President Penn is piqued. From wrestling with the globe-tilting death of her predecessor (and the formidable promotion it triggers) to an accusation that she coordinated an attack against an American ally (by her own British ambassador, no less), Allison Janney’s ascendant politician may be at the height of her powers, but she’s feeling the pressure. So when the First Gentleman, Todd (Bradley Whitford), starts prodding her about suspicious after-hours chats with her charming confidants, it’s no wonder Grace’s patience is up. Who has time for such trivial jealousies when you’re the President of the United States?
“When we huddle in dark corners, we’re simply looking for ways to keep the world in one piece,” she huffily explains to her husband. “Is that really so hard to imagine?”
In “The Diplomat” Season 3, it is and it isn’t. Debra Cahn’s loopily loquacious political drama is at once an urgent appreciation of the art behind international relations and a high school soap opera obsessed with who at the model U.N. is making out with whom. For every exasperated declaration from one partner to another that their heated whispering with the hot liaison from Lebanon is purely professional, there’s the hint, at least, of a hidden desire to carry out their state-sanctioned business horizontally.
Netflix’s Emmy-nominated original series has always liked to have its cake (at a fancy State Dinner) and eat it, too (by licking the frosting off of an ambassador’s finger). Each rousing romantic rendezvous is rooted amid grave global emergencies that elevate both bits of drama beyond the fictitious gossip they sound like. After all, “The Diplomat” exists primarily through conversations, so what’s said has to be seismic for it to carry the intended consequence (and the actors get to sell it as such, which is a sizable part of the fun). But “The Diplomat’s” made-up drama doesn’t share our political reality (it’s as if MAGA never happened), nor do its backroom affairs carry any whiff of impropriety. (#MeToo concerns aren’t mentioned in between flings.) The series is escapism, start to finish, even when it aims to be taken seriously.
And Season 3 wants to be taken seriously. More melodramatic and less humorous than prior arcs, “The Diplomat’s” latest episodes seek to substantiate the central romance between Kate (Keri Russell) and Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) as a way to even out the added weight of their upscaled geopolitical situation. Episode 2, “Last Dance at the Country Club,” flashes back to see how Kate and Hal first bridged the gap between secret hookups and official coupledom, but it also signifies a focal shift for Season 3 overall, which expands its political chamber piece to include presidential matters. While wrestling with legacy and logistics, influence and intimacy, as well as scandals of the sexy and seditious varieties, “The Diplomat’s” primary concern is that of Kate and Hal’s marriage.
For some, this may be a welcome return to form. The hour-long series is at its best when Russell and Sewell are zipping passionate opinions back and forth like Olympic ping-ping players, and the series isn’t built (in its scripts or its production) to expand that far beyond verbal tête-à-têtes. But Season 3 struggles to define their relationship any better than it has in the past, giving itself over to its leads for an apt acting showcase — Russell, in particular, thrives on the big swings between ferocity and despair — but without getting us any closer to investing in the state of their union (or lending added credence to the state of ours).
Rather than gain insight into the Wylers’ covert, irrefutable connection, they remain as unknowable as ever. Sudden bursts of emotional exposition make sure we clock what they’re feeling from moment to moment, and Russell and Sewell remain impressive in their granular depiction of lifelong schemers taught to keep their cards close to the vest. But there’s only so much these two can do to anchor characters who only shift with the tides of the plot. More than any sustained emotional logic, it’s the Wylers’ mystique that guides them. “The Diplomat” would rather pull the rug out from under us than give up too many honest, vulnerable truths — a trait it may share with its leads, but not one that makes for a rewarding romance.
As our investment in the Wylers wanes, despite the added time devoted to their marital dilemma, other issues gain prominence. Janney and Whitford’s presence is amiable, but the “West Wing” reunion mainly serves to emphasize how disconnected “The Diplomat” is from anything real. Other once-promising supporting players are reduced to repetitious stalling patterns. I can’t tell you how many times CIA station chief Eidra Park (Ali Ahn) flops down on a colleague’s couch, or how many scenes find deputy chief Stuart Heyford (Ato Essandoh) staring at a computer screen. The recurrent staging only makes the show’s narrative feel more insular, which works fine when there’s forward momentum, but this one is stuck looking backward.
“The Diplomat” Season 3 shouldn’t prove too disappointing to established fans. The dense dialogue is still snappy, the cinematography is still crisp, and the cast is still game. But the cracks in the surrounding story are starting to show. If the series is going to thrive as a sexy, serialized romance, we have to have a rooting interest in a relationship that’s still too hard to pin down. If it’s going to grow as a political potboiler, we have to feel the pressure coming down on our scrambling peacekeepers as much as we hear it in their heated exchanges.
In Season 3, “The Diplomat” simply leaves too much to the imagination. Sometimes, those dark corners need a little more light.
Grade: C+
“The Diplomat” premiered Thursday, October 16 on Netflix. All eight episodes were released at once.