Nov 3

Nov 3 The Unsettling Season 4 of “THE DIPLOMAT”

My wife and I watched season 4 of THE DIPLOMAT over several evenings. I was impressed. Some comments:

Production values continue to be excellent. Are these places real?
The writing is consistently impressive. Even when characters do stupid and dumb things, they do so surprisingly cleverly.
Most of the time I’m impressed with how Kate and Hal’s marital issues are intertwined with the grandiose diplomatic situations on display. But not always. I did find myself rolling my eyes at some of their Italy conversations.
The whiff of current US politics and political personalities that permeates the show is both timely and unsettling.
Kate’s judgement I find consistently scary.
Time compression seems unrealistic but dramatically justifiable. Who wants to watch people sleeping on transatlantic flights?
I would enjoy following up with how much CGI was used. Everything looks real.

More on my use of the term “unsettling” above. Even when season 4 characters do bad things, I have to be impressed with the cleverness and intelligence of the diplomats and politicians being portrayed. I want to think that we in the US have such intelligent people working for us like this; actual real-world daily news suggests otherwise. These appear to be the type of people the Trump Administration is assiduously shedding, even as we experience life and death international situations just as dire as those portrayed in this series.