When “The Diplomat” premiered last year, it was often compared to “The West Wing.” The comparison made sense. Series creator Debora Cahn cut her teeth as a writer on the show both during and after creator Aaron Sorkin’s tenure. In her new show, she brought the same type of daffy seriousness that defined its predecessor. It also had the same wild tonal swings between screwball comedy and political thriller but without the preachiness that defined the Sorkin walk-and-talk.
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It was, in short, a more complicated view of American politics that felt at home in 2023. Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell’s Kate and Hal Wyler were not archetypes but, instead, seriously flawed career diplomats, nevertheless striving to create a type of diplomatic equilibrium while the world seemed hell-bent on throwing all manner of problems at them. Problems came fast and furious, both politically and through their marriage, which was near the brink of collapse. Added to this were strong supporting turns by Ali Ahn as Eidra, the CIA station chief, Ato Essandoh as Kate’s deputy chief of mission Stuart, and David Gyasi as Austin Dennison, the UK Foreign Secretary who acted as both a sounding board for Kate and a possible romantic partner.
If Season 1 managed to balance the personal and professional in a way that harkened back to the best of “West Wing,” Season 2 probably won’t be compared as often, despite the addition of Allison Janney to the cast. Instead, it’s much more convoluted, messy, and propulsive. It also tilts its interests heavily towards the professional, jettisoning much of the interpersonal drama that acted as B-plots in that first season.
With that, the comedy of errors that defined much of Kate’s introduction to her role as the American Ambassador to England has also gone. Instead, we’re given a revolving series of backdoor deals, betrayals, and politicking. This makes sense, considering that the first season ended with a car explosion that left the fates of Hal, Stuart, and embassy officer Ronnie (Jess Chanliau) unknown.
This season picks up immediately in the aftermath of that event, tracking Kate and Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge’s (Rory Kinnear) attempts to solve both the car explosion and the attack that happened in the pilot: an explosion of a British aircraft carrier that left 41 sailors dead. As the last season ended, they had tracked the blast to the Russian mercenary Roman Lenkov. The search for him and the reasons behind the attack are the crux of this season, in addition to the possibility of Kate taking over as vice president, a plot that was teased in the first season but comes more to the forefront here, enough so that the current VP Grace Penn (Janney) comes to England.
It’s all a little hard to track while also being wildly entertaining. While perhaps a bit more elevated than the ‘gourmet cheeseburger’ that Netflix strives for, “The Diplomat,” like Kate’s constant bedhead and rumpled suits, works best when it’s not wasting its time with minor details. It also helps that Russell is in top form, portraying a sense of exasperation that only gets worse as the season progresses. Like all great sequels, the setbacks that she and Hal face here are consistently compelling. Yet those hoping for a deeper exploration of Hal and Kate’s marriage, Kate’s flirtation with Dennison, or even Eidra and Stuart’s budding relationship will have to wait until the already green-lit third season because there is little time here for anything not related to Trowbridge and the carrier attack.
How that narrative is resolved is fascinating and well worth not being spoiled on. The show provides a multitude of red herrings that are truly absurd in the best way. An escalating series of twists in the back half of the six-episode season had me rolling my eyes while simultaneously hitting ‘next episode’ immediately once the option came up. If that sounds like a backhanded compliment, it’s not because the show is perfectly tuned to the Netflix binge-model.
Cahn and her co-writers deploy an almost amorphous episode structure that seems patently designed to keep you hooked for five(ish) hours. Everything bleeds together to the point that breaking down each episode is futile when they are all so perfectly reverse-engineered to lead into a cliffhanger that demands more viewing. And they really are designed with this in mind. The season ending one is both credulity-straining and even more insane than the car explosion that capped off the previous season. It’s also one that pushes the show in a wild new direction for season three. I, for one, cannot wait. [B]
“The Diplomat” premieres October 31 on Netflix.
