The Diplomat Seasona 4
Oct. 18th, 2026 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the show about diplomatic shenanigans and can't be with, can't be without marriages is back, and asks: how to we reflect what's going on in the real world, just, you know, with everyone in power being intelligent? What if we still had professionals in the US public service and everything wasn't a cresspit of corruption and malignant stupidity? The result, btw, is still a world which could be heading towards WW3, but, you know: at least no one voted for the orange menace and his equivalents in European parties. Also: this is still the best show since The Americans to make long term m/f relationships absolutely fascinating instead of relying on the will they/won't they came.
Last month when the firrst trailer for s4 was making the rounds I saw people joking that you can tell The Diplomat was fiction because four years in, the UK still had the same British Prime Minister. Turns out this occured to show head writer and -producer Deborah Cahn as well, which is one but not the only reason why the Rory Kinnear played PM Nicol Towbridge finally exits stage left in this season and we get a new (female) PM, played by Jodi Whitacker, Bethan Vaughn. (Who is very much enjoying herself in the role.) The change of PMs is tied to the fallout of last season's cliffhanger ending, and this in turn brings me to the amazing fact that the show's writing staff seems to have wondered "can we do a plot where the US pisses off all their allies up to threatening to invade one, just with more plausible reasons than in real life because reality just keeps being terribly written? And they pull it off. Grace Penn (Alison Janney) has been introduced on the shady side of moral ambiguity already as VP and then President, though still believably aiming for the best; the combination of surviving an assassination attempt without ever being able to find out why it happened on the othe hand, and having the greatest power arsenal in the world at hand on the other, combined with an inability to admit being in the wrong and the fact she did, in fact, do wrong things which can't be exposed, serve to drive her to ever more ruthless decisions, running roughshot over everyone who attempts to advise her otherwise. (As opposed to the Orange Menace, the show at no point suggests Grace is in it for the money, or that she enjoys humiliating people. But it does show she's increasingly less able to tolerate dissenting opinions the longer she is in power.)
This in turn means that our heroine, her husband and the rest of the supporting cast whose job it is to represent and sell US policy and work out compromises have to face the fact that they're now working for someone who decided compromises are for pussies and it's my way or no way if you have the biggest arsenal. As opposed to earlier seasons, the Russians only ever get mentioned verbally - the fact that they must not find out what became of their missing weapon is a plot point, and there is at least one dialogue reference that made me conclude that in the Diplomatverse, Russia invaded Ukraine as well (and with the same degree of non-success, presumably even less so because no Orange Menace) - but there is no character representing them. Because the big question of the season turns out more and more to be: how far do you go in the service of your country if your country is ruled by someone whose policy you don't just disagree with, but start to regard as immoral? Accordingly, the narrative focus is on the two estranged couples - Kate and Hal, Grace and Todd -, the new couple Stuart and Eidra and the two British PMs.
That new PM Vaughn is a sensible and clever woman without Towbridge's Johnsonian ego or insecurities who nonetheless decidedly does not want to be bff with the US anymore is just one of the red flaggs Kate is presented with. Simultanously, the fact that he's now VP and not of the completely powerless kind but of the rarer "seems to have actual influence on the President" kind presents Hal with a genuine test of loyalties and character. In a very real way, it's everything he ever wanted. On the other hand - is it? Did he want the power or the best use of it (which was the justification he gave for his two seasons long attempt to make Kate into a VP candidate)? The Wylers start the season as dysfunctionally functional as ever (by which I mean that mid argument about last season's cliffhanger Kate discovers she has splinters in her hand and Hal gets rid of them for her and she lets him do it without either of them interrupting the argument, which is typical for their mixture of deep intimacy and competing attitude), and end with a very significant exchange of looks as both of them have just answered "how far would you go?" for themselves. In an active, not just contemplative and very satisfying for the audience manner.
That they are not the only ones is another thing which makes the show's reality so appealing. What they and other characters do in the finale is just what you want to have happened in reality years and years ago. Now I have no idea whether there will be a fifth season (I think Netrflix hasn't said one way or the other?) but if there isn't, this would be a good way to end it.
Trivia:
- "Much better than Munich" says Grace Penn about Lucca where in the show the G7 meeting is taking place (as opposed to Munich where it usually happens in rl). I mean, Italian towns are hard to top, I agree, but Monaco di Bavaria is actually a very good place to stay as well.
- killing off Dennison off screen is rude, but I get if the actor didn't want to show up for a single scene or so
- due to having marathoned the entirety of The Handmaid's Tale tv show recently, I no longer think of Josh Lyman first when I see Bradley Whitford, I now think of Commander Lawrence, which makes for some interesting musings about AUs and crossovers
- the scene where we get Towbridge's pov on everything complete with Bajazzo aria was hysterical
- the fact that Vaugn was competing with a very right wing extremist for the PMship before getting the job: another nodd to rl?
- every time the show gives us a scene in front of or in Downing Street No.10, I wonder: where is Larry?
- seeing a White House that is not redecorated to resemble a ghastly brothel (with an apology to brothels) makes one weep
On a very different note: since a few days, the internet has decided it needs a rerun of the crazy behaviour back before The Odyssee was released and where there was endless fighting just based on two trailers. The latest cause, it seems, is the trailer for Gerta Gerwig's next movie, an adaptation of The Magician's Nephew, one of C.S. Lewis' later Narnia novels which is simultanously a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Now, I never read the Narnia novels as a child, I read them as an adult woman, and therefore have no childhood memories to hold sacred, or, conversely, to feel betrayed by. I liked them well enough when I did read them without considering them the non plus ultra of children's novels. Or fantasy. Or religious allegory, come to that. I thus lack either protectiveness or seething resentment (looking at you, Philip Pulllman). But much as the estimable Ms Gerwig is an interesting director, I was and am curious what she'll make of Narnia, and think it already a very good decision NOT to go for one of the first three novels which were adapted in recent viewer memory. The trailer looks like this:
Which had me go from mild interest to "this looks good, now I'm really looking forward to watching it!" Naturally, if you look at social media, you'd think Gerwig is Salman Rushdie just after he's published The Satanic Verses, only in an US evangelical context. Seriously, you'd think she had adapted the bible and this was some alternate Universe where Jesus Christ Superstar never happened, given some of the objections to the music used in the trailer. There will be undoubtedly much more of this until the movie is released, God (and Aslan) help us. In the meantime: the girl playing Polly is adorable in the trailer, and OMG, is that Daniel Craig as Uncle Andrew? It is. Given he also starred in the not very good Golden Compass (as Lord Asriel) in the early 2000s, this makes him the first actor to have starred in both a Narnia and a His Dark Material adaptation. Cheers!
Last month when the firrst trailer for s4 was making the rounds I saw people joking that you can tell The Diplomat was fiction because four years in, the UK still had the same British Prime Minister. Turns out this occured to show head writer and -producer Deborah Cahn as well, which is one but not the only reason why the Rory Kinnear played PM Nicol Towbridge finally exits stage left in this season and we get a new (female) PM, played by Jodi Whitacker, Bethan Vaughn. (Who is very much enjoying herself in the role.) The change of PMs is tied to the fallout of last season's cliffhanger ending, and this in turn brings me to the amazing fact that the show's writing staff seems to have wondered "can we do a plot where the US pisses off all their allies up to threatening to invade one, just with more plausible reasons than in real life because reality just keeps being terribly written? And they pull it off. Grace Penn (Alison Janney) has been introduced on the shady side of moral ambiguity already as VP and then President, though still believably aiming for the best; the combination of surviving an assassination attempt without ever being able to find out why it happened on the othe hand, and having the greatest power arsenal in the world at hand on the other, combined with an inability to admit being in the wrong and the fact she did, in fact, do wrong things which can't be exposed, serve to drive her to ever more ruthless decisions, running roughshot over everyone who attempts to advise her otherwise. (As opposed to the Orange Menace, the show at no point suggests Grace is in it for the money, or that she enjoys humiliating people. But it does show she's increasingly less able to tolerate dissenting opinions the longer she is in power.)
This in turn means that our heroine, her husband and the rest of the supporting cast whose job it is to represent and sell US policy and work out compromises have to face the fact that they're now working for someone who decided compromises are for pussies and it's my way or no way if you have the biggest arsenal. As opposed to earlier seasons, the Russians only ever get mentioned verbally - the fact that they must not find out what became of their missing weapon is a plot point, and there is at least one dialogue reference that made me conclude that in the Diplomatverse, Russia invaded Ukraine as well (and with the same degree of non-success, presumably even less so because no Orange Menace) - but there is no character representing them. Because the big question of the season turns out more and more to be: how far do you go in the service of your country if your country is ruled by someone whose policy you don't just disagree with, but start to regard as immoral? Accordingly, the narrative focus is on the two estranged couples - Kate and Hal, Grace and Todd -, the new couple Stuart and Eidra and the two British PMs.
That new PM Vaughn is a sensible and clever woman without Towbridge's Johnsonian ego or insecurities who nonetheless decidedly does not want to be bff with the US anymore is just one of the red flaggs Kate is presented with. Simultanously, the fact that he's now VP and not of the completely powerless kind but of the rarer "seems to have actual influence on the President" kind presents Hal with a genuine test of loyalties and character. In a very real way, it's everything he ever wanted. On the other hand - is it? Did he want the power or the best use of it (which was the justification he gave for his two seasons long attempt to make Kate into a VP candidate)? The Wylers start the season as dysfunctionally functional as ever (by which I mean that mid argument about last season's cliffhanger Kate discovers she has splinters in her hand and Hal gets rid of them for her and she lets him do it without either of them interrupting the argument, which is typical for their mixture of deep intimacy and competing attitude), and end with a very significant exchange of looks as both of them have just answered "how far would you go?" for themselves. In an active, not just contemplative and very satisfying for the audience manner.
That they are not the only ones is another thing which makes the show's reality so appealing. What they and other characters do in the finale is just what you want to have happened in reality years and years ago. Now I have no idea whether there will be a fifth season (I think Netrflix hasn't said one way or the other?) but if there isn't, this would be a good way to end it.
Trivia:
- "Much better than Munich" says Grace Penn about Lucca where in the show the G7 meeting is taking place (as opposed to Munich where it usually happens in rl). I mean, Italian towns are hard to top, I agree, but Monaco di Bavaria is actually a very good place to stay as well.
- killing off Dennison off screen is rude, but I get if the actor didn't want to show up for a single scene or so
- due to having marathoned the entirety of The Handmaid's Tale tv show recently, I no longer think of Josh Lyman first when I see Bradley Whitford, I now think of Commander Lawrence, which makes for some interesting musings about AUs and crossovers
- the scene where we get Towbridge's pov on everything complete with Bajazzo aria was hysterical
- the fact that Vaugn was competing with a very right wing extremist for the PMship before getting the job: another nodd to rl?
- every time the show gives us a scene in front of or in Downing Street No.10, I wonder: where is Larry?
- seeing a White House that is not redecorated to resemble a ghastly brothel (with an apology to brothels) makes one weep
On a very different note: since a few days, the internet has decided it needs a rerun of the crazy behaviour back before The Odyssee was released and where there was endless fighting just based on two trailers. The latest cause, it seems, is the trailer for Gerta Gerwig's next movie, an adaptation of The Magician's Nephew, one of C.S. Lewis' later Narnia novels which is simultanously a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Now, I never read the Narnia novels as a child, I read them as an adult woman, and therefore have no childhood memories to hold sacred, or, conversely, to feel betrayed by. I liked them well enough when I did read them without considering them the non plus ultra of children's novels. Or fantasy. Or religious allegory, come to that. I thus lack either protectiveness or seething resentment (looking at you, Philip Pulllman). But much as the estimable Ms Gerwig is an interesting director, I was and am curious what she'll make of Narnia, and think it already a very good decision NOT to go for one of the first three novels which were adapted in recent viewer memory. The trailer looks like this:
Which had me go from mild interest to "this looks good, now I'm really looking forward to watching it!" Naturally, if you look at social media, you'd think Gerwig is Salman Rushdie just after he's published The Satanic Verses, only in an US evangelical context. Seriously, you'd think she had adapted the bible and this was some alternate Universe where Jesus Christ Superstar never happened, given some of the objections to the music used in the trailer. There will be undoubtedly much more of this until the movie is released, God (and Aslan) help us. In the meantime: the girl playing Polly is adorable in the trailer, and OMG, is that Daniel Craig as Uncle Andrew? It is. Given he also starred in the not very good Golden Compass (as Lord Asriel) in the early 2000s, this makes him the first actor to have starred in both a Narnia and a His Dark Material adaptation. Cheers!
no subject
Date: 2026-10-18 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-10-18 03:47 pm (UTC)That trailer looks very pretty.
no subject
Date: 2026-10-18 04:15 pm (UTC)Kudos to her for using Lewis’s own original Northern Irish accent.
no subject
Date: 2026-10-18 05:52 pm (UTC)Would have preferred they stick with the somewhat less well frequented Edwardian setting, but will reserve judgement.
no subject
Date: 2026-10-18 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-10-18 07:45 pm (UTC)