Review of season one of The Diplomat.

A mission of mine, as someone who runs a book and entertainment blog, is that I want to watch more shows, movies, etc. outside of my comfort zone.

I feel like a lot of the reviews that I post in this blog are of Asian or Indian shows, so I want to go outside of that and diversify the kinds of perspectives I’m consuming.

That said, I had never heard of The Diplomat. I’m usually very outside of the loop when it comes to American television, despite living here and having not stepped much outside of the US until relatively recent times. But I’ve stumbled into a period where I dub myself funemployed, and I have a lot of free time.

Not only does that mean I have more time to write posts on this blog (expect me getting through my incredible backlog in the coming months), but it also means that I am going through more shows that are indeed outside my comfort zone.

I was suggested this one day on my Netflix, weeks before the second season came out, which implies to me it was time to watch it.

And watch it I did. It took about a week and a half, but I eventually got through all eight episodes. Here’s my review before I start rambling too much!

Thrust into the position of ambassador to the United Kingdom, Kate Wyler finds herself in many difficult situations.

Our protagonist in this show is Kate Wyler, who, at the beginning of the series, is waiting to be sent to work in Afghanistan. She specializes in the Middle East, especially the Persian world and its influence, and is very excited to start her new post. But when she’s at home with her husband Hal, former ambassador to Lebanon, her world turns upside down.

The White House wants to send her to the United Kingdom. A diplomatic crisis has also just occurred, as it seems that the country of Iran has sunk a British ship. The Brits are out for blood, but Kate suspects that the Iranians wouldn’t have blatantly done such a thing.

Hal finds this out pretty early on, but Kate is also being considered to be the Vice President, as the current Vice President is definitely going to resign a few months down the road. Kate has no idea they were going to do this, and when she does eventually find out, it’s not going to help her exciting.

That said, Kate and Hal are shipped off to the United Kingdom, where things are pretty tense. Not only does Kate have to navigate a tough political situation straight away, but her marriage is also crumbling before her eyes.

Hal seems like the more likely candidate for Vice President, and him not being picked creates some problems in their dynamics. He’s struggling with his lack of importance, and he’s not used to sitting at home and twiddling his thumbs.

At the same time, we meet more of the people of the office and their relationships with each other. Kate’s right hand at the office is Stuart, and he has a relationship with the CIA operative Eidra at the office. Throughout the course of the show though we see Kate get more confidence, and her SWANA knowledge is pretty helpful.

As all of this happens, there’s also a random kidnapping of a pretty important character, as well as a diplomatic crisis when a country’s representative literally dies in a meeting.

So besides the standard politics, a lot of happening in general. I honestly found this part of the show to be quite formulaic, and I was beginning to struggle about five episodes into the first season. My attention span started slowly falling away because I wanted something else to happen and it didn’t.

Overall Thoughts

As I mentioned in the last paragraph, I found the show more difficult to get through around episode five. It was just getting too repetitive for me, and I wasn’t really connecting with a good chunk of the characters. I wanted more from the side characters but it was too focused on Kate.

Despite this, the dialogue is snappy and witty throughout the show. I’ll happily give it that. I can see how someone into this genre might love it more, but I was just waiting for something to happen.

I did also like Kate as a character. She’s been overshadowed by her husband, and as one other character notices, he tries to speak for her and influence the decisions. For so long she has lived in his shadow, and this is her chance to prove she deserves the Vice President position—she just needs some training to get there.

Watch this if you’re interested though! Don’t let my lukewarm reaction scare you off.

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