Spoilers below for Season 4 of Netflix’s The Diplomat. All episodes are streaming now.
At its core, Season 4 of The Diplomat is a series of one-on-one conversations in which the fate of the world hangs in the balance. The president and vice president, first gentleman and chief of staff, prime ministers, ambassadors, and domestic workers all engage in rich, dramatic dialogue that immediately sucks you in and doesn’t loosen its grip until the season cuts to black. Tight closeups, thick tension, and carefully constructed language imbued with double, triple, and sometimes quadruple meanings unfurl in scene after scene, creating a tapestry of geopolitical and domestic conflict that’s hard to turn away from.
The Netflix series follows American Ambassador to the United Kingdom Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) as she walks the tightrope of managing a simmering international conflict while attempting to save her marriage to her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell). In Season 4, The Diplomat continues to be a crackling, pulpy thriller with superb writing, gorgeous cinematography, and top-tier performances.
With a new batch of episodes, the show brings what was an already fraught series of storylines to a furious boil. In the aftermath of discovering that President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) colluded with Hal (promoted to vice president in Season 3) to steal an “apocalypse weapon” from a Russian submarine, Kate launches into a campaign of dealmaking and double-crossing to try to get the situation under control. As the season begins, we’re led to believe that the conspiracy will be the central conflict for the foreseeable future. But all of that is quickly scuttled by a harrowing assasination attempt on the president.
The scene, which closes out the premiere episode, is one of the most realistic acts of fictional political violence ever filmed. There’s no music, no building tension; just two quick pops and a shirt suddenly soaked with blood. It's indicative of what The Diplomat does best: presenting the extraordinary as subtle and restrained while still underscoring the global stakes.
This ethos is especially apparent in the still beautifully dysfunctional relationship between Kate and Hal. As the world burns and nuclear conflict is only an itchy trigger finger away, Kate and Hal’s marriage is the spine on which everything else in The Diplomat rests. They’re at once warm with each other yet blisteringly cold, trusting and incredibly suspicious, totally in love but always on the verge of mutually assured destruction. Sewell and Russell continue to be dynamite, layering their scenes together with half-truths, knowing glances, and winking humor. Their on-screen chemistry bursting with intelligence and desire, Hal and Kate often can’t stand each other but would wither away without the other’s counsel.
While Seasons 1-3 of The Diplomat focused mostly on Kate and Hal’s relationship, Season 4 ups Janney’s President Grace Penn and Bradley Whitford’s hilarious but secretly ruthless first gentleman Todd to near co-lead status. Their relationship seethes with a familiarity colored by a brutal imbalance of power. Whitford, in particular, takes full advantage of the show’s darkly comedic writing, imbuing his character with an “aw shucks” brand of humor that belies a knack for cunningly eviscerating anyone who stands between him and his wife. A post-assassination attempt conversation early in the season in which Todd dresses down White House Chief of Staff Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah) is one of those two-handers that highlights the show’s tour de force storytelling and brilliant acting.
As the president, Janney has never been better. Intricately drawn and perfectly performed, Grace Penn is a revelation of a character. Her steeliness and win-at-all-costs attitude of Seasons 2–3 is still intact, but these traits are now forged with a twinge of uncertainty and a whole lot of post-shooting PTSD. As Penn, Janney is at once flighty and megalomaniacal, grounded and borderline mad, caring and absolutely unforgiving. The character knows the consequences of her actions, yet still hasn’t found a line she will not cross. Grace Penn is the most complex, well-drawn president ever put on screen and Janney hits a grand slam in every scene she’s in.
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