TV Review: "The Diplomat" (Season 2)

The Netflix thriller goes from strength to strength, thanks to terrific performances, tight plotting, and twists galore.

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Warning: Full spoilers for the series follow.

The Diplomat is one of those shows that I’ve had on my to-watch list for quite a while, but it’s only recently that I’ve actually gotten around to doing it. Suffice it to say that, like many other people, I immediately found myself hooked by this show, which has just the right mix of personal melodrama, power plays, and political shenanigans to keep me tuning in night after night. The first season began and ended with literal explosions, both of which radically reshaped both the personal and political fortunes of the characters as well as the nations that they represent.

If anything, the second season is even more bonkers–and bingeable–than its predecessor. The stakes are higher, the acting is even more top-notch, and the twists and turns and reveals, while shocking, nevertheless make sense within the context of the series. Much of the season revolves around the aftermath of the car explosion that seriously injured both Rufus Sewell’s Hal and Ato Essandoh’s Stuart, as well as Keri Russell’s Kate and her attempts to get to the bottom of who was really responsible for the bombing of a British aircraft carrier. At the same time, she also has to navigate the fraught politics of Westminster, particularly as these revolve around the personalities and egos of Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear), Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), and political operator Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie).

Of course, Keri Russell continues to be one of the very best things about this show. There’s just something electric about her performance, and it lights up every scene in which she appears. While Kate is fiercely intelligent and capable–and a very skilled diplomat, as it turns out–she’s also as much of a loose cannon as her husband, for all that he gets far more flack in that regard than she does. Honestly, she’s sometimes a bit of a mess, but that’s precisely what makes her so compelling to watch, even as we sometimes cringe at the steps that she takes and at her tendency to get over her skis. There’s also no question that she’s brilliant in her own particular way, and it’s particularly fun to watch her strike sparks off of everyone around her, from her husband to the PM and the Foreign Secretary.

Russell is perfectly matched with Rufus Sewell, and I have to admit that I am absolutely fascinated by the deeply dysfunctional–but extremely dynamic–marriage between Kate and Hal. These are two people who are wrong for each other in so very many ways and yet, at the same time, they are also perfectly suited, so much so that it’s hard to imagine them really making it with anyone else. It’s such a strange alchemy, but thanks to the potent performance from Russell and Sewell you can totally buy it. What’s more, you don’t want them to get divorced, despite the fact that Hal’s actions continue to land Kate in hot water, right up to the season finale.

Stuart and Eidra Park (Ali Ahn) make for an equally compelling on-screen dynamic, even though by this point they’re no longer romantically linked. Throughout the season they each have to make sense of their own lives in the aftermath of both their breakup and, you know, the fact that Stuart almost got blown up. Both Essandoh and Ahn give some terrific performances this season and, though they may not be together any longer, I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us in the third season.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also sing the praises of Rory Kinnear, who is absolutely magnetic and deeply disturbing as Nicol Trowbridge. Despite his rather unassuming appearance, Trowbridge is a bloviating beast, someone who is so desperate to gain authority and respect–from the nation, from his Cabinet, from his own wife–that he’s literally to go to war with essentially anyone so long as it means that he’ll appear strong (sound familiar?). And, for all that he seems to want to be seen as independent, he remains in thrall to many people, not least Margaret Roylin, right up until the point where he finds out that she was the one who orchestrated the explosion, not realizing it would be so bad.

And speaking of Margaret Roylin…I am absolutely captivated by Celia Imrie. Like many other people (or the gay ones, at least), my introduction to her came through Absolutely Fabulous, where she plays the cunning Claudia Bing. Roylin is also a shrewd and cunning operator, one who has a firm grasp on how power works and how to get others to do what she wants. There’s an iciness to her demeanor that draws you in, even as you suspect that she isn’t always on the level in her dealings with Kate (which, as it turns out, is true).

Lastly, there’s Allison Janney,who makes a late-season appearance as Vice President Grace Penn. Like so many of Janney’s other on-screen creations, this is a woman who kicks ass and takes no prisoners, and it’s a true delight watching her spar with Kate. Even though the latter likes to think that she has the moral upper hand, it soon becomes clear that she doesn’t know nearly as much as she thinks she does and that Grace, like many other women in power, has had to bear the burden of difficult choices.

Naturally, one watches The Diplomat because it’s a show with all kinds of twists and turns and changes of fortune. There are those aplenty in this season, as the question of who was responsible for the dreadful attack on the British ship becomes ever more acute. The biggest twist comes at the end and, as one might expect, it comes about because Hal can’t be bothered to actually follow the rules or the plan that everyone agreed to in advance. As the finale reaches its conclusion, the president has died from a heart attack, thanks to Hal, leaving Grace as the new President. This is obviously a stunning turn of events for our dear Kate, who can only stand in stupefaction (and probably a little horror) as the one she was just reprimanding ascends to the most powerful political position in the world. It’s a brilliant way to end a propulsive season of television.

What I particularly appreciated about the second season of this series was its willingness to grapple with some of the weightier questions revolving around those with power. It doesn’t hold Kate up on a pedestal, and even though she is the main character our moral allegiances don’t always neatly align with hers, particularly once Grace reveals her own part in the original aircraft carrier plot. Tension also arises from Kate’s personal turmoil, particularly as she grapples with the fact that the guilt that comes from the death of one Ronnie, one of the other embassy officers. When it comes to international diplomacy and US security interests, the answers aren’t always as easy or as cut-and-dry as Kate, and we in the audience, might like to believe.

As it did with its first season, The Diplomat manages to tell a story that is satisfying on its own while setting up things to come in the third season. Given just how much ground it was able to cover in this outing, it’s almost certain that the stakes and the twists are only going to get more intense as the series goes on and Kate and Hal find themselves confronted with a newly empowered Grace.

Let the drama continue!