The Diplomat (Netflix series, 2023)
The Diplomat is an alluring political drama, with a starring role for the great Keri Russell.
The Diplomat is the work of Deborah Kahn, who served as a writer and producer on The West Wing and who also was an executive producer on Homeland. If you combine that with the female star of another long-running show, The Americans, you get a pretty good idea where this is heading.
Keri Russell plays Kate Wyler, a hard-nosed diplomat who is going to a new top job in Afghanistan, before she is re-routed to London, to become the new US ambassador to the United Kingdom.
By then we already know that a British ship has been attacked in Middle East waters, with over thirty casualties as a result. The attack is seen as revenge for the fact that US had seized an Iranian oil tanker.
So the US has to support its old ally and Kate, who is regarded as a prime candidate for higher office, is seen as the one to keep things together, if only to prevent World War III from breaking out.
That seems to be asking a lot from a single person, no matter how brave and talented she is, but the whole show hinges on the idea that Kate is both the best but also the worst person for the job.
Problem number one is that she works well in a crisis situation, which this most definitely is, but is less effective in the more formal situations the job of the ambassador to Britain normally requires. She doesn’t like galas, foto shoots and the more glamorous side of global diplomacy. To wit: Russell, who is undeniably great in the part, plays a lot of her scenes without any make-up, which is still very unusual for a Hollywood actress.
The second problem concerns her husband Hal (Rufus Sewell) who is a former ambassador himself, and who still has a lot of contacts, who could be useful, except for the fact that he has estranged himself from quite a few of them. And he is also trying to find out how he himself could benefit from the whole situation.
Russell and Sewell make for a great onscreen couple and their relationship, both on- and offscreen, powers a lot of the early narrative. The dialogue is sharp and cutting, and the world of international diplomacy is brought to life in a very vivid way.
There are a lot of references to political situations, like the war in Ukraine but also to the Iraqi invasion of 2003, all of which give the series the gritty edge it needs without losing the accessibility it must have to draw in the large audience for which it is made.
The Diplomat is one of those Netflix shows where the money is definitely on the screen, the obvious aim being that it runs for more than one or two seasons.
The big question is whether the story is strong enough to last for eight episodes, but after the first two I’m definitely hooked.