Gaslit has a crazy cast (and is a must see)
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Martha Mitchell today is forgotten by most, but this jovial lady, a socialite lover of the limelight and the first to accuse the Nixon's administration of "shady deals" was a key figure of Watergate. At the center, at least initially, of the narrative is her, the wife of Nixon's most faithful lawyer, the sinister John Mitchell (Sean Penn, inexplicably recognizable under layers of makeup). Martha was the queen of the most prominent social events of the time, a lover of the limelight and the protagonist of hundreds of interviews where she expressed her own opinions outspoken. The couple who presented themselves as close-knit and accomplice will turn into the portrait of a prevaricating husband and a victim of terrifying abuse, only to end up with a heartbreaking separation. Mitchell was a despicable man, one of the countless portraits of corrupt and petty political and power figures that dot this series.
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As anticipated, a plethora of figures linked to Nixon and Watergate invade the scene and steal it from Martha, almost a to point out that a woman, however prominent, in 1970s America, could never truly conquer the stage. When Martha is relegated to the shadows, it is because her husband tries to keep her mouth shut (Mitchell resorted to segregation, psychiatric drugs and physical and psychological abuse to silence her), while her parents discredit her in the way they discredit women again. today: making them pass for emotionally fragile, hysterical, crazy. Roberts offers a monstrous interpretation, like an Oscar, covering a very wide spectrum of emotions, with verisimilitude and sensitivity that break through the stratosphere. What happens to her, experienced through her voice, her gaze and her body, sometimes becomes unbearable.
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In Gaslit, there are many other characters, many other stories, many other bloated interpretations. As G. Gordon Libby, a mad and fanatical figure, one of the guys involved in the raid on the sixth floor of the building that also housed the Watergate Hotel - the event guilty of starting it all - S hea Whigman of Boardwalk stands out. Empire. A delusional and unpredictable figure, he carves out a thick slice of filmic time to allow the narration to reveal lies, cover-ups, manipulations of public opinion perpetrated by Nixon's more or less secret collaborators (the great presence and absence, you can see it but only in images and archive videos). A large part of it is angry with the John Dean (legal consultant of the White House who first supported and then accused Nixon) of Dan Stevens, a tragicomic figure of a sick man and servant of the same and the protagonist of a sensational about-face. Of him and his narrative line - net of the scenes that see him confront (and be scolded) with his partner Mo (Betty Gilpin of Masters of Sex) - we would have done a little without. At the expense of a figure on whom the Jeb Magruder of the always good Hamish Linklater could have spent more, if only to make use of the talent of the protagonist of Midnight Mass.
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There is very little criticism in the Gaslit produced by Mr Robot's Sam Esmail: it is a political thriller with a sumptuous reconstruction but also and above all the story of a woman - touching and heartbreaking - intertwined with so many other stories of vile and mean men. Bright, funny, sharp, courageous and sincere like its (almost) protagonist, Gaslit is also raw, satirical and chilling. The public is lucky that they will enjoy it with a weekly program (in total the episodes that make it up are seven), because the critics who have been through it all in a row already take abstinence.
