The Diplomat is back. Season three has been released by Netflix and I feel confident in once again recommending this outstanding on-going drama…one of the best I have seen in a long while.
The political intrigue and duplicity that is so much a part of this show comes to us in the middle of a real-life shutdown of the US government, armed troops in the streets of American cities, the prosecution of perceived enemies of the state, and the destruction of the White House at the whim of a single individual who says he is not a King, but… I dunno, what would he do so different if he were… demand reimbursement in the hundreds of millions for legal action taken against him when he was a civilian, take in even more … maybe billions worth of gifts creating a situation where an apology is due President Warren Harding and Edward L. Doheny for making such a fuss about the Teapot Dome scandal, issue pardons to the guilty in exchange for their fealty? Oops. Trump has done all that. And more.
Wondering why I have not seen more of what else is on television and the streaming channels? There is, of course… in my particular case… the depressive aspects of being a USC football fan, but as I mature, that malaise rarely goes beyond a weekend. There, too, is the inordinate amount of time to get my office back in working order from the water damage that occurred during my recent trek to the Berkshires, but… in reality… the fact is that it is simply very hard to break away from the news of the day for any work of fiction.
Gilmore Girls supplied an easy, relaxing escape from all that is currently going on, but I have now seen all 153 episodes (HULU and Netflix) and though I continually and wholeheartedly recommend this outstanding series to you all… I have been there and done that.
Difficult though it can be, let me strongly urge a lesson in citizenship, if not important television. Watch the news. Ideally a bit of Fox, a bit of MSNBC and maybe something in between like network news coverage… any network. Try to keep informed. Write a congressman, try to communicate your views to those in power, to your friends, your neighbors. These are interesting, if not spectacular, times. I know it can be exhausting, but someday, someone is going to ask you… as they do my generation… where were you when Joseph McCarthy demagogically commanded the attention of a nation? What did you think when President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy were all assassinated within a few years of each other? What was your reaction to Watergate?
It is our generation’s version of “What did you do in the war, Daddy?”
Think about that. Think about what you might say to your grandchildren, who by then may no longer live in a democracy, when they come to you with such a question.
What did you do? What have you done?
FOLLOW-UP
In my previous “Notes,” I fear I gave short shrift to a very special series as well as some extremely talented folks. Let me attempt to fix that by reiterating that the Netflix series, The Diplomat, is more than worth your time… it is all but essential viewing. It is smart, timely, dramatic, suspenseful and there is an art to this fictional drama that makes its truths close to today’s realities.
In writing about The Diplomat on Netflix let me also make clear that I am not espousing any virtues … or anything else… to the series with the same name on Amazon Prime. I have not seen it and so have no comment.
The series I do go on about… what? For the third time? Is the one starring Keri Russel and Rufus Sewell while being written and produced by Debora Cahn.
The two leads should be more than familiar to television audiences… especially Ms. Russel who came to the forefront with the series The Americans that lasted several seasons. Midway through the series, West Wing alumni Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford are added to the ensemble. Both are also well known to all who pay attention to this medium.
What should be noted is the pedigree of the writer/producer of The Diplomat, Ms. Debora Cahn. Some of her credits include The West Wing, Homeland and Fosse/Verdon. Need I say more? I was in show business for almost the entire last half of the 20th century and would gladly commit a serious crime… as in whom do I have to kill?… in exchange for having those shows on my resume.
Cahn’s ability to represent male/female relationships with incredible verisimilitude, especially true in The Diplomat, as well as Homeland and Fosse/Verdon, is something worthy of study by any would-be writer.
There are a total of 22 episodes of The Diplomat… season three consists of but 8 of those. You should really start from the beginning with season one as the story line is continuous through all three seasons.
(A brief digression of self-interest: in fairness to my comparatively meager career… while Ms. Cahn luxuriates in six to eight episodes over three seasons… we made 26 episodes per season of Daniel Boone and at least 22 episodes a year on Cagney & Lacey with more than sixteen per season on both The Trials of Rosie O’Neill and Christy. I just needed to say that. Thanks for the indulgence.)
Onward: I have started to watch The Empress, also on Netflix. It is a very lush production based on the life of Elisabeth of Austria and worth your time despite the mediocre dubbing job by a typically ordinary group of English-speaking actors who do this sort of thing on the cheap.
Why the refusal to present these dramas in their original language coupled with subtitles I do not understand. Babylon Berlin was ruined for me when, after season one, the powers that be decided America had to have an English speaking version and eliminated the voices of the very good German actors in favor of the all but amateur group of American players who do this sort of work.
I have written before how the dubbing of voices in Europe is an art form, cultivated and developed for decades by the French, Italian and Germans. Some of the better paid thespians in those countries do this kind of work and their voices are associated with the American actors they voice on foreign screens. Not so here in the US. It is only recently … and mostly because of Netflix and other such distributors of foreign made films that have become so popular… that a marketplace has developed. The art form lags behind. I have written about this before… ‘nuff said.
Regardless of the dubbing, I think you might enjoy The Empress. I have seen only a few episodes… episode number one being (by far) the weakest. Stick with this show. I will and I am finding it worth my attention. It is an interesting time with what was a once powerful royal family of the Austrian Empire led by Emperor Franz Joseph the First. For the musical folk out there: Franz Liszt and Johann Strauss are nicely represented as well.
The Empress is a not often told story of a fascinating time and an interesting couple… not Debora Cahn interesting…. but still worth spending a bit of time in their royal presence.
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