets John through a dating service and, despite their political differences, sees the best in him. The episode shows the fragmentation of DC, posh gatherings of the political elite punctuated by Vietnam protests, and John cruising the streets in his mustard Porsche while a homeless man defecates on the sidewalk. There is a clear parallel between the Mitchells’ and John and Mo’s fragile relationships, where the seduction of fame, fortune and power has the clear potential to trump any romance.
With the events of Watergate only beginning at the end of the episode, the premiere promises an even wilder ride.
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During a big argument at a fundraiser, John delivers a devastating sentence to Martha: “All those journalists you call in the middle of the night are not your friends. They just can’t take their eyes off a good show.” Martha puts on a good show in the first episode of Gaslit, breathing new life into well-known political intrigues by filling them with absurdity and genuine emotion. With the events of Watergate only beginning at the end of the episode, the premiere promises an even wilder ride.