Review of the second season of The Diplomat – easily joins the list of the best TV series of 2024 | television and radio

IIn the bathroom of an elegant event space, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) struggles to remove her dress. She's desperate to get out of that strappy orange cage so she can put on a jacket and jeans and get back to work. Finally, unable to find a clasp between all the delicately interlocking loops on her neck, she rips the thing in two, throws away a few thousand dollars of fine fabric, changes, and stalks purposefully away.

This scene from the first episode of The Diplomat's second season is something that happened all the time in the early days of the drama. It began when upstanding problem-solver Kate, a U.S. diplomat with experience running war zones, turned against her will to become America's representative in London, a role that usually carries little responsibility and is assumed by smug types who enjoy saying and wearing the right thing.

Dutifully nitpicking at events with minimal real-world significance is not Kate's style, who initially created a deft, very funny comedy of manners that takes sharp note of the well-worn traditions that slow down British politics. But Kate's arrival – and that of her semi-estranged husband Hal (Rufus Sewell), a more experienced, skillfully manipulative operator dedicated to advancing his own interests – was no coincidence. A British warship had just been attacked in the Persian Gulf, with Iran being the main suspect and Russia also being mentioned in the corridor conversation. Fixers in Washington had recognized Kate's abilities and sent her to London to deal with the looming international crisis.

As the first season picked up steam, “The Diplomat” turned into a proper political/conspiracy thriller, a story about complex plots and hidden alliances. Kate was still hesitant about anything involving ceremony or protocol, but found that she was adept at playing the game that diplomacy becomes when the stakes are higher: it requires the ability to discern motives , improvising solutions and not taking anything on trust, which are Kate's core competencies.

The second season picks up directly from the explosive twist that ended the first run – it was one of the best final two minutes ever – and continues to be a masterclass in “therefore/but” storytelling: This happens, therefore that happens, but then this happens, so this happens. Not a moment is wasted and before you know it, it's 2am and you're still watching.

The diplomat's politics, on the other hand, are a spicy mix of fantasy and reality. The fantasy is about the same as the one in “The West Wing” – a wide-eyed overestimation of how many people in positions of real power in the US and UK are loyal believers in doing the right thing, without fear or favour. The harsh reality is that Kate and the other conscientious characters are dealing with a far-right British government that is dangerously on the right; Season two builds on the terribly plausible idea that this corrupt government tolerated or even orchestrated terrorism against itself for political reasons.

Rory Kinnear is great as the villainous British Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge, a man who is basically Boris Johnson, but worse: the wavering self-esteem and touch of imperial perversion are there, but the buffoonery is toned down. With David Gyasi as Austin Dennison we return from reality to fantasy: concise, precise and meticulously principled, even if it would obviously be an advantage not to be, Dennison is hard to imagine as a real foreign minister, but in tails you can introduce him well. He moodily introduces a Brontë novel.

In the new episodes, Kate once again romantically triangulates between Dennison, the perfect man who is professionally and emotionally unavailable, and Hal, who always lets her down but knows her better than anyone. So Keri Russell has three strong male counterparts, but The Diplomat is still her show. Kate Wyler has much of the fierceness and ingenuity of Elizabeth Jennings in The Americans, only with more humor and vulnerability. Nothing will ever be a better vehicle for Russell than the “Americans”, but this demands more versatility and reliability and Russell can easily cope with it.

Russell landed her second major TV role from showrunner Debora Cahn, who, as a glance at her resume shows, has been building toward this moment throughout her career. Having written for The West Wing, Homeland and Grey's Anatomy, Cahn is able to create a series that is several great shows at once. Kate Wyler may never feel like she fits in at work, but The Diplomat should easily be included on any list of the best dramas of the year.