The Diplomat (2023-): Season 1

Title: The Diplomat

Year: 2023

Genre:  Drama | Thriller |

Season 1 |

Runtime:  50 min/episode

Creator: Debora Cahn

Starring: Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Rory Kinnear

8,1/10

In the midst of an international crisis, Kate Wyler, a career diplomat, lands in a high-profile job for which she is not suited, with tectonic implications for her marriage and her political future.

A IMITATIVE SERIES OF PAST SHOWS

The Diplomat, the first season, on Netflix stars Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Rory Kinnear. Russell plays Ambassador Kate Wyler, a hard-knocked diplomat who was supposed to be in Kabul after a battleship explodes and lands in London. Her marriage is not great and there’s disinformation. She’s on a job she dislikes.

It tries hard to be pompous when it doesn’t need too. It has put a lot of effort and time to make it far more comedic than it’s expected. It’s almost underwhelming how it blends both drama, thriller, and comedy to form these characters. As often it goes with American-produced political series, is that Iran, North Korea, Russia, or China are the bad guys. In this case, Iran are the accused from the ambassador and the Secretary of State. The Wyler couple has done this before and has a thing with the countries in the middle east. Few details are revealed at first. The traits of the characters grow during the series that’s divided in eight episodes.

It’s interesting that London is chose for Kate Wyler’s new job. London has of course deep connection with U.S. Why didn’t they choose any other countries than England? Like many other series, as well, it relies heavy on social media, phone call and online writings. Why Wyler’s marriage is going down the drain is vaguely portrayed. It is not determined or detailed that much initially. It also implied that their relationship wasn’t that great to begin with. There’s some script problem. The dialogue is nerve-wrecking stiff. There’s not consistently flow through the dialogue and the character. Kate Wyler is like a rabbit on drugs but is pulled back by her peers.

The balance of the performance a wiggling between good scenes and disastrous ones that seems to never end. We get far more overview of the whole spectra than we need to. It tries hard to imitate other series with the similar plot and for a long time into the series, the agony seems to never stop. One things is that is edited for binge-watching by dropping cliffhanger in the final minutes, making it feel like an endless loop.