It is hard to believe, but the smartest show on television keeps getting better and better. Netflix’s The Diplomat returns for a crackling, addictive third chapter. The season is so suspenseful and wildly entertaining that there is simply nothing like it on streaming. The writing is brilliant, the acting is flawless, and the episodes are addictive.
Of course, it helps to have a deep bench of acclaimed actors, led by Keri Russell, who delivers her best performance to date in Debra Cahn’s The Diplomat. Utterly magnetic in every scene, Russell’s performance works on many levels—just like the series itself, which is moving, funny, and sexy, and gets under your skin and stays there.
Netflix’s The Diplomat Season 3 Plot
Last season ended with a shocking development. Our favorite American diplomat, Kate (Russell), and her husband, Hal (Dark City’s Rufus Sewell), killed the president. Well, not directly—Hal told President Rayburn (Better Call Saul’s Michael McKean) that his vice president, Grace Penn, was behind the bombing of a British warship and its cover-up.
The result is that Rayburn dies of a heart attack. Now, as the new leader of the free world—the most powerful person in the world—the president will likely hold a grudge. A biased opinion that Penn (Academy Award winner Allison Janney) already held, since Rayburn had tried to replace her on his reelection ticket with Kate to begin with. Now, Kate and Hal are in damage control.
The season begins to take shape as Hal and Kate—or, as I call them, “Hate”—debate whether to use this knowledge to their political advantage while remaining ethically grounded in a game where morality is often expendable. Additionally, they must keep their most trusted staff, such as Kate’s deputy chief, Stuart (Evil’s Ato Essandoh), and CIA station chief, Eidra (Ali Ahn), in the dark.
Netflix’s The Diplomat Season 3 Review
As well as dealing with Penn’s despondent husband, Todd (The West Wing’s Bradley Whitford), a “plus-one-in-chief” who operates in the shadows and grows jealous of Kate and Hal’s influence, they must also keep Penn’s crimes a secret from the UK Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear) and the foreign secretary, and Kate’s crush, Austin Dennison (The Rings of Power’s David Gyasi), in order to prevent a historic fallout of massive proportions.
The Diplomat is a gripping genre take on a smart political thriller. The episodes have intricate plotting, with revolving ideologies that keep butting heads. However, the third season shows a change in loyalty that raises the stakes in more ways than one. These make for urgent and compelling storytelling.
Each characterization is fascinating, with behavioral maneuvers that reveal compelling layers of plot shifts and engrossing reveals. Like a dense novel, it unfolds as a chapter-by-chapter thriller, with dialogue that crackles— a televisual novel for the streaming era that plays like pure, pulp plot-driven addiction.
Is Netflix’s The Diplomat Season 3 worth watching?
However, at the heart of the show is the authentic relationship between Russell’s Kate and Sewell’s Hal. While I have raved about Russell’s fully realized, three-dimensional role, Sewell is just as award-worthy, filling the role with equal parts charm and manipulation. Their partnership feels like a real marriage—emotionally charged, with an intellectual and physical attraction that both brings them together and tears them apart.
Netflix’s The Diplomat remains a worthwhile watch. The season delivers a crackling third chapter that’s suspenseful, addictive, and brilliantly written. Keri Russell anchors the series with a dazzling turn, her best performance to date. Debora Cahn’s shines in the shadow of moral gray areas, full of complexity and beautiful personal and professional flaws, making the show endlessly compelling from start to finish.
The Diplomat season 3 premieres on Netflix on October 16th. All eight episodes were screened for this review.
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