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The Diplomat begins with an explosion on the British aircraft carrier, HMS Courageous, and is expected to be the doing of Iran, with them sending a message to the US President.
As such, The White House needs someone to be the ambassador in London, and not a former one who has experience in such matters, Hal (Rufus Sewell – The Father), but our lead and his wife, Kate Wyler (Keri Russell – Cocaine Bear). She’s rather surprised to be the chosen one, especially since she was planning to head to Kabul for another mission.
This series is a little bit uneven, as there’s tense scenes ahead when those in charge need Kate for her a photo opportunity, ahead of her taking part in 30 funerals for the deceased. Meanwhile, Hal’s struggling to come to terms with her being an ambassdor, when he’s done the job before. His reputation also preceeds him, as people think he’s too full of himself, and whether or not Iran’s to blame, Rory Kinnear takes a step up from Tanner in the Bond films to Prime Minister to act all Churchillian over it.
However, I say it’s uneven because it also throws in a fair bit of humour amongst the dark, such as when Kate’s asking Hal to check her armpits to see if she smells after her long flight. Come on, a quick proper wash in the sink wouldn’t take long? Just piling on roll-on deodorant is never the answer – a quick scrub, and you’re good to go!
Hal’s also put out that he hasn’t got a car assigned to him, thus classes himself as ‘the wife’ of the couple; and there’s some very sarcastic humour thrown in, from Rufus, Keri and their closest colleagues, Stuart Heyford (Ato Essandoh – Away) and Eidra Park (Ali Ahn). This is backed up by a complimentary and occasionally playful soundtrack.
This mix does work, but overall, The Diplomat gets very wordy about whether they’re either talking about the situation they’re dealing with, or relating to events prior to the start of the series. However, I ended up not paying too much attention to this, and just started to let that aspect of it gloss over me.
There’s also mention of how the U.S. has an elderly President who just lost the House, which sounds like they’re talking about Joe Biden, but in this case, it’s a stroke of genius, that as President Rayburn, they’ve hired Michael McKean from This Is Spinal Tap and Dream On.
You also learn things about the various characters as the series goes, including things I wasn’t expecting, which made it more interesting (and which I won’t spoil here, obviously).
However, I’ve seen the first two episodes at the time of writing this, and while they do have some moments of intrigue, Good Lord, it takes forever to get there! In fact, it does feel like The Diplomat is a fair bit slower than it needs to be.
As an aside, to my knowledge, this is the second time Rory Kinnear has played the Prime Minister, the other time being in Black Mirror’s The National Anthem. At least this time, if anyone is to get into a bit of trouble over the course of eight episodes, I do hope Rory’s not required to mate with a pig…
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
The Diplomat is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from Thursday April 20th.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 50 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: April 20th 2023
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.00:1
Series Directors: Liza Johnson, Simon Cellan Jones
Producers: Russ Hammonds, Daniel Toland, Amanda Johnson-Zetterström
Creator: Debora Cahn
Writers: Debora Cahn, Amanda Johnson-Zetterström, Peter Noah
Music: Nathan Barr, Dimitri Smith
Cast:
Kate Wyler: Keri Russell
Hal Wyler: Rufus Sewell
Stuart Heyford: Ato Essandoh
Eidra Park: Ali Ahn
President Rayburn: Michael McKean
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.