The Diplomat Review

The Diplomat is at its best when it is about Kate and Hal Wyler's marriage, a partnership of two brilliant, competitive operators who cannot decide whether they are allies or rivals, and Russell and Rufus Sewell play it with a crackle that carries the show through its weaker stretches. The political plot, an attack on a British warship and the question of who ordered it, is handled with a reasonable seriousness and enough procedural texture to feel researched.

The writing, from Debora Cahn of The West Wing, is quick and articulate in that show's manner, sometimes to the point of characters explaining the plot to each other at speed. David Gyasi as the foreign secretary and Rory Kinnear as an unhinged prime minister are excellent. The direction is functional. The season ending twists are more interested in being surprising than in being coherent, and the second season doubles down on that habit. It is smart, watchable and slighter than it thinks it is.