“Homeland,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The West Wing” writer Debora Cahn serves as showrunner on “The Diplomat,” Netflix’s acclaimed political thriller series which blends elements of all three of those aforementioned shows. The show’s six-episode second season hit Neflix on Thursday and ran at a breakneck pace, ditching some of the smaller diversions of the first season in favor of a lean political thriller – still with rapid-fire dialogue, occasional quirky humor and richly drawn fallible characters. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “THE DIPLOMAT” SEASON 2 Like the first season, it also ended on a cliffhanger.
Whereas the first season closed on a car bomb that put the fate of several characters up in the air, the second season closes on a major power shift – namely the sudden death of U.S. President William Rayburn (Michael McKean) and Allison Janney’s Vice President Grace Penn becoming President.
That Rayburn’s death happened after a phone call from Hal (Rufus Sewell), and after the big falling out between Penn and Keri Russell’s lead character Kate Wyler means both are in potentially serious trouble going into the new run. Speaking about there things go from here, Cahn tells why they are ending the second season on a cliffhanger: “We always want to start in a place where we’re asking a lot of questions that might be worth answering in another season. It’s all about people in leadership positions who are new to them and feeling kind of out of t.