The Diplomat season 3: Thriller in More Ways Than One

My wife and I just finishing bingeing the 8th episode of The Diplomat season 3 on Netflix.  I thought this third season was the best season so far.  Every episode was brimming with excitement and surprise.  Indeed, the only predictable thing in this phase of The Diplomat is the content and conclusion of every episode was unpredictable, and radically so.  This season couldn't have been presented more effectively than all episodes at once.  Each episode was a chapter in a book that you couldn't put down (in both meanings of the word).

It was also was the most romantically explicit -- not that it would be "R" rated, the only nudity was the British PM's backside -- but the romance was hot, inhabiting and invigorating just about every relationship and every episode.

[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

Indeed, there was a very big hint at the very end that Hal Wyler (perfectly played as always by Rufus Sewell) as VP of the United States was sleeping with Grace Penn, who became President after the death of Rayburn that was the stunner at the end of season 2, after Kate Wyler (perfectly played as always by Keri Russell) makes passionate love with Callum Ellis in a previous episode, and then in the final episode apologizes to Hal staying away from him physically and enthusiastically adhering to their "secret divorce" in  Ellis's arms.   And the First Man -- Todd Penn -- suspects something may be going on in bed between his wife (The President) and Hal (the Vice President), with the ending certainly suggesting that Hal is living up to his title as "Vice" President in more ways the one.

The thrill of The Diplomat is also political, and a political thriller, almost James Bondian (as I said about the previous seasons), this third season of The Diplomat certainly is.   Not only are the Russians and Chinese involved, but the US and the UK are on the edge of being at serious odds, after the truth comes out that the US was responsible for the sinking of the British ship with which the series began.  And the political thrills are lubricated by the lies that we see the US side cooking up to protect President Penn, blaming the deceased former President for something that Penn was actually responsible for when she was VP.

Also like the Bond movies, we're told at the end of The Diplomat season 3 that there will be a fourth season.  My only regret is that it won't be up on Netflix tomorrow.

See also The Diplomat 1: West Wing Meets Bond ... The Diplomat 2: West Wing Meets Bond Part 2

My 2021 in-depth interview with Rufus Sewell about The Man in the High Castle

The Diplomat 2: West Wing Meets Bond, Part 2

I just finished watching the six episode second season of The Diplomat, which went up on Netflix on the last day of October.  Here's a review with no specific spoilers, and therefore no warning.

Let's begin at the end.  It's got the best surprise ending I've seen in at least the hundred seasons of any television show, on traditional network, cable, and streaming.  I don't know ... maybe make that five hundred.

Now, it's important to state the obvious, and keep in mind that this second was finished before the results of our election for President a few days.  So think of this second season as capturing the ambience and reality of the American President, VP, and staff maybe a year or six months ago, replete with a pretty old old American President, and a somewhat younger female VP.

I say American, even though the story takes place in Britain.  But American leaders appear in person and on video calls,  And of course the central characters are Kate Wyler, recently appointed US ambassador to the UK, and her husband Hal Wyler, former ambassador to Lebanon.  Unsurprisingly, both parts are played to perfection by Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell (who sounds, as always when he wants to, as American as I am).

Indeed, every bit of the acting was top-notch, especially Rory Kinnear as the British PM, and Allison Janney as the US VP.  But don't get me wrong.  I didn't love every last scene in this second season, such as when one character explaining something to another character says it's a case a correlation not causation, and the other smugly says no one really gets what that means.  In off-screen fact, that's actually a very easily comprehensible concept, with an obvious example: there may be sunspots when the stock market crashes (correlation) but that doesn't mean the sunspots caused the crash (causation).  (Here's a video from CNBC in which I explain the concept to an anti video-game crusader.)

Now banter like that, whether clumsy or astute, serves in this series to give it a cutesy, savvy flavor.  But the story is so bold and powerful, it doesn't need any help from the cutesy side.  Further, honestly, it couldn't have come along -- this second season -- at a better time for we Americans, and a lot of the world, as we try to make sense out of what just happened in our election.

See? No spoilers.  And do see this second season of The Diplomat.  After you've seen the first (and maybe read my review, see the link below).  You'll be in for a treat.

See also The Diplomat 1: West Wing Meets Bond

The Diplomat: West Wing Meets Bond

My wife and I just binged the first season of The Diplomat and loved it.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

To begin with, it seemed like for most of the first episode -- in fact, until to the very end of that episode -- we were watching an updated, 2023-rendition of West Wing, on a more global scale.  Which would have been very welcome. But the news at the end of this first episode made The Diplomat much more than that.  Almost a James Bond, without the central character being an MI6 agent with a license to kill.   So think The West Wing in politics, and Bond in terms of intrigue bringing the world to the edge of nuclear war, and that's even more welcome than just an updated West Wing.  More welcome, that is, as fiction on the screen, not of course as reality.

Speaking of which, I'd say The Diplomat is the best treatment of world politics in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine I've so far seen on the fiction screen.  The attribution of the attack on the British ship to the Russians instantly moves the whole rest of the story into the dilemma of what can be done to punish the Russians, given that Putin has already threatened, many times, to unleash his nukes on Russia's enemies in our off-screen world.

And then there are the twists, the biggest being the one near very end of final episode of this season, that the attack on the British ship was ordered by the British PM, apparently as way of enabling him to be a Churchill of our time, and show Britain and the world how his country deals with deadly aggressors.  I didn't see that coming -- not at all -- and yet it all makes sense in retrospect.

Before I get, though, to the big question, let me say that the acting was superb, on every level.  Keri Russell as the diplomat, Kate Wyler, US Ambassador to the UK, was outstanding, delivering her lines, her facial expressions, and body language with sheet perfection, exceeding her previous peak performance in The Americans.  And Rufus Sewell as her husband Hal was equally outstanding, though I wouldn't say he exceeded his performance in The Man in the High Castle, because that was in a class of its own.  So what I will say is his Hal in The Diplomat is his best performance, other than as a character added to the TV adaption of a science fiction novel that almost single handedly defined a genre.  And in The Diplomat,  Russell and Sewell, individually but especially together, were a pleasure to see.  And the same for everyone else.

Meanwhile, plotwise, I'm still not 100% convinced that their marriage wasn't working out, even though Kate explained that to Hal and us at least a dozen times.  But maybe that's the point -- that Kate feels the need to say -- most of the time -- that they can't make it as a couple, because she knows how deeply she loves him, and still hasn't really convinced herself that the two need to split.

And let's get to the very ending:  a car bomb in London that may have killed Hal, Stuart (Kate's second in command in the US Embassy), and Ronnie.  There are tears in Kate's eyes when she gets the news in Paris.  This means that at very least all three did not escape unscathed.  If I had to bet, I'd say Ronnie was killed and Hal and Stuart survived, both headed to the hospital.  All three dying would dramatically change the basis of the story -- and that would be more true of Hal dying than Stuart dying, so, of the three, I'd say Hal is the most likely survive.  But I'd put my money on seeing Stuart next season, too.

I also have no idea if a decision has even been made as to who will be returning in Season 2.  All I can tell you for sure is that my wife and I will be watching Season 2 of The Diplomat that day that it comes up on Netflix.

Antlers: Neo-Retro Horror

I figured, with Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons in the lead roles, and for that matter, Graham Greene in a supporting role, how could you go wrong with a horror movie like Antlers on HBO Max?  And I discovered: you can't.

But let me also tell you, this neo-horror movie (I'm not really sure what neo means, and indeed Antlers also has retro elements, going back to the silent-movie era), is not for the faint-hearted and weak-stomached.  It has a scene or two with cannibalism, and other scenes will outrightly shock the bejesus out of you.

The basic story -- based on the short story ("The Quiet Boy") by Nick Antosca, who also helped write the movie -- is about a malevolent spirit in Oregon that craves human flesh and invades humans and turns them into horrendous deers with big antlers who continue eating humans and ripping them apart.  Russell is a grade school teacher.  The father and younger brother of one of her students have had first-hand experience with the antlers.  Plemons is the town sheriff.  Greene is the retired sheriff who knows all too well about the creatures with antlers.

As I said, the movie both feels like it was made in the 1920s, and has a hipness, especially regarding the power of women.  As a supernatural horror movie it has zero elements of science fiction, and indeed is drenched with dark fantasy.  So, if wanting a rational explanation is your thing, Antlers will most decidedly not be your cup of tea, or any civilized fluid.

But Scott Cooper (who also co-wrote for the screen) did a good job directing, the plot is tight, and not completely predictable (and, hey, I don't think I've spilled any spoilers), and if you're a secret or public buff of horror, I'd give antlers a shot.

 

The Americans Finale: What the Series Was Always About

An exquisite, satisfyingly restrained, even beautiful finale to The Americans tonight - a series which only in this, its sixth and final season, has become, in my view, one of the finest series ever on television.  This is because, although the series started as gangbusters in its first year, and although it never lost the astonishing originality of its premise and first season, it meandered, almost got repetitive and stuck in a quagmire in subsequent years, only to reclaim the best that it was was and exceed it in this last season.

And the 90-minute finale was at the apex of this extraordinary season.  Rather than analyze it in a linear way, I'd rather just share some thoughts about the highlights of what was just on the screen:

• I said to my wife that we'd never leave our son, as Philip convinced Elizabeth to do with their son, Henry.  My wife agreed completely - then added, but you and I never killed anyone.
• The scene with Stan holding a gun on Philip, Elizabeth, and Paige was brilliant, and only the second best in the episode. (It contained peak performances by Noah Emmerich as Stan and Matthew Rhys as Philip, with Keri Russell as Elizabeth and Holly Taylor as Paige putting in their best incandescent performances in the scene between them last week.)  Philip and Elizabeth were always good talkers - as good in talking their way into and out of situations as they were with guns and weapons - and Paige has clearly learned and/or inherited that way with words.   Is Stan's letting them all go believable?  Tough call, but I think it is.  His human connection to Philip and family triumphed over Stan's profession, which was part of what this series was all about. Paige's being there brought out Stan's humanity - he certainly wouldn't have shot her parents right in front of her, except if they were attacking him, which they wisely did not.  But Stan's decision was based on a lie - the lie that Philip and Elizabeth never killed anyone - and it's not clear if Stan really believed it. (Actually, why would he?  He had been searching for the couple who had killed FBI agents.)  Back in headquarters, when his colleagues have identified Philip and Elizabeth, Stan vows to kill them.  Was that for his partner's sake, or does a part of him really feel that way, because he now knows for sure that Philip and Elizabeth lied to him one last time about never killing anyone.
• Meanwhile, Philip finally had a disguise that was utterly convincing.  Not quite Elizabeth.  Paige's disguise was better than Elizabeth's.  At least the producers made some progress in the disguise department.
• We still don't know if Renee is working for the Soviets.  Stan doesn't know, either.  It's good not to see every loose end tied up.
• And the best scene, of course, was the very last scene, with Philip and Elizabeth in Moscow, starting to speak in Russian, ending in English, two souls who had sacrificed their lives for a greater cause, created and raised two children, now having only each other.  Say what you will about the evil of their cause, it was still gratifying and right to see them alive like this, at the end.

And maybe that, too, is what this uniquely memorable series was all about.

See also The Americans 6.1: Elizabeth vs. Philip ... The Americans 6.2: Brutal ... The Americans 6.3: Stan and Oleg / Elizabeth's Fate ... The Americans 6.4: Stark Truths Truths ... The Americans 6.5: Common Denominator and Collision Course ... The Americans 6.6: Rififi ... The Americans 6.7: Suspension of Disbelief and the Sketches ... The Americans 6.8: Lying about the Moon ... The Americans Penultimate: Tour de Force Keri Russell

And see also The Americans 5.1: The Theft ... The Americans 5.2: Oleg and Stan ... The Americans 5.3: Cowboys and Bugs ... The Americans 5.4: Dating, Soviet-Spy Style ... The Americans 5.5: Wrong about the Bugs ... The Americans 5.7: Gabriel ... The Americans 5.9: Gabriel and Martha ... The Americans 5.10: That Pastor, Again ... The Americans 5.11: Execution in Newton ... The Americans 5.12: Back in the U.S.S.R. ... The Americans Season 5 Finale: The Little Things

And see also The Americans 4.4: Life and Death ... The Americans 4.6: Martha, Martha, Martha ... The Americans 4.8: Whither Martha? ... The Day After The Americans 4.9 ... The Americans 4.10: Outstanding! ... The Americans 4.11: Close Call ... The Americans 4.12: Detente and Secret History

And see also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth ... The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging ... The Americans Season 3 Finale: Turning a Paige

And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

Penultimate The Americans: Tour de Force Keri Russell

Well, the next-to-last episode of The Americans, just concluded on FX tonight, was really something.  Keri Russell has been outstanding throughout the six-season series, but she put on an off-the-chart performance as Elizabeth tonight.

Conversations have always been the centerpiece of this series, but the conversion between Elizabeth and Paige tonight set a new high standard for Elizabeth.  She finally admits to what Paige has been in one way or another accusing her of all season and earlier: Yes, she's not only a spy.  She's a spy who sleeps with men, because sex in such circumstances means nothing to her, it's just a means to an end, and Philip knows and approves.  Those statements and emotions would have been powerful coming from any decent actress, but Keri Russell delivers a searing performance in that two-minute conversation.

A little earlier, it's Margot Martindale as Claudia who delivers the goods - to Elizabeth.  Claudia's quiet denunciation of Elizabeth, telling her she's ruined everything in her support of Gorbachev and betrayal of the Centre, was just outstanding.

Meanwhile, Stan's convinced now that his neighbors are the deadly spying couple, and Philip almost gets caught by the FBI when the Russian priest sets him up in a meeting.   I can't recall seeing Philip/Matthew Rhys run faster on this show.   Ordinarily, I would have said there was little chance of Philip actually getting caught in such circumstances.  But the end of the series is nigh, and Philip ran was if he knew that.

The finale of this remarkable series is next week.  I'll be here moments after with my review.

See also The Americans 6.1: Elizabeth vs. Philip ... The Americans 6.2: Brutal ... The Americans 6.3: Stan and Oleg / Elizabeth's Fate ... The Americans 6.4: Stark Truths Truths ... The Americans 6.5: Common Denominator and Collision Course ... The Americans 6.6: Rififi ... The Americans 6.7: Suspension of Disbelief and the Sketches ... The Americans 6.8: Lying about the Moon

And see also The Americans 5.1: The Theft ... The Americans 5.2: Oleg and Stan ... The Americans 5.3: Cowboys and Bugs ... The Americans 5.4: Dating, Soviet-Spy Style ... The Americans 5.5: Wrong about the Bugs ... The Americans 5.7: Gabriel ... The Americans 5.9: Gabriel and Martha ... The Americans 5.10: That Pastor, Again ... The Americans 5.11: Execution in Newton ... The Americans 5.12: Back in the U.S.S.R. ... The Americans Season 5 Finale: The Little Things

And see also The Americans 4.4: Life and Death ... The Americans 4.6: Martha, Martha, Martha ... The Americans 4.8: Whither Martha? ... The Day After The Americans 4.9 ... The Americans 4.10: Outstanding! ... The Americans 4.11: Close Call ... The Americans 4.12: Detente and Secret History

And see also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth ... The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging ... The Americans Season 3 Finale: Turning a Paige

And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight"

Philip says to Elizabeth, in The Americans 3.6, that "Jesus came through for me tonight".   And that just about captures this strong episode, big time.

On the one hand, Philip, in a continuing display of decency, or maybe just guilt he feels as the father of a teenaged daughter, continues to refuse to give in to Kim and the logic of his spying assignment, and sleep with her.   But how long can he continue with this restraint, with the 15-year old Kim wanting so badly to get into bed with him?

Fortunately for Philip and our story, he's not only a master spy but an expert psychologist - one versed, moreover, in teenaged girl mentality.  He's thus able to use religion not once but twice to deflect Kim in his arms leading to more, and though the first time leaves her angry and suspicious, the second time leaves her feeling she really shared something meaningful and adult with Philip - just what every teenaged girl wants from her relationship.

Philip is also amazingly quick on his feet and his ability to draw upon a real experiences in his life, and apply them to the mission at hand.   He calls upon Jesus in the first place because his daughter Paige was just baptized.  And in his second encounter almost leading to sex in Kim's bedroom, Philip calls on what he has just learned about a son he fathered years earlier.

The acting in all this continues to be superb.  Elizabeth and Philip in the church when Paige is baptized was picture perfect.  Elizabeth has a mostly frozen expression on her face, only her eyes betraying how disconcerting this baptism is to her.  And Philip's face alternates between a forced smile and the true concern he's feeling about the baptism.  Kudos to Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, who really excelled in this scene.

The pace of The Americans is slower this year than in previous seasons, but it's shaping up to be every bit as compelling.

See also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism

And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

#SFWApro



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The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

The Americans' season one finale this past Wednesday night captured the essential excellence of the series, along with the one sore thumb which still doesn't add up.

What's excellent, even superb, about the show is the way we care about the two murderous KGB agents, Elizabeth and Phillip.  This is testament both to the fine acting of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, and the convincing story lines they're playing out - convincing because we can believe that a married couple with two children, seemingly leading a conventional suburban life in the early 1980s, are in fact infiltrating the highest offices of our government - including the home of Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger - and ready to kill in a heartbeat when necessary to save themselves and sometimes the mission.  Their marital problems similarly ring true, even when juxtaposed with their expertise in the martial arts.

Also superb is their boss Claudia, played by Margo Martindale.  She always gives a powerful performance, but her mixture of toughness and compassion, of loyalty to the KGB but also her own people, is one of the most appealing parts of the show.

The one point that I still can't buy, and which got even worse in the finale, is the idea that Stan, an FBI agent whose very beat is hunting KGB agents in America, just happens to live next door. Early on in the series he was indeed suspicious of Elizabeth and Phillip, but they convinced him otherwise in an impressive series of moves, and he apparently has been a believer ever since that the two are the nice, normal couple living next door that they are pretending to be - in fact, believes it even when Elizabeth and Phillip take a little "pause" as a couple, but continue their joint KGB missions.

In the finale, this is ratcheted up yet one step further:  Stan has sketches of the KGB couple - sketches of Elizabeth and Stan in good disguise - but, still, he doesn't register a flicker of recognition, any sense that something looks familiar, when he sees Elizabeth in flesh, still under disguise.

An editor once told me that readers will allow one thing that doesn't ring true in a story, but that's it.  Whether the Stan story is just one thing, over and over again, or more than one, I can't say.  But I do think it is a drag on another otherwise outstanding new series, which I'm looking forward to seeing more of next year.

See also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution

 

The Americans: True and Deep

The Americans, with Keri Russell as one half of the Soviet sleeper spy couple so deeply undercover in Washington they're more American than most of us, debuted on fx last night.  It was superb.

First, about Keri Russell, there are two interrelated things about her past as an actress that make her appearance in The Americans especially interesting.  She is best known for her breakthrough Felicity roll a while ago,  one of J. J. Abrams' early series about a college student.  And Abrams' next series was Alias, which featured Jennifer Garner not Russell as graduate student turned spy, but which had a major continuing storyline about a Soviet agent under cover in the United States - Sydney Bristow's (Jennifer Garner's) mother, Irina/Laura.   I like these sort of complex prior histories to television series.

In Alias, the Soviet spy (played by Lena Olin) was married to an American spy (played by Victor Garbor) - all powerfully acted, by the way.  In The Americans, both Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) and her husband Phillip (Matthew Rhys) are Soviet spies, and their acting is top-notch.  In fact, just about everything in this series seems to be, so far.  Plot twists, unexpected bursts of action, frank sexually vivid (not quite explicit) language combine with the acting to made the premiere never a dull moment.

Russell, especially, has a way of getting just the right pitch in her voice.  When her husband, wanting to show her a little affection and getting rebuffed, protests that he's her husband, Elizabeth responds "is that right?" with just the right slight cutting sarcastic edge.  This is because their marriage is their job as spies, not a true aspect of their lives.  But, as William James the American psychologist noted more than a century ago, when you go through the actions of something, often enough, you begin to grow real feelings for those actions, too.

Elizabeth and Matthew have been at this for more than a decade.   They have two children, a daughter age 13 and a son a little younger.  So of course they have some real feelings.  It's just that, at the beginning of the show, Matthew is more in touch with them than is Elizabeth.  But that changes at the end, in a sequence of events which show that, as much as Matthew has become a truly happy suburban American father, he's still tough as nails underneath.

The one part of the premiere episode that jangled a bit is the FBI guy who moves next store.  This can't be coincidence - which Elizabeth and Matthew seem to realize - but so far the show is playing it as coincidence one-hundred percent.  I expect we'll find out before too long what's really going on with the neighbor.

There's also great 1981 scenery, with talk about Reagan as a lunatic from the Soviet perspective, Walter Cronkite on television, and all sorts evocative 1981 music.  At this point, The Americans is looking to easily be one of the best new shows on television, with only The Following as any real competition.