Netflix's The Diplomat returned for a second season last October. The show stars Keri Russell as US Ambassador Kate Wyler, whose world is upended after an explosion in London is revealed to have come from inside the British government. Kate chases the truth, with support from her almost-ex-husband Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell). In addition to a troubled marriage, she faces a complex dynamic with British Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), and a threatening visit from US Vice President, Grace Penn (Allison Janney).
Gary Levy serves as an editor on the series, and says the main challenge for cutting the show is navigating the unique blend of political intrigue, humor and deeply-personal moments.
"We try hard to keep scenes as grounded and understated as we can, given the enormous scale of the events being depicted," notes Levy. "There is a constant tug of war in the editing room between our desire to keep the show fast-paced and edgy, and still carving out plenty of beats to slow down and take stock of the complicated narrative. The show is driven by quite a few energetic walk-and-talks, but in the midst of them, we carefully pick our moments to live with the emotions of our characters. We struggle to find the right tonal balance that allows The Diplomat’s many humorous beats to play organically and not feel overpowering or tacked on in any way."
Levy points to a scene in the season finale, in which Grace (Allison Janney) is giving Kate (Keri Russell) a lesson in geopolitics while marking up a large map of Europe with the location of all the NATO and Russian military bases, as one of his editorial highlights.
"Allison gave us a wide variety of wonderful performances to choose from," he recalls. "In the editing room, we were tasked with creating the proper arc of Grace’s anger towards Kate, allowing it to grow consistently throughout the scene. At the same time that her performance was getting heated and energized, we had to delicately incorporate pauses that gave Kate and the audience time to catch up to all the information she was doling out. All of this while maintaining continuity of the map - the markings tended to vary from take to take - and we needed to ensure that we were using the most clear logical and forceful shots of the map markings that we had. I tried to focus on Grace’s performance, and after each pass, I’d hand the scene to my brilliant assistant Matt Nickellson, who would do an amazing job with temp VFX to correct and enhance the map."
Seasons 1 through 3 were all edited on Avid Media Composer 2018, and Levy says the team is considering an upgrade to newer Media Composer software for the next season.
"We haven’t made that decision yet," he adds, "as we’re pretty comfortable with what we’re using currently."
Season 3 of The Diplomat will premiere this fall, and Season 4 has already been greenlit.