Sure, The Diplomat plays fast and loose with the real work diplomats do, but then Mad Men was not really about marketing. The West Wing and Homeland veteran Debora Cahn’s political thriller, while focusing on the US Ambassador to the UK, Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), is also about her contentious relationship with her political superstar husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), and behind-the-scenes machinations, driven as much by policy as passion.
Season 2 ended with the death of US President Bill Rayburn (Michael McKean) while on the phone with Hal, who was revealing Vice President Grace Penn’s (Allison Janney) wicked deeds. Season 3 opens with the UK mission scrambling to find a suitable setting for Grace to take the oath as President. Is the US Embassy in London on American soil? Should the oath-taking be in the lobby with or in front of the massive artwork of the Constitution?
Allison Janney as Grace Penn in ‘The Diplomat’
Then there is the question of who will administer the oath. A US judge is in London for a wedding and could administer the oath, but he has not brought his robes on holiday, so it is time to trawl the “Harry Potter” stores. The hunt for a good-looking Bible, “adult size and written by Jesus,” ends when the British Prime Minister, Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear), brings the Gutenberg Bible, no less.
When Grace offers Hal the position of Vice President, there is another seismic shift in the Wyler dynamics. Will Kate continue as Ambassador in Britain, or will she resign to be full-time Second Lady? Will they have a public marriage and a private separation? Grace’s husband, Todd (Bradley Whitford), learns the pleasures and pinpricks of being the First Gentleman of the United States.
The Diplomat Season 3 (English)
Creator: Debora Cahn
Cast: Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, David Gyasi, Ali Ahn, Rory Kinnear, Ato Essandoh
Episodes: 8
Runtime: 41–56 minutes
Storyline: A new President means new alliances while old loves and sins jostle for space
CIA station chief Eidra Park (Ali Ahn) is in trouble as a person in a CIA safe house dies by suicide. She is not convinced Deputy Chief of Mission of the US embassy Stuart Heyford (Ato Essandoh), with whom she was in a relationship, can help.
Truths about the shooting down of a British aircraft carrier, HMS Courageous, in the Persian Gulf, which resulted in the death of 41 sailors, surface, and a Russian submarine sinks 12 miles off the coast of England probably carrying a scary nuclear bomb.
British spy, Callum Ellis (Aidan Turner), seems close to Kate, much to Hal’s discomfort, while the UK Foreign Secretary, Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), for whom Kate had a soft spot, gets married after a short courtship.
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in ‘The Diplomat’
The finale, “Schrodinger’s Wife” (for Kate, who is a wife and not one), sees an awkward dinner at Chequers and fractious talks between Grace and Trowbridge over the Russian submarine and the shooting down of the HMS Courageous.
Just as everything seems sorted, a major twist sets up a giant moral dilemma for Kate in Season 4, which has already been greenlit. The Diplomat zips by in a flurry of sharp dialogue. There is Hal describing the UK as a “Shrinking island kingdom that diddled its economy and rabble-roused its way to global irrelevance,” and Trowbridge saying the US is a “military-industrial complex papered over by a constitution.”
Russell and Sewell are riveting as ever, while the rest provide able support. The clothes are lovely, Kate’s trousers are to die for, as are Hal’s more formal outfits. The houses are a dream, be it gracious old manor houses or the President’s home in Long Island, complete with a heated pool. Hal, incidentally, does not stand for either Henry or Harold, and just as Kate is about to reveal what it stands for or whether that is his full name, another geo-political crisis explodes. Hopefully, we will find that out in Season 4.
The Diplomat is currently streaming on Netflix
Published – October 19, 2025 11:48 am IST
