Jaclyn Smith plays a professor tapped to be the next United States Ambassador to Roumania. But who is behind it? The stiff new president or a secret international cabal out to destroy detente?
After a personal tragedy she accepts the post and has several problems, including her shady, uncouth chief of staff, Slade (Robert Wagner). Which side of the street does he play?
The miniseries is slow to get rolling (I've never read a Sheldon novel, so I don't know how he paces his books).
The worst thing about the miniseries is its dated quality. Many TV shows and movies about American-Soviet relations through the 1980s try to emphasize equality between them for better relations, all the while the USSR was crumbling under the weight of its vicious autocracy. Knowing all we know now about the USSR it looks like wanting better relations with the Nazis. Except, the Soviets lacked the panache. And Iron Curtain Roumania was under the Soviet thumb.
Frankly, I tend to agree with swaths of the new Ambassador's philosophies, having long advocated open borders for trade even with antagonistic blocs, both because I'm a thoroughgoing Capitalist and, like Smith's character, know that the partners in free and fair trade don't go to war with one another (Peace Through Capitalism).
But those who disagree with her include extremists on both sides who want a worse understanding between people. So if the secret group is trying to thwart her plans, why do they seem to support her nomination?
Something in all this doesn't smell right, and Smith has to sniff it out. But whom can she trust to help?
