Keri Russell Stars in New Political Thriller ‘The Diplomat’

Foreign affairs

On her previous TV gig, The Americans, Keri Russell tried to thwart the U.S. government as a covert Soviet spy. This new series sees her on the other side of the fence, representing America’s interests abroad in The Diplomat. 

Russell stars as Kate Wyler, a career diplomat who reluctantly takes on a job she doesn’t particularly want when she’s appointed U.S. ambassador to the U.K. in the midst of an international crisis. What she doesn’t realize until too late are the implications her new role will have, both for her political future and her marriage (Rufus Sewell plays her husband, Hal Wyler, a fellow diplomat who’s become a rising star in the field). 

The cast also includes David Gyasi (Interstellar), Ato Essandoh (Chicago Med), Rory Kinnear (Penny Dreadful), Ali Ahn (Raising Dion), Nana Mensah (13 Reasons Why), Michael McKean (Better Call Saul) and Miguel Sandoval (Station 19). 

The series was created by Debora Cahn, who is certainly on familiar ground given her past as a producer for such politically driven dramas as Homeland and The West Wing. 

“The Diplomat is a show about the transcendence and torture of long-term relationships,” she told Netflix Tudum. “It’s hard to keep a relationship going, be it a marriage or a military alliance. We change, the world changes, and yet we want these relationships to go on forever. It’s a show about a bunch of good people doing their best to keep their global and personal partnerships intact without killing each other. In the world of diplomacy, you’re dealing with a lot of rule-bound, protocol-driven behaviour, but underneath all that, these are people who sweat, and spill coffee on their clothes, and forget the name of the person they’re talking to. All of that is always bubbling under the grandeur and majesty of working with heads of state.”

The Diplomat premieres Thursday, April 21