By Mary Greenwood, Second Year, Law
Season Two of Netflix’s The Diplomat faced high expectations from its moderately sized but devoted fanbase. Season One introduced Kate Wyler, Kerri Russell’s world-weary American ambassador to London - the titular diplomat - and her charming, chaotic husband Hal (Rufus Sewell); it simultaneously followed their attempts to avert global catastrophe in the wake of a British warship’s destruction by an unknown hostile power, and the agonising slow motion decline of their marriage. The series ended on a cliffhanger that had me, for one, spluttering inelegantly, jaw on the floor - so any viewers who felt the same way will be relieved to know season two wastes no time plunging back into the action.
Russell brings glorious comedic timing, vulnerability and a moving sense of world weariness to the role which saves her from being a lazy stereotype of a woman in a man’s world.
All the beloved characters from the first season (with one tragic exception), are back; the dialogue is just as sharp, the tension is just as high, and the plot twists are still hurtling down at the speed of an avalanche. In a streaming landscape that feels crowded with bloated content stretched across too many episodes, the fact that all the action must be packed in to six fifty minute episodes doubtless helps it to remain tightly on track - a much needed lesson for content creators in the value of ‘less is more’.
However, as devotees will acknowledge, the show’s real strength lies in the performances of its cast. Without them, The Diplomat would ultimately be little more than a serviceable political thriller - sharply written and occasionally witty, but also naïve, sensationalised, and occasionally absurd. What elevates it into unmissable viewing is Kerri Russell’s magnificently understated turn as Kate, supported (and only very occasionally outshone) by Rufus Sewell’s frustrating, endlessly watchable take on Hal. In less skilled hands, Kate could easily devolve into a tired stereotype of trouser-suit-wearing #girlboss femininity - insensitive, emotionally immature and sneering at any feminine-coded activity, such as hair and makeup. At various points in the show, Kate is all these things. But Russell brings glorious comedic timing, vulnerability and a moving sense of world weariness to the role which saves her from being a lazy stereotype of a woman in a man’s world.
Season Two opens with Kate in a state of emotional vulnerability as she faces a violent personal trauma with potentially catastrophic geopolitical implications; Russell’s performance of a woman just barely holding herself together, forced to vent her devastation in private moments of frustration - in a bathroom, struggling to yank a ball gown over her head - is both moving and entirely convincing.
As in season one, Russell is more than adequately supported by her co-star Rufus Sewell as Kate’s magnetic, manipulative husband Hal. Sewell could do with some work on his American accent, but his performance is so charming that you can forgive it, just as you find you can forgive his character’s relentless string of poor decision-making. The first episode suffers from the fact that his character is incapacitated in a hospital bed, and therefore forced to take a backseat to the drama surrounding him. However, the supporting cast is more than able to pick up the slack.
[...] Pandora Colin’s turn as Trowbridge’s dominant Lady Macbeth wife is at least as delightful to watch.
A review singing the praises of every actor who deserves it would simply be too long, but special tribute must be paid to Rory Kinnear’s deliciously slimy Prime Minister Nichol Trowbridge - shades of Tony Blair and Boris Johnson -, and David Gyasi’s elegant, soft spoken Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison. As the third point in a Hal-Kate-Austin love triangle, Gyasi could easily be overpowered by Russell and Sewell, but instead, his gentle, understated persona offers an intriguing foil to Hal and Kate’s more aggressive characters. In terms of new cast members, much media excitement was generated over the casting of The West Wing’s Alison Janney, but Pandora Colin’s turn as Trowbridge’s dominant Lady Macbeth wife is at least as delightful to watch.
For all its’ largely positive critical reception, this show has not been without its backlash. A moment should be taken to acknowledge that the vast majority of criticisms levelled at it are - broadly speaking - true. Yes, the story is preposterous. Yes, it is touchingly naive about the pure intentions of the western security apparatus. Yes, while some plot twists are genuinely shocking, others are as subtly unpredictable as a brick hurtling through a window. Yes, whilst the dynamic between Hal and Kate is enjoyable to watch, it also to some extent reflects the tired cliche of the mature woman picking up the damage left by her man-child husband. But in a show as riotously entertaining as this one, it is possible to recognise these flaws and come to the conclusion that you simply don’t care.
What did you think of the latest season of The Diplomat?
