To put it inEntertainment Weeklyparlance, a good alternate title forGaslitmight be “Untold Stories: Watergate Edition.”
“It means basically the same thing as being gaslit,” explains creator Robbie Pickering.
“And I think [the title]Gaslitreflects the take we have on the show.
Sean Penn and Julia Roberts in ‘Gaslit’.Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Starz
It has this domino effect on the whole story.”
"
The resulting series is the culmination of Pickering’s lifelong fascination with the 37th president.
“And the history of Nixon and the culture around Nixon doesn’t disappoint.
Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell in ‘Gaslit’.Starz
Pickering’s boss onMr.
Maybe if he had chosen her over Nixon, her life would have been very different.”
(Martha died in 1976, just three years after separating from John.)
Dan Stevens and Betty Gilpin as John and Mo Dean on ‘Gaslit’.Starz
“And then she realizes it’s not an affair.
It’s not a hot redhead, it’s mass corruption.
Nixon is the hot redhead in this scenario.”
Shea Whigham as G. Gordon Liddy in ‘Gaslit’.Starz
Those two relationships gave Pickering the emotional throughline he needed for the show.
And I didn’t want to judge Liddy," Whigham says.
He wasn’t a snitch, and he did his time.
That was where I started."
I wanted to make him as human as possible."
That approach sums up the ethos ofGaslitin general, too.
And there are really relatable reasons for it.
“It doesn’t surface because of one man, or the unique conditions in this time in history.
It surfaces because we all have the same emotional pitfalls.
“But also,” he adds, “everybody has this capacity within them to be heroic.
And that often comes from just as messy a place as complicity.”
Gaslitpremieres Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Starz.
it’s possible for you to see more from the cast and Pickering in the video above.
