The Diplomat

I think the heavy "by the producers of The Bodyguard" advertising is a mistake, because this is nothing like The Bodyguard.

If you picture an enjoyable easy-watching six-part political spy drama, as might be made by the team behind Murder In Paradise, then you'd be much closer to what to expect.

There's one overarching plot that covers all six episodes, and while it's not exactly John Le Carre, it still kept me hooked throughout.

And then each episode contains a separate subplot exploring the day-to-day dramas of visitors to Barcelona. These can be a bit hit and miss. Some genuinely pull at your heartstrings, some are a bit silly.

The characters are all likeable, the two lead actresses are engaging, the locations look great, and there's a nice paired back contemporary feel to it. It does sometimes drift into "daytime TV" dialog, but not often enough to be a problem.

Overall, a fun night of binging and it kept me a lot more interested than I was expecting. I hope there's more to come!

The body of British boy Jay Sutherland is found floating in The Marina, his persistent father Colin refuses to accept the narrative given by The Police and powers that be, instead he looks for answers with the help of Laura Simmonds.

Every week The Consulate tackle a new case, all of which involve a British Citizen in Barcelona, but one case continues, The Sutherland case.

It is such an enjoyable series, it's one of those I'd class as a Sunday teatime show, I'd put it along with Mallorca Files and Father Brown, perfect viewing for Sunday teatime. It's light viewing, with a hint of grit thrown in.

It's a very well acted show, regulars Sophie Rundle, Steven Cree and Serena Manteghi are all great, and there are some fine guest performances too, Esther Hall and Lindsey Coulson stood out.

It looks great, with terrific location work, a City I would totally recommend visiting, it really is as gorgeous as it looks here.

Please let there be a second series.

8/10.

Well, when I looked at the synopsis, I thought this would be rather tedious fare, but I gave it a chance and it surprised me!

Ok, it's hardly an all-time great, but it was really quite entertaining. The episodic storylines were interesting, with some sympathetic characters and some "Boo! Hiss!" ne'er do wells.

The season-long story arc held up well, even if some of it was a bit obvious and it wove in some personal life storylines quite effectively.

The principals all did a good job: Sophie Rundle, Serena Manteghi and Steven Cree were all very good. The Barcelona scenery was lovely and it was well shot.

Worth watching!

There were two TV series released in 2023 and they are both titled "The Diplomat" and they are very different series. This is the better one, though it has a lot of flaws. This series is set in Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain and centers on Laura Simmonds the British Consul to Catalonia, Aragon and Andorra as she likes to say. It shows different types of cases that a diplomatic consul handles, providing support to British subjects traveling in Spain and Andorra.

The flaw is that it makes Laura Simmonds out to be part diplomat, part investigator, part social worker, part spook...it's hard to swallow that a consul really plays all those roles and more. Sophie Rundle is always good, a RADA trained actress, last I remember seeing her was in "Bodyguard" where she played Richard Madden's wife. I like the rest of the British/Spanish caste and of course beautiful Catalonia, Spain.

The banner, description, image, number of episodes (6), etc on the page for this series of "The Diplomat" are for the UK version, NOT the 8 episode Netflix version. So why hasn't some moderator removed the reviews that pertain to the Netflix version??

This (the UK 6 episode series) is quite light entertainment if a bit confusing at the start. The mystery in the first episode continues beyond that episode while, in the subsequent episodes, there is a new - and solved - mystery per episode.

The first episode is confusing in that it introduces various characters without giving enough background on each to make it understandable as to exactly why they are there in the first place or the reason there is a "relationship" among them. I had to read a couple of recaps to finally get the drift or who was who in the zoo. Otherwise, it's a good enough series to spend a bit of time with if you can get over the initial confusion - particularly when you get to Episode 2 and it starts out with a completely different mystery and the new characters necessary for that plot.

But again, reading the reviews here will also confuse the heck out of people because some are for this series (as described at the top of the page) while others are for the 8 episode Netflix series. Can a mod PLEASE remove those?