I know I’m replying to an old post, but The Americans (coincidentally also starring Keri Russell) did often show the FBI agents going to a SCIF to discuss sensitive information. They called it something like “the vault” on the show, but it was really a SCIF. Maybe the writers were worried the audience wouldn’t know what a SCIF was.
I really enjoyed season 1, but season 2 just turned into a chore for me for some reason. I’m not sure why. I finished it, but went from thumbs up to thumbs down.
Finished S2 last night. Wow. As soon as I saw that Hal was talking to the President instead of Ganon, I knew the shit was gonna hit the fan one way or another.
I loved the VP’s lecture to Kate with the Big Board. “This is my game board.” Draws a little circle around Britain. “This is yours. Keep your eyes on your own paper!”
It will be interesting to see where they go from here. Obviously the VP slot is off the table now. Obviously Billie (the Chief of Staff) is out of a job. Obviously Billie knows something about Grace Penn, but is it the same thing the rest of us know? What happens if/when the PM finds out who was really really behind the carrier bombing? So many questions, so many possible directions!
Something that popped into my mind some time after I finished watching S2: When the VP was giving Kate advice on how she should present herself as VP if she gets the job, it’s all fashion tips and how she should change her hair. I’m wondering if a male candidate for VP would be told how he should dress and how long his hair should be.
That was addressed early in S1 with Kate’s sensible pant suits and black wardrobe. The answer was that it is not equitable for female politicians.
Maybe her posts in Kabul or wherever didn’t require her to look presentable, but you’d think she would have had the sense to clean up a bit for a high profile job. While she didn’t need to have a salon hairstyle, her hair always looked unwashed and like she couldn’t even bother to brush it. I also wondered if she smelled a bit. (And maybe that she was at least aware of, since she had Hal give her a sniff test once or twice in the first episode.)
Ah, it’s been a while since I had watched the first season, and being a typical male I never really paid any attention to how she dressed. Or, for that matter, what her hair looked like.
Oh! The Diplomat season 3 is here. I have to say, all this crazy stuff will come out eventually. People can’t keep secrets. Doesn’t anyone on this show realize that? Already the big reveal, that the whole false flag attack thing was the VP’s brainchild, has been blabbed by The Diplomat to the absolute biggest can’t-keep-a-secret character (her husband) on television! I won’t say more than that! What will they do when they find out all tbose years she was spying for the Russians?
Huzzah! as a former Russian ruler would have said. TV for grown-ups is back. I binged it over the weekend, and it was a delight to see good actors chewing away on fun, complicated drama. The discussion on the false flag attack continues, and managing how to own up to it and take responsibility for it without compromising all the other things Britain and the UK need to worry about means it much more of a talk-fest than the previous two seasons.
I enjoyed it immensely. Doubtless others will differ, but we know they are wrong and just attention-seeking.
The whole to-do about where the President could take the oath of office was hilarious! Between finding a place which did not look British, since it couldn’t be anywhere which would pass for “American soil”, and then finding something to use as a Bible (being offered a Gutenberg was a great touch!).
One character who showed possibilities was Austin’s sister Cecelia - we met her in one of the first season episodes, I think, and she was conniving and manipulative in a Good way! Maybe someone thought that would be one too many conniving, manipulative people, but I hope they bring her back; can there really be too many?
Just finished episode #1 of the new (third) season. Great continuation. I keep worrying that the acting or writing will lapse into cliche, but it keeps sparkling and the writers throw in genuinely surprising twists.
I was a bit confused by the jump at the start of episode 5. Who is this Callum guy? Where’s he suddenly come from? I did think at first that Netflix had missed an episode. But maybe I missed a ‘3 months later’ title card or something?
You did miss a title card. It said something like “Month 5 of the Grace Penn presidency”. So they did indeed skip ahead 5 months for Episode 5.
I thought it was odd that the first four episodes seemed to just forget about Grace Penn’s involvement in the carrier attack and mostly just dealt with who was going land where in the new administration. I should have known better.
I’m definitely getting old, because I’m far more interested in the political and international intrigue part of the plot than I am in the “who’s doinking whom” stuff.
Is it just me?
That will teach me to try and multi task while watching TV!
Episode 3 Prediction: Hal and Billie are going to be best friends / co-dependents (I didn’t say they were going to hook up, but correct me if I’m wrong, this is the first time we’ve seen them together when Billie was not on a video screen). Billie has the best instincts. She’s one jump ahead of everybody. Hal couldn’t ask for a better sounding board.
What’s this Law of the Seas?
No, DavidNRockies, my wife and I feel the same way. The first two seasons were intriguing, but the new season has devolved into a Lifetime series.
We find it rather demeaning that the writers believe that professional diplomats (as opposed to some appointee who contributed to a political campaign) have no problems with boinking co-workers and foreign diplomats/intelligence agents, including (especially) in a variety of inappropriate locations.
But these are attractive people, and they’re only human. So of course we want to see them boonk. It’s what made television great. This isn’t some BBC snoozer, it’s Netflix.
Thank you! This might be what I was feeling during s3. Something was off for me and perhaps it was the lean into the melodrama.
When Kate was flirting with Dennison, and there was a will they won’t they between them, that was interesting. Jumping forward in time, her being with someone, who happens to be in the middle of the next calamity, does feel too Lifetime.
s1 & s2 established Hal won’t have an affair because only Kate turns him on. That could change, certainly, but that’s what we were not only told but shown. Kate wasn’t having one because she was too busy and it would have taken the complications too high in s1. s2 pushed her and Dennison apart. It doesn’t help that in the span of an episode, even if it is supposed to be 17 weeks into the Penn presidency, it’s quite jarring to have these changes.
Maybe if Dennison stays married and there is no more flirting between them and Kate and Hal do get back together maybe it will be better.
Thanks for the discussion!