It takes less than 10 minutes of watching “The Diplomat,” Netflix’s popular new political drama which premiered in April, before one can safely throw out any pretense that the series is anything other than fictional. In an early scene, Kate Wyler, a career U.S. foreign service officer and the show’s protagonist, arrives in the Oval Office after a British aircraft carrier has been attacked in the Persian Gulf. “The president is asking you to serve as ambassador to the United Kingdom,” the White House chief of staff says. “We have a plane waiting.”
And just like that, Wyler is an ambassador—no cumbersome Senate confirmation process needed.
From there, the series races along. Over the course of the first season’s eight episodes, “The Diplomat” is a high-stakes dramatization of diplomacy that is clearly designed to be more entertaining than educational.