Everything about Gaslit (StarzPlay) is at the pinnacle of prestige television as it stands in 2022. 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. Now, it joins all the other shows that mix similar elements and hope to alchemise them into something wonderful.
Gaslit tells the story of the Watergate scandal, starting in January 1972, five months before that infamous break-in at the DNC headquarters. Plenty of people saw the clip of Dan Stevens on The One Show that went viral recently. “What you’ve got is a criminal for a leader who is wrapped in a messy war, embroiled in a stupid scandal and surrounded by ambitious idiots and really should resign,” he said, leading up to a punchline you could see coming from Mars.
