On Screen: “The Diplomat: Season 4”
The Diplomat: Season 4
If you haven’t been watching “The Diplomat: Season 4,” you’re missing one of the smartest, most exciting political thrillers on Netflix — and it’s just been renewed for Season 5.
To recap: Season 3 ended with the realization by savvy Ambassador Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) that her often-reckless, impulsive husband, Vice President Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), and newly sworn-in US President Grace Penn (Allison Janney), stole a nuclear weapon called Poseidon from a sunken Russian submarine off the British coast.
Season 4 delves further into Kate and Hal’s risky relationship with Grace and her husband Todd (Bradley Whitford), as the two combative marriages seem to be on a collision course with British Prime Minister Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear), whose character and ideology resemble that of Boris Johnson, the UK’s Prime Minister (2019-2022).
Diverted into Windsor Castle after an ‘incident,’ Kate and Hal must cope with more chaos, aided by their State Department staff: Eidra (Ali Ahn), Billie (Nana Mensah) and Stuart (Ato Essandoh). They’re plagued with moral and ethical disagreements, spurred by a high-stakes conspiracy leading to geopolitical maneuvering involving Kate’s former fling, Callum Ellis (Aidan Turner).
What distinguishes Kate’s competence is her ability to listen, observe and react. Of course, it ends with another cliffhanger, hopefully heralding Season 5.
Keri Russell (“The Americans”) captures Kate’s emotional complexity while wily Rufus Sewell (“The Man in the High Castle”) relies on Hal’s canny ambition and shameless charisma to deal with his compromised position.
Completing the quartet, Allison Janney (“The West Wing”) makes caustic Grace strangely enigmatic as Bradley Whitford (“The West Wing”) struggles to solidify the First Gentleman’s tenuous position. In a strong supporting role, Ato Essandoh’s conventional Stuart serves as a moral compass.
Creator-showrunner Debora Cahn (“The West Wing”) peppers the dense, jargon-filled dialogue with inventive elements from “Homeland” and “Madam Secretary.”
If the settings look authentic, they are — except for Winfield House, the US Ambassador’s residence, which is really Wrotham Park, a historic home outside London.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Diplomat: Season 4” is a compelling, turbulent 10 — with all eight episodes ready for binge-watching on Netflix.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.