Television series

Gaslit

Name: Gaslit
Genre: Drama
Released: 2022
Cast: Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, Dan Stevens, Betty Gilpin, Darby Camp

Gaslit reframes Watergate through the eyes of its overlooked players—Martha Mitchell's fierce truth-telling, John Dean's moral reckoning, the operatives and enablers caught in the machinery. It's a propulsive political thriller told with dark humour and genuine bite, for anyone who enjoys watching institutions crumble from the inside.

TVMaze rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a political drama built around ordinary people caught inside a scandal, where the pleasure is in watching ambition curdle into paranoia across eight hour-long episodes.

Skip it if you want the Watergate story told straight, with the familiar headline figures front and centre; this one keeps shifting to the bungling aides and the people around the men in power.

What it asks of you: Eight hour-long episodes that move at a deliberate, talky pace, staying with the characters' small decisions and rising unease rather than delivering quick jolts or big set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Trial of the Chicago 72020

A crackling ensemble courtroom drama about protest, power, and the gap between justice and politics. Aaron Sorkin's screenplay crackles with wit, and the cast—Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II—is impeccable.

But It can feel theatrically heightened rather than lived-in, and some political points land harder than others depending on your patience for speechifying.

All the President's Men1976

The foundational Watergate thriller: two reporters pursuing the story nobody else will touch. Redford and Hoffman crackle, the paranoia is thick, and it moves with the inevitability of a machine finally breaking.

But It's 50 years old and plays like a procedural now—the pacing is deliberate, and some of the surveillance-state paranoia has aged into period detail rather than lived urgency.

The Crown2016

Monarchy under pressure, told through intimate domestic scenes and political maneuvering. Like Gaslit, it finds the human cost of power and uses ensemble acting to make institutional collapse feel personal and devastating.

But Ten hours per season is a lot, and the show's willingness to dramatize recent history as fact frustrates many viewers. It demands patience.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Gaslit

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Meet John Doe1941

Both explore how individuals become tools of institutional machinery; how truth gets bent by those with power to define it; how complicity spreads farther than intent.

Frank Capra's forgotten masterpiece about a con man who becomes a symbol, and the systems—media, politics, ideology—that weaponize ordinary people. It's a Watergate story told 30 years early, and it's devastating.

But It's 1941 cinema: slower, more theatrical in performance, and the ending is bleak in ways Capra usually avoided. Black-and-white and dialogue-heavy.

Succession2018

A family business imploding from the inside, with everyone complicit and no one innocent. The writing is vicious, the power dynamics are intoxicating, and it captures how institutions protect themselves while destroying each other.

But It's bleak to the point of meanness sometimes, and if you're looking for a redemptive character arc, you won't find one. Also four seasons is a hefty commitment.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy2011

A Cold War thriller about a bureaucracy hunting a mole at its heart. Gary Oldman's exhausted intelligence officer navigates institutional paranoia and betrayal with devastating quiet. It's Watergate's frozen-over twin.

But It's deliberately oblique and slow-moving. If you need exposition spelled out, you'll be frustrated. It assumes you're tracking multiple loyalties without always telling you what's happening.

The Post2017

Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks as the Washington Post's decision-makers during the Pentagon Papers crisis. It's a brisk, intelligent thriller about institutional courage and the press's responsibility to truth.

But Spielberg's direction is occasionally heavy-handed, and the political message never risks much complexity. It's a ''good people doing the right thing'' story, which can feel thin.

Veep2012

A pitch-black political comedy about incompetence, ego, and the machinery of power collapsing under its own weight. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is magnificent, and the writing finds genuine darkness under the jokes.

But Seven seasons is a lot, and the comedy can overshadow the stakes. If you want your political drama played straight, the constant punchlines might undercut the seriousness.

Hidden Figures2016

A smart ensemble drama about brilliant women fighting institutional racism to reach the space program. Like Gaslit, it finds moral clarity and humanity in the margins of a larger historical machinery.

But It sometimes softens its edges for palatability, and it's more uplift than critique. If you want a darker reckoning with power, this is gentler.

The Inspection2022

Both show how institutions survive by breaking individuals who threaten them; how loyalty and silence are coerced; how the powerful protect themselves by destroying the vulnerable.

A searing, intimate drama about a young Black gay man in Marine Corps boot camp—a systems story told through a single body enduring institutional violence. It's unflinching about how power works on flesh, not just in boardrooms.

But It's brutally difficult to watch. The homophobia and racism are not contextualized or softened. If you need some distance from suffering, this offers none.

Ghostland2018

Both centre gaslighting—the literal manipulation of truth by the powerful—and both ask who gets believed and why institutions protect abusers. Martha Mitchell's battle to be heard mirrors the film's exploration of silenced women.

A French-Canadian horror film about gaslighting, trauma, and a woman's credibility in the face of institutional disbelief. It's visually stunning and structurally daring, using genre to explore how women are made to doubt their own reality.

But It's a horror film with graphic violence and disturbing sexual content. It's also formally experimental in ways that might feel alienating. Not a comfortable watch.