The diplomat enters the "tense, powerful couple dynamic" phase: entertaining and crazy, but without the "House of Cards" pretensions.

I wasn't one of the first to admit that House of Cards was a pretty zany show. Fortunately, I wasn't one of the last either, so I enjoyed the final seasons of Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright's series for what they were: crazy and entertaining . For too long, I was fooled by its polished aesthetic, its theme tune, and the big name that signed its beginning: David Fincher . House of Cards was a remake of a British original (highly recommended, by the way) that gave rise to a few series starring powerful and tense couples , like Billions .

The Diplomat isn't one of those. Its protagonist was clear from the start, and even if she had a partner, the important one was her. Kate Wyler, the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, played by a magnetic Keri Russell , was, in fact, the title of this Netflix series. However, its recently released third season does play more with the marital dynamics between Kate and her husband Hal ( Rufus Sewell ), a politician with a variable profile who, in the new installment of the series, gives the plot a very interesting twist. And highly entertaining. And a little crazy . Like House of Cards, but without so many pretensions. And without Fincher's aesthetic directives, it must be said.

But The Diplomat doesn't care about not being formally exquisite. She (the series) is on to something else because she (Kate/Keri) is so cool that she doesn't need to surround herself with perfect symmetries and elaborate chiaroscuros . Her hair is no longer as dirty (iconically dirty), but her energy is still high. After the high-flying close of the second season, with an Allison Janney who knows we know she spent years on The West Wing , The Diplomat is back with her weapons well-oiled: a surprising political verisimilitude, an unmistakable dry and sarcastic humor, and the clear intention of not boring. That's why talking about her is risky: you have to avoid spoilers at all times .

This fiction, created by Deborah Cahn , maintains an enviable balance between being accessible and not being simplistic . It makes sense that Cahn, before captaining her own creation, was a screenwriter for The West Wing , Grey's Anatomy , and Homeland . I can't think of a better background. Kate Wyler is a lot like Meredith Grey and a lot like Carrie Mathison . And Meredith Grey and Carrie Mathison led two of the most addictive series in the history of television. In that ranking , The Diplomat also scores high.

While co-starring in the splendid The Americans (oh, that ending, I still can't get over it), Keri Russell struggled to shake off the weight of Felicity , the JJ Abrams series that, 15 years earlier, made her a star. In The Americans, she proved that she was also a terrific actress. She earned three Emmy nominations thanks to that series, and another three for The Diplomat , two as an actress and one as a producer. It was also her decision to shake up the professional and marital dynamics in the third season. This livens up the plot, but also raises adult questions for viewers who are also adult . Questions that House of Cards solemnized so much that they ended up being laughable. The Diplomat handles them with much more lightheartedness. That, paradoxically, gives it much more power.

Serious and funny series are possible. Adult and entertaining series are possible. Netflix series that fit the four adjectives above are... few and far between . But there are some.